Dear all--

Recent flame wars on this board have caused your moderators a great deal of concern. The intemperate and viturative tone of some recent posts is tarnishing the good reputation of this board--and by extension, of Railway Preservation News as a whole.

It is also causing your moderators and hosts a great deal of personal frustration. We did not establish this board as a forum for personal fights, bar-room brawls, or even for the exhibition of debating skills to the exclusion of common courtesy and goodwill.

So, effective immediately we announce some adjustments to our policies. We have taken the temperature of the community both here on the board and through back-channel communication with some of our most regular posters, and have decided to continue to permit anonymous posts. We will also continue the open-posting format.

However, to maintain the good name of this board your moderators intend to be much, much more aggressive about deleting unproductive or uncivil threads. We will not issue warnings, or get into debates about the letter of the law--at our discretion we will simply end discussions which we feel are no longer productive.

No railroad-preservation-related content is off limits. No ideas will be censored for their content alone. However, content and opinions expressed in rude language or a vitupritive spirit (in the judgement of the moderators) will be made to go away.

If your post is deleted (either because it contains problem content or simply because it came in the middle of a problem thread) you are welcome to repost your ideas, if you do so in a manner that conforms to the spirit as well as the letter of the terms of service.

To refresh everyone, I print an abridged version of the terms of service below. You can examine the full terms at the Guidelines and Rules link on the Interchange home page. Please read them, and post in a manner consistent with the spirit as well as the letter of them.

Happy posting, and hope to see you at ARM.

Interchange Terms of Service:

We strongly encourage the use of real names as opposed to screen names, and would prefer not to have anonymous posts.

It is also preferable that you give a valid e-mail address with your post.

The purpose of the first two guidelines is to try and keep information posted on the INTERCHANGE as accurate as possible, and to give parties with conflicting opinions the opportunity to resolve differences offline. Although posting with a screen name, or anonymously, or without a valid e-mail address won't necessarily result in removal of the post, in general, posts by anonymous parties are much more likely to be removed than those by known parties.

Constructive, polite criticism, and polite responses to same, are acceptable.

No flaming. There will be zero tolerance for this, one strike and you're out.

No profanity. There will be zero tolerance for this, one strike and you're out.

Other behavior deemed inappropriate by the Board Moderators, but not necessarily covered above, will be handled by deleting the relevant threads.



eledbetter@rypn.org

Erik:

Excellent news.

Scott A Shaw



shawsinoly@aol.com

Sounds ok to me, I won't post an email because it will be collected by a spam harvester. But I have never violated any of the stated rules and I'm not going to start now.

> Sounds ok to me, I won't post an email
> because it will be collected by a spam
> harvester. But I have never violated any of
> the stated rules and I'm not going to start
> now.

But you can enter a User Profile and provide your email address in a disguised form, so people can figure it out but spiders won't get it. I've never had a problem with spam yet. And even better, by posting a profile you could avoid the potential embarrassment of having somebody think you're me. :)

Point taken, I haven't looked over the new system yet, but I'll consider that.

While I hoped for an outright ban on anonymous posters, I think this is a very good policy announcement. I've been on the "flamed" end more than once, and share the sentiments. Thanks for being vigilant and reasonable and I commend you for your stance.

K.R. Bell

> Dear all--

> Recent flame wars on this board have caused
> your moderators a great deal of concern. The
> intemperate and viturative tone of some
> recent posts is tarnishing the good
> reputation of this board--and by extension,
> of Railway Preservation News as a whole.

> It is also causing your moderators and hosts
> a great deal of personal frustration. We did
> not establish this board as a forum for
> personal fights, bar-room brawls, or even
> for the exhibition of debating skills to the
> exclusion of common courtesy and goodwill.

> So, effective immediately we announce some
> adjustments to our policies. We have taken
> the temperature of the community both here
> on the board and through back-channel
> communication with some of our most regular
> posters, and have decided to continue to
> permit anonymous posts. We will also
> continue the open-posting format.

> However, to maintain the good name of this
> board your moderators intend to be much,
> much more aggressive about deleting
> unproductive or uncivil threads. We will not
> issue warnings, or get into debates about
> the letter of the law--at our discretion we
> will simply end discussions which we feel
> are no longer productive.

> No railroad-preservation-related content is
> off limits. No ideas will be censored for
> their content alone. However, content and
> opinions expressed in rude language or a
> vitupritive spirit (in the judgement of the
> moderators) will be made to go away.

> If your post is deleted (either because it
> contains problem content or simply because
> it came in the middle of a problem thread)
> you are welcome to repost your ideas, if you
> do so in a manner that conforms to the
> spirit as well as the letter of the terms of
> service.

> To refresh everyone, I print an abridged
> version of the terms of service below. You
> can examine the full terms at the Guidelines
> and Rules link on the Interchange home page.
> Please read them, and post in a manner
> consistent with the spirit as well as the
> letter of them.

> Happy posting, and hope to see you at ARM.

> Interchange Terms of Service:

> We strongly encourage the use of real names
> as opposed to screen names, and would prefer
> not to have anonymous posts.

> It is also preferable that you give a valid
> e-mail address with your post.

> The purpose of the first two guidelines is
> to try and keep information posted on the
> INTERCHANGE as accurate as possible, and to
> give parties with conflicting opinions the
> opportunity to resolve differences offline.
> Although posting with a screen name, or
> anonymously, or without a valid e-mail
> address won't necessarily result in removal
> of the post, in general, posts by anonymous
> parties are much more likely to be removed
> than those by known parties.

> Constructive, polite criticism, and polite
> responses to same, are acceptable.

> No flaming. There will be zero tolerance for
> this, one strike and you're out.

> No profanity. There will be zero tolerance
> for this, one strike and you're out.

> Other behavior deemed inappropriate by the
> Board Moderators, but not necessarily
> covered above, will be handled by deleting
> the relevant threads.


http://rrmuseumpa.org

Can we put a ban on large words? My fingers are raw from thumbing my dictionary. Cheers and thanks for your efforts.

wyld@sbcglobal.net

> Can we put a ban on large words? My fingers
> are raw from thumbing my dictionary. Cheers
> and thanks for your efforts.

Always a good idea to eschew obfuscation.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net