Today's Writing Community Staff Administration Policy
Today's Writing Community: Staff Guidlines
Some of us have been posting and using many and other online discussion forums for a long time now. There are certain problems that always seem to come up:
- Small comments and sometimes innocent observations turn into flame wars (missed-word things, leave out a smiley in the wrong place and all hell breaks loose..), also
ruining the current topic(s) for what it was ment for and often losing valuable insight and information This is where we will come into place we will only intervene if all further steps have been taken by any other moderator. At this time
we will only give 2 warnings to either party to carry on with chat or discussion, At that point either person(s) stop all flaming or harassing messages at once or we will be left with no other obligation to remove any party involved from all Today's Writing Community Services .
- We would like the discussion forums to be an alternative to all that if possible. We would like each forum on the board to develop into a place where people can discuss any topic(s) without the above pitfalls.
- Today's Writing Community user rules really are simple: we want the discussion forums to be a place that is a boost to the entire community, and that's the philosophy that the rules are based upon. Here they are again for you're reference:
User Rules and Guidelines
- No spam. The Today's Writing Community staff reserves the right to determine what constitutes as spam, but we all pretty much know what it is. Don't spam the forum board.
- No flame wars. People disagree, and that's cool. However, personal attacks because of a difference in opinion are just lame, and things can quickly get out of hand on an online forum because of them. Don't flame. Play nice, and use lots of smiles, or something... to keep it positive.
- No links to crackwarez, or cheats will be allowed on the discussion forum or chat room. This includes URL's, hyperlinks, or any other method of distribution. if we receive a complaint on any member, we always check the server log first. Then the one who sent it, Will be the first to be blamed and reprimanded for it.
- Keep the forums on topic. We tried to set up forums that cover broad enough categories for whatever Descent topics you might have. When in doubt, go to the Today's Writing Community Announcements / Feedback Forum and ask a Moderator to create a specific topic. That's what where here for. If the Moderator feels it's not a worthy topic to add and your not satisfied with there actions then contact an Administrator but always first go to a Moderator for assistance.
- Avoid religion and politics discussions. These "sensitive" conversations most always seem to end in a flame war. Topics of this nature won't be tolerated on the discussion forums or chat rooms. We realize that we all are protected by the 1st Admendmentof the US Constitution, but let's remember this is a OWNED AND OPERATED BY US not the PUBLIC this entitles the Administrators and it's staff Moderators to decide what is acceptable.
And that's the extent of it so far. Keeping forums on topic is just good common sense;
however, we probably will never have to go so far as to kick or ban someone for being pathetically clueless. As time goes on, we might add to these rules if circumstances seem to warrant it.
Moderators: if you feel there's
something missing, please let us know and we'll talk about it.
HOW MODERATOR'S ARE SELECTED
Every one we asked to be a moderator is someone we felt already contributed in the Today's Writing Community community, or has
a lot of experience in the subject matter of their forum, likes to chat and
bring new topics to write about, and from what we've seen is mature enough
to handle whatever situations that comes up with good judgment. This means
that the forum you're given is yours to run: just do what you normally do
and the board will work out great for everybody.
We made the forums and set up some simple descriptions of the subject matter; these should be pretty
straightforward. We probably exchanged e-mails with you, talked with you
online or otherwise discussed any details specific to your forum by now. If
we haven't, or you have questions/suggestions/concerns, get a hold of us and
we will trade all ideas and suggestions.
As a moderator you are not required to be the final authority on every single detail or topic on your
forum (although you might be in some cases!). The way we see it you're
somebody who's knowledgeable enough about the topic to be a kind of 'host',
that is there to to participate in whatever's going on in the forum fairly
frequently, and be enthusiastic enough to be involved in what's going on in
general. You can provide 'answers' when you can (when the subject is
technical in nature enough to be black and white), but that's not the
primary reason for your presence there.
Ideally we would like you to check the board at least 3 times a day; if you can't always do that no big deal, but
try and be consistent enough to keep touch with what's happening. If you
won't have computer access for an extended period of time (more than 5 - 7
days or so) just drop us a line so we know to keep an eye on the forum for
you. How often you check / participate in your forum is a matter of
judgment, but again, because we asked you if you'd like to be a moderator,
it means your probably into the topic enough for this to be fun and not a
hassle for you anyway.
Administration rules put in place for Moderation Policies
Moderators have rights to edit messages, delete messages / entire threads and close threads, from forums
where they are granted rights. You can do these tasks from the Forum
indirectly you will be able Edit/Prune Messages and Even Delete. These
functions should be self explanatory once you get there.
We're hoping that the format of the
board, and the caliber of the people on it will keep conversations more or
less 'civilized', productive, and fun. We want everyone to be able to be
free enough to express themselves within the limitations of the rules. We
will only approach users about a problem when what they're doing is clearly
against the rules they agreed to when they registered, or there is something
that obviously needs to be dealt with to keep the discussion on track. So
policing the forum is secondary to being a moderator.
Moderation will be private. Policing the forum publicly on your board can backfire on you: there's a good chance
it will just get worse. That's why we think it's better to carefully and
professionally ask them to stop via e-mail. or private message the user
directly When you feel there is a real problem on your board with a certain
individual, we will follow the "2 Strikes and YOUR OUT!" rule:
MODERATORS CAN AND WILL DO THE FOLLOWING
- Delete the offending message if you think it's completely inappropriate
- E-mail them about it on the side, tell them that you deleted the message and why you deleted it, and send a copy to the (Administrator) so we are also are aware of all situations (mailto: admin@todayswriting.com)
- If they are still getting out of hand, and they don't respond to your mails or stop, repeat Step 1 and Step 2.and then contact Administrator to explain that the problem is still persistent with this member.
- If it really looks like the person has NO clue, just e-mail one of the Administrators directly and we will deal with it from there. We will yank their posting privileges if we have to. This is a last resort however. It really shouldn't get to that point (or we hope it doesn't )
Special Cases
- Posting crackwarez (URL's; hyperlinks) will not be tolerated on the board. First Archive the Message to the designated Board and then Delete the post, e-mail the user and contact us once you got it under hand, and if that doesn't work and the user still ignores your request, tell us and we will kick/ban the user. (3 strikes and your out). As stated in the rules, it's OK
to just debate a certain topic but if you notice the same topic starts the same issue over again,and is one of those topics that tends turn into an endless flame wars with other members, delete it as it is usually a big waste of everyone's time.
- Blatant spam includes any commercial post that is not Descent related; these will be treated the
same: 3 strikes and your out. This does not apply to things like home site urls or Guides to viruses or updates for WINDOWS or MAC users etc..: this
kind of promotion is good for the community and is encouraged and welcomed.
- Mild spam such as somebody posting harmless non-descent related topics should just be dealt with on a case by case basis: there might be no need to do anything at all but let the thread die on it's own. If it seems like it's becoming the Stupid Thread from Hell just close the thread out in the Forum topic. There's no need to Contact us on that kind of post in most cases. If it's more than just out of place than you'll recognize it and we're back to the 2 Strikes Rule.
Special Note
If you haven't done so already, we would like you to post a message to your forum welcoming everyone, describing what topics the forum more or less covers, and mentioning your experience. For those of you that have websites, please take a look at the Staff Links page, this is where we put up an image and links to your web-page with a small quote that you provide. Send us your photo and a quote and we'll put you on there. STAFF PAGE
If or when the time comes that you don't think you'll be able to continue moderating your forum, we'd appreciate it if you'd let us know in advance. That way we can line up somebody to take over. You have the rights as moderators to 'prune' threads from your forums but for now at this early stage we ask that you don't just yet. Administrators will look into a method of archiving the threads so we don't lose anything. We'll be doing a mass e-mailing of the Today's Writing Community Community once a week. Registered users are continuing to grow every day but once we do the mailing it should increase dramatically. The
restructuring we just did on the forums in partly in anticipation of just that. So if there are any suggestions you'd like to make before this happens, please let us know now so we can implement it before things are too settled in place.
Finally, the members of the discussion forum are safer and really our the ones to benefit from the community rules: it's your board, not just the Administrators and Moderators. We're the Administrators for the site, and take responsibility for setting everything up, design issues, final policy decisions, staff coordination
etc.. but from that point on it belongs to every member.
Think of it as a big home away from home, you guys are the family, and we're just the poor
suckers that have to do all the legwork and take the heat when things get
lagged.
Thanks for all your efforts, we know great things are going to happen because you're a part of it.
Administrator & Domain Registrar
Feel free to Contact us with any questions or concerns at
the following e-mail address.
admin@todayswriting.com |
