Ground Rules (V1.2)

There are a few ground rules for participation in forums hosted by vulcantothesky.org. Please respect these rules, and each other.

1.1 Be civil.

No personal attacks. Do not feel compelled to defend your honor in public. Posts containing personal attacks may be removed from the server.

Statements pertaining to 3rd parties, be they companies or individuals, that may be construed as defamatory, potentially slanderous or give rise to any possible liability on the part of the Club, Trust or author of said statement shall be removed in order to protect all concerned

1.2 Stay on topic.

Most of these forums are high-traffic and read by busy people, so please pay attention to the topic of your messages, and check that it still relates to the charter of the forum to which you are posting. Off-topic discussion not taken to private email, chat, or any place where it is not considered off-topic, by someone who knows they should be taking it elsewhere, is eligible for removal from the moderators.

1.3 Be kind to newcomers!

They may ask the wrong questions, including ones that seem obvious (or whose answers seem easy to find). But lots of valued contributors started out this way, and treating newcomers kindly makes them more likely to turn into the valuable community members we all know and love (and cut some slack when they mess up).

So while you don't have to humour them or suffer them gladly, and it's fine to point out when they make mistakes, point newcomers in the right direction in addition to turning them away from the wrong ones, and be kind to them in the process of correcting their transgressions.

1.4 Let sleeping dogs lie.

It's tempting to revisit controversial decisions you disagree with, but it's rarely productive to do so, since it almost always results in the same heated, lengthy, and time/energy draining discussions leading to the same conclusion that was reached in the last round.

Therefore, for issues already raised, discussed, and decided upon, reopen the discussion only if you have significant new information that would reasonably prompt reconsideration of the original decision.

1.5 No crossposting.

It is rarely appropriate to send the same message to two areas. Please don't do it.

1.6 Trim your follow-ups.

Do not quote the entire content of the message to which you are replying. Include only as much as is necessary for context. Remember that if someone wants to read the original message, they can; it is easily accessible. A good rule of thumb is, don't include more quoted text than new text.

There is always a need for some trimming - either a salutation, a signature, some blank lines or whatever. If you are doing no trimming whatsoever of the quoted text, then you aren't trimming enough.

1.7 Top-posting vs bottom-posting.

Some people like to put reply after the quoted text, some like it the other way around, and still some prefer interspersed style. Debates about which posting style is better have led to many flame wars in the forums. To keep forum discussion friendly, please do interspersion with trimming (see above for trimming rules). For a simple reply, this is equivalent bottom-posting. So, remove extraneous material, and place your comments in logical order, after the text you are commenting upon. The only exceptions are the accessibility forums, which are top-posting.

1.8 Identify your subject matter.

Not everyone has time reading all forum postings. To ensure that your message reach the right people at timely manner, identify your subject matter clearly in the subject line. Subjects like a question and xh558 problem are not very helpful.

1.9 Access to Club Area of forum.

To gain access to the club area of the forum you must apply (just because you are a club member does not get you into the club area of the forum) Application is easy and free, just follow the advice in the forum under Web Site Announcements / Welcome to the forum.