FAQ -- Posting Rules

[Odin]

Moderator Notes: Just a reminder. The rules were established before my time, however I generally agree to and will enforce them. This is "announced" since it has come to my attention that some of these rules have been stretched.


Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQ) for registered members and guests:

1. What posting behavior is allowed and not allowed on this board?

You should adhere to the Terms and Conditions which you should have read when you registered (or were thinking about registering) a username. Generally speaking, illegal, inflammatory, invasion of privacy, and otherwise destructive posts are not allowed. As a moderator, I am generally lenient. However, please don't get carried away with your all-consuming passion for volleyball that you end up destroying a little bit of the spirit of your fellow man.

2. What are the consequences of "bad" behavior?

Worst case, official authorities will track you down, fine you, and/or put you in jail. Best case scenario, you won't get caught. Somewhere in between, I will ban you and/or make an example of you somehow. But really, I'm not a bad guy.

3. Is the admin/mod monitoring my every posting move? Am I being watched constantly?

Well, no. I personally am not watching your every move because I value your privacy and frankly, I don't care. I have a thing called real life and a real 9-to-5 job so that I can make money to keep my family fed, sheltered and generally happy. There's also this thing called quality time with the members of my family unit, which I call child units and spouse unit. So, as you can imagine, I don't have a whole lot of time to sit here like a freaked-out Internet wacko monitoring your every move. However, and this is a very strong "however," other posters are watching your every move so normally, they feel responsible enough to send me messages via IM or email to alert me to trouble makers. If an incident occurs, then I'll look into it. If nothing happens, the world is a good place. A self-policed board is a good board.


NOTE: I will constantly update this FAQ post as the need arises. If you post in this FAQ board, I may elect to delete them as I incorporate your good questions into my FAQ post.

[Odin]

Please read the following:

1. When you registered, you agreed to abide by the laws of the United States and board netiquette, which means no inflammatory or troll posts are allowed!

2. This board is not a democracy. It is a one-man dictatorship (ME), albeit a silent and invisible one. Anything I say goes. If you don't like it, find another board or create one yourself. There is no such thing as freedom of speech, as you understand it from the U.S. Constitution, on this board. From the moment you registered, you agreed to a set of limitations on what you can and cannot post.

3. Slurs made on the basis of sex, religion, race, ethnicity, color, and beauty are NOT allowed. Personal attacks are NOT allowed.

4. Stalking behavior is NOT allowed.

5. I cannot ban people. I can only ban IP addresses or group of IP addresses. If someone who was banned comes back, he/she is doing so on a computer that is assigned to an unbanned IP address.

6. Read a post carefully before you complain to me. If someone you hate posted something controversial, that doesn't make it bad. If someone you like posted something controversial, that doesn't make it good. Read the post, not the individual who posted. I have been banning the person known as "Jewel" (and other names he/she registered) whenever I spot him/her. However, if you read his/her posts carefully, most are harmless.

7. If you have a beef with someone, take it offline and definitely off this board. Do you understand me? Is this clear to you?

Your admin guy,
Roger

[Odin]

The life of this message board depends, in large part, to your contributions. This may seem intuitive to many of you. For some of you, it is not. Just remember the following:

1. The greater the number of posts, the better.

So, please don't complain that so-and-so posts too much. He/she is doing a great service for the board. Those of you who complain that certain posters are monopolizing the board are, in my view, short-sighted and don't understand the spirit of the board. I will mention the following names who have been tremendous and instrumental for the survival of this board: IdahoBoy, Barefoot in Kailua, Richeero Suzuki, Gorf, Nutter, (R)uffda, and rollshot/Wolfgang. If I didn't mention your name, it's because I have a poor memory. All you have to do is look at the list of the Top 20 posters in the "Members" section.

2. The greater the number of quality posts, even better!

Somedays, I will take gibberish. Usually, however, my hope is that more of you post something relevant and valuable for the promotion of volleyball, in our own small way. IdahoBoy has been fantastic. VBCrusin on the men's side, with his Weekly Predictions, has been innovative in his own way and is a valued member of the VolleyTalk community. Rollshot/Wolfgang is, without a doubt, a cool diversion. (R)uffda is, without a doubt, the court jester.

3. Try to make a habit of posting every time you log in, even if it's just to say a simple hello and goodbye. Many posters don't know who you are if all you do is read. There are roughly 800+ distinct registered users on this board (and countless more unregistered readers). However, only a small fraction actively post.

4. Non-posters (readers) do not add anything to the board. Sad but true.

5. Ask yourself: am I a parasite (reader only) or a symbiotic contributor (poster) to this board? The board improves with every post you make. The board decreases in value with every poster/post it loses.

6. Please do not complain that this board is overrun by Hawaii, Stanford, USC, or Long Beach State fans. The board is whatever you make it. If you have something to say about your favorite teams, say it dammit! If there are no discussions on Western Kentucky, it's your fault!

7. Do not complain about the posting veracity of another poster. I, personally, am happy to see new posts and replies every day. Rather than complain about certain very active posters, why don't you post something yourself to offset his/her alleged "monopolization"? See also #2.

8. If you don't like someone's opinion, you have 3 options: (a) debate the substance of that post civilly, intelligently, and openly on the forum; (b) ignore his/her post; or (c) take it offline.

9. Do not attack the poster! Attack (civilly and intelligently) the substance of the post itself. It makes for a more harmonious existence.

10. Do not say, this board is good or that board is bad. This board, like all message boards, itself is nothing without YOU. Remember, YOU make the difference between a good board and a bad board. You can either breathe life into this board or kill it. Don't wait for somebody else to liven up the board. Be active, not passive!

[Odin]

These rules are in place to ensure VolleyTalk forums continue to be a friendly place where members can learn and share information about volleyball and other general topics of interest.

General Posting Etiquette
1. Stay on topic
2. Respond only to the content of the message, NOT the deliverer of the message
3. Replies of a general "I agree" or "I disagree" nature are not constructive and do not advance the dicussion.
4. Quote only the pertinent parts of a message you are responding to & not the entire message. This makes it easier for others to follow and read.
5. Other rules below:

Who is responsible? You or the moderator?
Although Roger Lacocco moderates the forums, it is not possible for Roger to respond to every post or question. Posts titled, “FORUM ADMIN…” and the like are not an effective way to communicate with the moderator. It’s best to ask your question directly via IM and title it accordingly.

Account Names
Inappropriate forum account names will not be tolerated. Please do not attempt to impersonate official forum administrators, forum members, or real volleyball players/coaches/celebrities.

Announcements
From time to time, there may be announcements made. Please read the announcements at the top of the forums before posting. I placed these here to help save time for you and others. Please take a few moments and read over these.

Advertising
Advertising or soliciting members to buy, sell or peruse any products or services through this discussion forum is not permitted. Chain letters and junk mail are also strictly prohibited. Topics/posts that contain this will be edited and locked or deleted.

Flaming
Material that is knowingly defamatory, illegal, abusive threatening or harassing is strictly prohibited. As with anything, please use good common sense when posting. Posts containing personal attacks on another user will be edited/deleted.

Right to Privacy
You will not violate a person’s privacy by publishing information that is private and personal against another member’s will, including name, address, telephone number, account numbers, or anything that can reasonably argued as "personal."

Spamming
Posting the same message in multiple forums is considered spam. Additionally, posts that are complete nonsense will be deleted at the moderator's discretion.

Racism
Posts containing such material will be deleted accordingly.

Porn
Posts containing material that is sexually or otherwise obscene is not permitted on these forums. Posts containing such material will be deleted.

Post Pumping
Posting messages with the express intent of boosting your post count is considered spamming and will be dealt with accordingly.

Cross-posting
Posting the same thread in more than one forum is not allowed. These posts will most likely be deleted.

Petitions
Please do not spam petitions to the forums. Petitions are not an effective means of voicing your opinion. If you have concerns, please contact me via IM.

Upper Case Text
Text in upper case is significantly more difficult to read than lower/mixed case text; moreover, it implies that you’re shouting. Please refrain from writing thread titles & messages in upper case text. If you would like to emphasize something, consider using the bold [ B ] [ /B ] tags.

Signature Size
To keep the page loading time and visual noise to a minimum, please keep your graphical signatures to minimum (ex. 15K file size). Alternatively, there's a limit of 350 characters for your signature; keep it to a minimum if at all possible. Do not pad your text lines with blank lines. Your signature must not contain inappropriate content, either in text or by links to offensive sites. Users with inappropriate signatures will be warned or have their accounts disabled without warning.

Avatar Size
To keep page loading time to a minimum, please keep your avatars to 100x100 pixels and no larger than 50K file size. If these boundaries are exceeded, I will contact you requesting the appropriate changes. If no change is made within a reasonable period of time, your signature may be disabled.

What should I do if I see objectionable content on the forums?
Due to the real-time nature of the forums, the moderator cannot monitor all the content of posted messages and rely on members to inform them of objectionable material. To report a post, please IM me immediately. Please keep in mind that I cannot always respond immediately to such notices and a period of time may pass before action is taken.

What happens if I break the rules?
At best your post will be edited by me and you will be issued a warning. If your offense is more serious, your post will be deleted or locked. Posting, “why was my posted deleted…” will only make matters worse, so please refrain from that.

If you have been already issued a warning(s), you will be issued a temporary ban. Your posting privileges will be disabled for 3-4 days (minimum), but you will still be able to view the forums as a guest.

The accounts of persistent & deliberate rule-breakers will be deleted. This means you are no longer welcome on the forums and your account will not work. If you re-register, your new account will be deleted immediately.

Suggestions
- This forum is visited from people all over the world of different ages, genders, religions, ethnicity, etc. and each are entitled to their own opinions, so please be civil and courteous.

- Please make sure your post topic best fits the forums you are posting in. This is for your benefit such that you get the best possible response to your post.

- Please use the search function before posting particularly if the question is problem-oriented. Most technical questions have been answered before.

- Read the announcement/sticky threads at the top of each forum.


-- Thanks, Roger, your admin

[Deleted]

Submitted by p-dub (for discussion?):

Opinions

This board is for discussion, and your opinions are certainly welcome. However, keep in mind that others' opinions are also welcome, including their opinion that your opinion is foolish. Therefore, if you are going to post your opinion, you should not complain if others post theirs. If you disagree with their assessment, you are always welcome to argue and otherwise discuss the merits of the claims.