It seems many of our newer arrivals (and old hats) are under the misapprehension that the normal rules of internet messageboards are in vogue here, i.e. rampant swearing, personal abuse, misuse of the English language and a general lack of respect for your fellow users.
Not here.
Here are the basic rules for the FORUMS Zero Idiot Tolerance (ZIT) policy: (Modified from the Hawthorn Football Club Forums...)
1 - Occasional swearing is tolerated, but not encouraged. Excessive profanity will be removed and the poster will be warned. In the words of a famous administrator of a messageboard:
The English language is a powerful medium - learn how to use it.
2 - Personal abuse of other contributors will not be tolerated. This includes calling anyone a d**khead, a wa*ker, a f**kwit or any other childish taunt you can think of. From this point in time (9.40 PM May 8th, 2006), any abuse posted will result in the abuser receiving a warning, then banned.
3 - We try to encourage contributors to express their thoughts in a user-friendly format. No CAPS-lock, no excessive exclamation marks, no big fonts or colours. Use bold and italics to emphasise where appropriate.
4 - Related to the above, feel free to use capital letters for proper nouns or the start of a sentence. Paragraphs are good; blocks of text are bad.
This is not a spelling test, but do try to spell correctly.
Don't type something you can't spell and then stick (sp?) behind it. Go
here: http://dictionary.reference.com and look it up yourself. The posting software DOES have a spell checker - it is crude but works!
5 - Don't quote the whole post of someone above you, and then say "Yeah, I agree." Complete waste of time.
6 - If you're about to post something that you think could be questionable on legal or tasteful grounds, DON'T. If you're in doubt, PM a moderator and get some sort of idea. Posters who are constantly having their posts edited for legal reasons will be ZITted.
7 - Ahh, ZIT. Zero Idiot Tolerance. Basically, if you're just here to annoy people, to post absolute crap, to harp on about the same topic over and over again, or to deliberately bait others, you are, in forum terms, an Idiot. You will not be tolerated. You will be Zitted.
8 - Articles sourced from other news sources, should be linked to rather than copied and pasted. Stick the first paragraph in to give the flavour of the piece, but that's it.
9 - The clubs, players and officials read and monitor this site. All players should acknowledge and accept that they are subject to the views and reasoned criticism of those who watch the games. However, outright abuse of players and/or coaches, or insults without support, are not constructive and serve no purpose but to tar everyone on this board with the same brush. Consider this rule of thumb: Would you say what you are about to post to the person's face? If not, don't post it here.
10 - Before starting a new thread, browse the front page and see if the topic you want to discuss has already been addressed. As a general rule of thumb, it is better to add to an existing thread than create a new one.
In short, respect your fellow posters, don't post something you wouldn't say to the person you're addressing, and try to respect the messageboard.
I don't want to moderate the forums on a daily basis - i'm far too busy for that - so show some common sense and still have fun with the forums - that's what there here for!
If you have queries, message me or a moderator, or post it underneath.
Bear