Forum Rules
Hello and welcome to the ALLIED ARTISTS FORUM!
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! Well, unfortunately the alternative to rules is chaos, and that didn't work. We finally had to break down and come up with rules in order to make our forum a cool place for everyone.
We have devised some simple guidelines to help make your stay here as enjoyable as possible. We hope you will find these rules reasonable, and keep them in mind whenever you post.
Please read and understand the following before posting on any of ALLIED ARTISTS' forums:
________________________________________
• Moderation of posts - Allied Artists reserves the right to delete or edit any post which is deemed counterproductive or offensive. This does not mean we will edit and delete posts with wild abandon, but that we can and will exercise our right to do so when it is necessary. The specific point it becomes necessary is left to the discretion of the moderator of each forum.
There are some who believe that all written word should be left alone for the sake of free speech. Some also believe that all conversation is an organic process, and that discussion should be allowed to run its course without interference. While we respect those views, we cannot let these forums go unchecked. We believe that antagonistic behavior (such as personal insult) can be very detrimental to the free exchange of ideas.
Experience has shown that insults always inspire more insults, and as a result inhibit productive discussion. When an insult-fest occurs in a thread, there are negative consequences. Some readers are discouraged from contributing to the original topic, anticipating that they will also become the target of insults. Others may feel obliged to take a side and jump into the fray, adding fuel to the flame. Once this happens, it becomes very difficult to return to the original topic of the thread. The exchange of thoughts, ideas, and experience comes to a grinding halt, and the topic of the thread no longer indicates what is contained in that thread. This is inconveniencing and frustrating to anyone who hopes to glean information or participate in that thread. Once a thread has decayed to the extent that it becomes irrelevant to the vast majority of readers, it becomes a signpost to everyone that we are collectively incapable of intelligent discussion. That is not the way we want the rest of the world to perceive Allied Artists or these forums; hopefully the reader feels the same.
Members are always welcome to inquire why a post was deleted or edited by directly emailing the moderator. If you don't know which moderator edited or deleted your post, you should e-mail an administrator to find out.. Under no circumstances should you start a discussion about it in the forum or thread itself. Such action would serve no purpose, as moderators will not respond to such publicly. It merely instigates pointless arguments over how these forums should be run. This point needs to be clear: "how the Allied Artists' Forum should be run" is not open for public debate. Members can ALWAYS make suggestions (and Allied Artists has proved responsive to those who have made reasonable complaints or suggestions to us directly) but public demands and challenges to the way this forum is run will not be allowed. The Allied Artists forum is a private service. We are not public officials, and sadly (or happily), you do not get the chance to elect any of us.
________________________________________
• Warning and Bans - These will ALWAYS be carried out privately, and remain the business of the admins and the poster involved. No other member will receive any information about this, including when he himself was the offended party. We can understand that some here think that justice should be publicly meted out, however those who adhere to that are missing out on a very important point: we are not here to pass judgment nor educate anyone. Absolutely no one here is our 'pupil', 'disciple' or 'subject'.
We carry out the rules that govern this place in order to preserve the orderly functionality of this service for the wide audience. Someone is banned not to punish him or her (although no doubt the side effect is that he or she is punished by it) but rather to remove an obstruction from our forum.
Therefore, not every 'offense' must or should end in a ban. When someone posts over a year here, with thousands of posts to show for, and has once posted something 'bad' - as bad as it may be, it must be seen as a one-off 'offense' and therefore banning that person will not serve any purpose beyond mere punishment. It won't make our forum better or worse. In such a one-off case, removing the POST and not the POSTER must be seen as a viable solution.
However, if someone is repeatedly offensive, then we have to restore order. Again, not as a punishment but rather as a measure of removing a cause of constant friction from our forum.
If someone accepts in principal the rules that govern this service (and in theory, all that have clicked on "I Agree" when they registered have accepted it), then there is no reason to ban him/her. If it seems obvious to us, however, that someone disregards these rules, then we must take action.
Marketing:
Forum Advertising or spam is NOT ALLOWED! If you want to increase your retail business, buy advertising in appropriate places.
Announcement and News
Use the SUBMIT NEWS area! This is excellent for press releases, announcements, articles, educational info etc...
________________________________________
• Flame Baits vs 'Freedom of Speech'. I know that my above statements may lead some to think that this should encompass posters who have repeatedly posted what some here consider 'flame bait'.
We happen to agree - but only to a certain extent.
The Allied Artists Forum is a public domain. It is to be adored and scorned, admired and admonished, revered and questioned constantly. But, there is a fine line between scorning/admonishing/questioning and defaming/wrongly accusing/slandering.
It's not always easy to differentiate that fine line, nor is it easy to always make a unanimously agreed judgment call on whether something falls under what we would consider allowable and what we will not tolerate.
It's easy to know what to do when something is - in our view - blatantly illegal or a mere flame-bait. We simply delete it. It's easy to know what to do when something is - in our view - within the acceptable realm of speaking up. We simply let it remain, regardless of whether we think it's ridiculous or ludicrous.
________________________________________
• Personal Feuds. Sometimes, though luckily not often, a Bulletin Board debate will turn into a personal feud between two posters. We want to make it perfectly clear that, a) we will not allow, under any circumstances, this feud to be carried out publicly; b) we will not intervene nor be a judge of personal feuds; and c) we will not offer any of the Allied Artists tools - primarily the Private Messaging system - to serve this feud, unless BOTH sides are willing to engage in this dialogue.
________________________________________
• Reference to the hosts. We have an underlying rule that you may not like but I insist on: ALL admins on the forum are to be treated with respect. That is pure and simple. They are a bunch of GOOD people, with the best of intentions regardless of what you think, who really put in hours a day (and in some cases for a very long time now) to serve YOU. And by saying SERVE YOU I do not mean they are your servants. Please learn to differentiate between the two.
Thanks for your patience and time,
The Allied Artists Forum Team
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! Well, unfortunately the alternative to rules is chaos, and that didn't work. We finally had to break down and come up with rules in order to make our forum a cool place for everyone.
We have devised some simple guidelines to help make your stay here as enjoyable as possible. We hope you will find these rules reasonable, and keep them in mind whenever you post.
Please read and understand the following before posting on any of ALLIED ARTISTS' forums:
________________________________________
• Moderation of posts - Allied Artists reserves the right to delete or edit any post which is deemed counterproductive or offensive. This does not mean we will edit and delete posts with wild abandon, but that we can and will exercise our right to do so when it is necessary. The specific point it becomes necessary is left to the discretion of the moderator of each forum.
There are some who believe that all written word should be left alone for the sake of free speech. Some also believe that all conversation is an organic process, and that discussion should be allowed to run its course without interference. While we respect those views, we cannot let these forums go unchecked. We believe that antagonistic behavior (such as personal insult) can be very detrimental to the free exchange of ideas.
Experience has shown that insults always inspire more insults, and as a result inhibit productive discussion. When an insult-fest occurs in a thread, there are negative consequences. Some readers are discouraged from contributing to the original topic, anticipating that they will also become the target of insults. Others may feel obliged to take a side and jump into the fray, adding fuel to the flame. Once this happens, it becomes very difficult to return to the original topic of the thread. The exchange of thoughts, ideas, and experience comes to a grinding halt, and the topic of the thread no longer indicates what is contained in that thread. This is inconveniencing and frustrating to anyone who hopes to glean information or participate in that thread. Once a thread has decayed to the extent that it becomes irrelevant to the vast majority of readers, it becomes a signpost to everyone that we are collectively incapable of intelligent discussion. That is not the way we want the rest of the world to perceive Allied Artists or these forums; hopefully the reader feels the same.
Members are always welcome to inquire why a post was deleted or edited by directly emailing the moderator. If you don't know which moderator edited or deleted your post, you should e-mail an administrator to find out.. Under no circumstances should you start a discussion about it in the forum or thread itself. Such action would serve no purpose, as moderators will not respond to such publicly. It merely instigates pointless arguments over how these forums should be run. This point needs to be clear: "how the Allied Artists' Forum should be run" is not open for public debate. Members can ALWAYS make suggestions (and Allied Artists has proved responsive to those who have made reasonable complaints or suggestions to us directly) but public demands and challenges to the way this forum is run will not be allowed. The Allied Artists forum is a private service. We are not public officials, and sadly (or happily), you do not get the chance to elect any of us.
________________________________________
• Warning and Bans - These will ALWAYS be carried out privately, and remain the business of the admins and the poster involved. No other member will receive any information about this, including when he himself was the offended party. We can understand that some here think that justice should be publicly meted out, however those who adhere to that are missing out on a very important point: we are not here to pass judgment nor educate anyone. Absolutely no one here is our 'pupil', 'disciple' or 'subject'.
We carry out the rules that govern this place in order to preserve the orderly functionality of this service for the wide audience. Someone is banned not to punish him or her (although no doubt the side effect is that he or she is punished by it) but rather to remove an obstruction from our forum.
Therefore, not every 'offense' must or should end in a ban. When someone posts over a year here, with thousands of posts to show for, and has once posted something 'bad' - as bad as it may be, it must be seen as a one-off 'offense' and therefore banning that person will not serve any purpose beyond mere punishment. It won't make our forum better or worse. In such a one-off case, removing the POST and not the POSTER must be seen as a viable solution.
However, if someone is repeatedly offensive, then we have to restore order. Again, not as a punishment but rather as a measure of removing a cause of constant friction from our forum.
If someone accepts in principal the rules that govern this service (and in theory, all that have clicked on "I Agree" when they registered have accepted it), then there is no reason to ban him/her. If it seems obvious to us, however, that someone disregards these rules, then we must take action.
Marketing:
Forum Advertising or spam is NOT ALLOWED! If you want to increase your retail business, buy advertising in appropriate places.
Announcement and News
Use the SUBMIT NEWS area! This is excellent for press releases, announcements, articles, educational info etc...
________________________________________
• Flame Baits vs 'Freedom of Speech'. I know that my above statements may lead some to think that this should encompass posters who have repeatedly posted what some here consider 'flame bait'.
We happen to agree - but only to a certain extent.
The Allied Artists Forum is a public domain. It is to be adored and scorned, admired and admonished, revered and questioned constantly. But, there is a fine line between scorning/admonishing/questioning and defaming/wrongly accusing/slandering.
It's not always easy to differentiate that fine line, nor is it easy to always make a unanimously agreed judgment call on whether something falls under what we would consider allowable and what we will not tolerate.
It's easy to know what to do when something is - in our view - blatantly illegal or a mere flame-bait. We simply delete it. It's easy to know what to do when something is - in our view - within the acceptable realm of speaking up. We simply let it remain, regardless of whether we think it's ridiculous or ludicrous.
________________________________________
• Personal Feuds. Sometimes, though luckily not often, a Bulletin Board debate will turn into a personal feud between two posters. We want to make it perfectly clear that, a) we will not allow, under any circumstances, this feud to be carried out publicly; b) we will not intervene nor be a judge of personal feuds; and c) we will not offer any of the Allied Artists tools - primarily the Private Messaging system - to serve this feud, unless BOTH sides are willing to engage in this dialogue.
________________________________________
• Reference to the hosts. We have an underlying rule that you may not like but I insist on: ALL admins on the forum are to be treated with respect. That is pure and simple. They are a bunch of GOOD people, with the best of intentions regardless of what you think, who really put in hours a day (and in some cases for a very long time now) to serve YOU. And by saying SERVE YOU I do not mean they are your servants. Please learn to differentiate between the two.
Thanks for your patience and time,
The Allied Artists Forum Team