maemo.org - Talk - Community input for new t.m.o. policy

Good afternoon, community members.

Due to the growth of the forum and growing complexity of managing problems, and in order to facilitate more consistent, timely, transparent and fair moderation, the administrators and moderators have been discussing a set of expanded rules and the usage of the built-in infraction system of the forum software to improve the t.m.o. experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flandry (Post 723220)

In response to several comments past and future: obviously these are guidelines and will not be enforced to the letter every moment of everyday. Not only is that not practical but it's not desirable as there will always be some judgement involved and the idea is to promote a constructive environment, not to make everyone move in lockstep (or goose-step as some like to claim any time a hint of order is maintained by "artificial" means).

The point is to clarify what is and isn't appropriate so that the proper response can be determined by any moderator, thus enabling a team of moderators to act more consistently and with less overhead (overhead which you don't see because it is mulled over in the moderator forum). For this, a more detailed policy is needed than has existed, and this is it.

The proposed draft of this policy follows, and is open to community discussion for a period of a week.

talk.maemo.org Rules

talk.maemo.org is not operated by Nokia and is a community forum, so be aware that posts and topics specifically addressed to Nokia may not be seen by Nokia. Such threads or posts are allowed, but are subject to closure or deletion at moderators' discretion. To directly comment, complain or suggest to Nokia, please visit the official Nokia forums: Nokia Europe, and Nokia USA.

talk.maemo.org has put the following rules in place for the message board to ensure enjoyment by all users. Our goal is to make sure these forums are a positive experience for everyone.

The establishment of these rules has been given much consideration by the talk.maemo.org staff, the Maemo Community Council, and feedback from long-time members, and is designed to foster and promote a healthy, helpful, and professional atmosphere in all of our forums. Anyone posting in the forums should be treated with respect and in a manner which will create an enjoyable experience for all.

Forum Rules

The following rules apply to any post, submission, or other type of communication a member makes in talk.maemo.org.

No Abuse, Insults or Personal Attacks
Abuse, insults and personal attacks directed at any member, person, or group are unacceptable. If you disagree with someone on some point, please do not resort to name calling or personal attacks; instead, argue the merits of their points. Please note that attacking people you perceive to be "trolls", "fanbois" or "flame baiters" still counts as a personal attack, and your posts will be removed as such.
- Trolling example: "Just sell your N900 and get an iPhone 4!"
- Flaming example: "Members with nothing to say should just shut up and leave this forum!"
- Personal attack example: "You are an idiot."
If you have trouble refraining from taking "bait", consider making use of the built-in ignore list functionality.
No Foul Language
The use of foul language is considered to be unacceptable. Filters have been added to censor offensive words. Members must not bypass the filters or swear in a different language.
No Trolling
A post that is solely intended to incite controversy or conflict, or cause annoyance or offense is considered "trolling". These posts will only lead to personal attacks and emotional outbursts from other members, which results in an unhealthy atmosphere.
No Inappropriate or Illegal Material
Do not post or add in your signature anything vulgar, inflammatory, pornographic, illegal, etc. Political and religious topics are considered inappropriate as well. Attaching, posting links to, or otherwise promoting pirated or illegal software is contrary to the purposes of the community and its forum
No Business Advertising
Creating threads, posts, or signatures that serve solely to promote your business (whatever that may be, personal blogs excluded) is not allowed. Maemo-specific services, products and software are allowed one active thread per major product, which is subject to the same rules that apply to other threads. Referral links and viral marketing are not allowed.
No Cross-posting
talk.maemo.org is divided into subforums by topic. Post into an existing thread on a subject (using the power search to find it), and when creating a new thread for a new subject, place it in the appropriate subforum. Posting the same comments more than once in a thread, or in more than one thread, is considered cross-posting, and is not appropriate. Please choose the single thread and forum in which your comments would be the most relevant, and post them in that thread only.
No Spamming
Threads that are not related to the forum's description, posts that are not related to the discussion, or posts made with the intention of bringing the user's post count up will be considered to be spam. An edit function is provided by the forum software and should be used to minimize multiple sequential posts.
Respect Forum Moderators, Administrators and Members
If you have any problems with any of the staff, please PM or email the Administrator(s). Attacking any forum staff will be considered as violating the "No abuse, insults or personal attacks" rule. talk.maemo.org is a gathering place for people of many ideas but a common goal (the use, development of, and promotion of Maemo-related devices and software) and disagreement with ideas is not an excuse to be disagreeable towards other community members.

Moderation

Although the administrators and moderators of talk.maemo.org will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither talk.maemo.org, maemo.org, nor Nokia will be held responsible for the content of any message.

If you have a problem or have caught someone you feel is in direct violation of these rules of talk.maemo.org, please contact an administrator or moderator with full details. The best way to contact a moderator to report a post is to click the on the "Report This" link that is found at the top of every post on these forums.

The staff of talk.maemo.org reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason. Posting material already removed previously by a moderator, or creating new threads or posts with the purpose of inquiring about deleted content, is inappropriate.

Signatures

Signatures should only be in small or normal fonts (size 1 or 2).
Singatures may only contain up to five lines of text (measured from a 1280 pixel width screen).
Links in signature are allowed but you may not link to warez, porn, racist or other similar hate sites.

Avatars

Avatars should follow the maximum avatar dimensions of the forum
Avatars are subject to the same conditions as forum rules with respect to decency and so forth.

Infractions and Banning

talk.maemo.org runs an infraction system that lets moderators and administrators give infractions to misbehaving members. Infractions are represented in points -- more severe infractions equal more infraction points.

Infraction points accumulate / stack-up as well as expire. Misbehaving members accumulate infraction points and, depending on the total number the member has accumulated in a month, he/she can be banned for 1, 3, 7 or 30 days, or even forever. If a member is not permanently banned, infraction points expire within 30 days -- a member with 10 infraction points will be clean of infractions if he/she behaves for a month.

Infraction points will be given for misbehavior in public forum communications as well as for attacking other members in any other way within maemo.org, if it is reported. The following are the assigned infraction points for specific violations:

Signature Rule Violation - 5
Avatar Violation - 5
Cross-posting - 5
Inappropriate Language - 10
Bypassing censored words - 10
Inappropriate Material - 10
Advertising/Referral Links - 10
Flaming/Trolling - 15
Bullying New Members - 15
Personal Attack - 20
Illegal Activity/Content - 20
Spam Advertisements - 20
Spam Post - 20
Creating additional accounts with the intention of avoiding existing infraction penalties - 20
SpamBot - 100

The following are the penalties given based on accumulated infraction points:

3 infractions not totaling 30 points - 1-day ban
30 points - 3-day suspension
40 points - 7-day suspension
50 points - 30-day suspension
100 points - Permanent Ban

If a member who has accumulated infraction points is proved to be posting on a second account (via IP address), the account with a higher number of posts will get the additional infraction, and the newer account will be banned permanently.

In certain situations, if a member is clearly not cooperating with the forum rules, the member as well as his/her IP address(es) will be banned permanently from the forum.

maemo.org Terms of Use / Privacy Policy

Along with these rules, members should agree to and follow maemo.org's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Addenda

talk.maemo.org reserves the right to update and modify these rules as the needs of the community dictate to ensure the smooth operation of this community.