Guidelines and Forum Ideals

Guidelines and Forum Ideals

In order to actually have a message board on which we can post articles, columns and discuss both, we are in a state of agreement with the lovely people at proboards. If you're unfamiliar with the phrase "Terms of Service", in pratical terms it is a set of rules that Proboards sets for us to follow. Whether you agree with the Terms of Service or not, we ask that you follow them so that we can continue to have a forum.



Conducive to a mature discussion is a mutual respect between all parties concerned. We do not ask for you to passively agree with every other member - this is actually horrible for a forum, because no real discussion can happen. What we're after is the understanding that other people are entitled to an opinion. If you disagree with something at face value, voice your opinion and be ready to qualify what you say as an opinion. If someone expresses their opinion as the conclusion of a logical argument, you may attack the logic of the argument or the starting premises - do not attack people. We're all here to learn from each other, and everyone has something constructive to say.



Depending on the communication medium used for a discussion, there are certain social rules which develop in order to facilitate conversation. When speaking face to face, for example, you don't talk out of turn and wait until someone is finished speaking before you do. This allows for both parties to speak with the elaboration and clarity needed to convey themselves properly. If two people are speaking at the same time, then they are too occupied with speaking (loudly so they can be heard) rather than hearing. If you suspect that you'll be cut off by another speaker, then you'll sacrifice content for brevity to try and get your word out before they start.

Forums work rather differently, for a lot of reasons, and so other rules have developed over time specific to forums. We ask that you follow these to aid good discussion.

Text speak and overuse of abbreviations is frowned upon. These make a post more difficult to read and give the impression that the author of the post is too lazy to write something out properly- the courtesy is to write a post which can be read. We ask that you write in coherent sentences and use paragraphs to structure your posts for a similar reason.

Double posting and necroposting are, for the most part, not allowed. Double posts require more scrolling for the same amount of text content because of the space taken up by signatures. If 24 hours have passed since you last posted, you may make a double post to bump a thread in order to draw attention to it. Try to ask a question or otherwise do something that makes the post worth reading. Necroposting, related to double posting, is making a post in a 'dead' thread. This is very irritating to regular members who expect a long thread to include interesting content, only to find a string of old posts and one new post at the end. However, if you feel that your post adds a fresh spin to the discussion, please make the post. Starting a new discussion from a dead thread is also known as "resurrecting" a thread.

Avatar dimensions should not exceed 100 x 100. At worst, they stretch a page (making it unreadable), at best, they distract from the content of a post. A signature may have one image, which must be a .png file and have the dimensions 200 x 80 or less. If you decide to have an image sig, you may only have an image. You have to decide, you cant have words and an image, this is purely because it streches users signatures, annoying other members. We feel that this is an acceptable compromise between affording a user creative freedom over their posts and profile and allowing users of slow internet connections relatively painless browsing. Please adhere to this guideline. Embedding YouTube videos in a signature is lunacy. Please don't. Of course, linking to images and YouTube videos is perfectly fine. Whether a signature image, an avatar, or something to which part of your signature is a link, everything must comply with Proboards ToS and our 'Guidelines and Forum Ideals'. Staff reserve the right to remove profile content under the grounds of breaching any of these guidelines. In practice, a PM is usually sent explaining the deletion.



Try to make posts which have content. If you are writing an article for the inital post in a thread, do your best to have a coherent message which is developed throughout. When posting in a thread, ask yourself whether a post is adding to a thread, or is simply a reiteration of what someone else has said. It's important to note that if you feel you are only repeating a prior post, it doesn't mean you should scrap the post or quit forums forever. Think of something to add that is novel, relevant and unique. Make your post yours. Keep this goal in mind as you post, both in forming your opinion and in thinking about how exactly you'll express yourself.