Moderation
The Official Bradford Anderson Message Boards are a moderated forum. However, the moderators cannot be everywhere and see everything. If you see something that is against the Board Rules, please report it to a Site Admin or Moderator via Private Message. Note that the moderators have the final say-so in any situation that you report. They will evaluate the situation on a case-by-case basis and take appropriate action where needed.
· What Is a Moderator?
Moderators are volunteers who generously give their time to help board users with questions about our site and boards. They also are the peacekeepers and are here to ensure that all visitors enjoy their stay. This means enforcing the Board Rules and User Agreement.
· What Do Moderators Do?
Moderators monitor board posts and respond to complaints to keep posting free of undesirable content as described in the Board Rules. They enforce the board rules, and can delete posts, edit posts as well as remove any user's ability to visit the boards. If a moderator lets you know you are close to crossing the line, take heed of the warning. Likewise, if your thread was deleted or locked by a moderator, do not repost or unlock the topic. They deserve respect and appreciation for their time.
· Bans
If you log onto OBA message boards and receive a message that you have been banned, please submit an unban request and wait for an OBA Board Moderator to get in touch with you. Bans are private matters between the Moderators and person banned and will not be discussed publicly or through third parties. It is not acceptable to return to the boards under another username. If you do, your ban time may be extended.
· What If I Disagree With a Moderator?
Moderators are not perfect and are only human. Disagreements occur. Try to communicate with them first on a respectful level and settle your disagreement. They are not targets for your obscenities, flames or general insults. If you do not agree with a decision, you are not entitled to start a thread arguing about the verdict or flaming any of the moderators. Any such messages will be removed. This extends to Private Messages and unban requests as well, and you are not entitled to insult moderators via either of these methods. Also note that bans are between the user banned and the moderators, and moderators cannot respond about bans publicly. Any correspondence about ban length and reason will be handled through unban requests.
If you feel a verdict is unfair, please contact another Moderator or a Site Administrator.
General Rules
Following are some things you'll want to keep in mind while posting on the Official Bradford Anderson Message Boards. Please read the rules so you will be familiar with them:
· Flaming, Bashing, and Trolling
Hate posts and personal attacks will not be tolerated on the OBA Boards. Treat others on these message boards as you would expect them to treat you. Talking trash about another user or posting topics specifically to provoke a negative response from an individual, a group, or an entire community is not acceptable on the OBA Boards. These posts will be deleted and may result in having the privilege of posting on the boards revoked.
Board bashing is also not allowed on the OBA Boards. Please respect the various communities on the OBA Boards. If another board is not your favorite, there's no need to complain about it. Simply refrain from visiting it. Board bashing posts will be deleted.
· Profanity
Offensive language is unacceptable. While we may let you get away with anything you might hear on network television (no, NOT cable) or radio, don't go overboard. Simply editing a few letters with an asterisk or other symbols isn't allowed, either. All letters of an offensive word must be edited out. A simple rule to follow is: "when in doubt, leave it out." You don't have to use excessive profanity to get your point across, and it's usually better to avoid it altogether. Profanity in posts is automatically screened, and any word on the list will be replaced with a *.
· Spam
Purposely spamming a message board with senseless, vacuous, or empty messages to up your post count is highly frowned upon! This includes such things as party posts, chain letters, two-word "I agree" or "me too" responses, continually posting the same topic on a particular board, posting the same question across several boards and using the Quote feature without contributing anything new to a thread.
On a similar note, participating in spam attacks (post riots, etc.) on the OBA Boards or planning a spam attack on the OBA Message Boards or any other website is unacceptable, and these actions will be reported to your ISP.
· Questionable Content
Since we can't have a rule to cover everything, this is the rule to, well, cover everything. These are public boards, so act like you would if you were in a public place. OBA reserves the right to choose the guidelines of objectionable content based on its knowledge of users. These issues are left to the discretion of the individual moderators, but may include any material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory, misleading, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, racist, sexist, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy or that otherwise violates any law or encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense.
· Personal Information
Personal information is not to be given out about any individual without their permission. Children under 13 years of age should seek parental consent before giving out personal information in public or private through the use of the message board.
· Moderation of Other Members
Do not attempt to moderate other members. This includes telling people not to post under certain circumstances, telling people that they must behave a certain way on the forum, telling other posters that they have violated the rules, etc. Constructive suggestions as to how a person could communicate more clearly or with fewer problems are fine so long as they do not sound like orders. Leave the moderating to the Site Admins and Moderators.
· Niceness Tips
Do not engage in annoying or excessively rude behavior. This includes, but is not limited to the following:
o Posting the same message to multiple topics.
o Trolling, or posting only to stir up trouble.
o Posting messages in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, in eLiTe LeTtErS, in very large or hard to read fonts or colors, or with weird punctuation. (Hints: Using the standard font, font size, and color in messages is generally best. Start normal sentences with capital letters and end them with ONE period, question mark or exclamation point. Use apostrophes in contractions.)
o Regular use of "Netspeak" or other "cute" grammar or spelling (For example: writing "R U a Drake fan?" instead of "Are you a Drake fan?"). Netspeak not only annoys many members but can make it very hard for people who first language is not English to follow discussions.
o Not putting a blank line between paragraphs. (Press enter twice after each paragraph rather than just once.)
o Oversharing personal details -- posting the intimate details of your life in inappropriate threads.
o Use of gratuitous offensive language. We are a PG-13 forum.
o Failing to properly attribute quoted sources.
o Having your account set to a false or out-of-date email address.
o Threatening/harassing the Official Bradford Anderson website, message boards, Site Admins, Moderators or users.
· Signature Guidelines
Signatures are a good way to personalize your messages, but they can cause problems if not carefully created. Signatures are expected to follow the following guidelines:
· All message board rules apply to signatures.
· Keep it short - no more than one or two graphics at the most.
· Signatures may not use sound, movies, Java or other troublesome features.
· Message Format Guidelines
A number of definite "don'ts" are listed in our rules, so here are some positive things you can do to make your messages more readable - and therefore more likely to be read and replied to by other members.
· Write in short paragraphs with a blank line between each paragraph. Large blocks of solid text are much harder to read on a monitor than in a book or magazine so white space (blank lines between paragraphs) is much more important to readability than it is in text printed on paper.
· Please don't write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. It's very hard to read and is considered the online equivalent of shouting at people.
· If you are starting a new thread, try to give it a subject that accurately describes the discussion is about. If you have a question or need help, you will want to be as specific as you can in the limited number of characters allowed for the subject title so that people who have the info you are looking for will be likely to find your thread.
There are many posts each day on the OBA message boards, so we can't always promise you'll receive a warning every time action has to be taken. By registering at the OBA Message Boards, users agree that any post deemed inappropriate may be removed at the sole discretion of OBA. OBA also has the right, at its sole discretion, to revoke board privileges at any time without notice or reason. Think of these rules as a forewarning and, if you break them, you're taking your account status into your own hands.
Also note that the Board Rules extend to all areas of OBA Message Boards system, including but not limited to Private Messages, Signatures, and Unban Requests. This also includes asking for or offering anything against the Board Rules via Private Messages.
OBA is not responsible for messages posted on the OBA Boards or the content therein. Unless expressly stated otherwise, this includes messages posted by OBA staff, agents, representatives et al. DBO reserves the right to reveal the identity of or whatever information we know about any user in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by said user.
· And Finally:
1. If Bradford makes something public (for example, his favourite guitars, clothing lines, food, etc), then you may discuss it freely.
2. Do not discuss Bradford's personal life, or any rumors pertaining to his personal life, that he himself hasn't made public.
3. You do not have to like or agree with everything Bradford does, but please present your opinion in a thoughtful and polite manner.
_________________
*~Sam~* |
