FORUM RULES

[KernilCrash]

Welcome to Feedback! 

Please take the time to read through the following rules, and make sure that you understand them.  I have tried to make them easy to understand and digest.  These are the rules that you agreed to read and follow when you accepted the registration agreement. 

I have listed the rules in this first portion of the thread so you can skim over them quickly.  Longer explanations are contained in the replies.  I strongly encourage you to wade through the longer explanations so there is no misconception about what I am asking from each member.  I've done our best not to bore you to death with the explanations.

You will notice more than a little resemblance to the rules that exist for Terra Firma.  As most everyone who wanders in here knows, I was heavily involved in writing those rules.  I'm not attempting to justify or apologize for plagiarizing.  All I'm saying is that my brain tends to work in certain directions, so there are bound to be some similarities. 

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1.  Play nice!  Also known as:  Demonstrate respect for others. 
     
2.  Enjoy yourself.

3.  I own and operate the forum.

4.  Do not 'hijack' threads.  Stay on topic.

5.  SPAM is prohibited. 

6. The 'management' reserves the right to remove any material at all from the forum without prior notice.

7. The legalese.  Everything else you agreed to in the registration agreement.

8.  Management reserves the right to add new rules.

[KernilCrash]

It is a simple concept, and a relatively simple rule.  Be polite; exercise your manners. 

This does not mean you don't get to disagree with me or any other member of the forum.  All it means is that everyone should be given the room to have their own opinion and voice it without getting attacked on a personal level or called names.  Please remember to debate the TOPIC, not the person. 

That's all there is to this rule.  Play nice.  If you can't play nice, please go somewhere else. 

[KernilCrash]

The whole purpose of this forum is to provide a place for people to chat, to badger me about when I intend to post the next story (or chapter of a story), to ask questions or make observations about anything I have posted on my website (including the occasional drooling over a screen capture of Ben Browder) and to generally have a good time. 

So ... within the limitations of Rule 1, just enjoy yourself while you are here. 

Keep one thing in mind, however.  If your idea of fun is provoking people (as opposed to provoking thought or conversation), I have little or no patience with that sort of thing.  If you feel an overwhelming desire to derive some fun by poking someone with a sharp stick, I encourage you to do it some place else. 

But aside from that example and anything that might turn out to be in violation of the forum's rules, almost anything else is fair game.   

[KernilCrash]

Okay ... I know ... This sounds like the stupidest rule ever to hit the planet.  I'm sure at least one person out there is going to read this rule, scratch their head, and wonder how this can even be classified as a "rule".

Here's my point.  This is NOT an open forum like Terra Firma that is controlled as much by the community as it is by the Moderators, and it does NOT have a group of people running it, to put the brakes on me when I start to go off at odd angles.  I suspect at least one person is going to wander in here without thinking it through and overlook that this is my site and my forum, which means that it is also my playground.  What this means is that whatever I say is law.  

If a problem occurs, I will do my absolute best to be fair-minded, reasonable, and rational, but I will also be serving as judge, jury, and executioner.    

[KernilCrash]

Before I get down to the actual rule, allow me to say that I don't believe hijacking is every really going to become a problem on this forum.  Even if a topic veers radically off course, I have a hunch that everyone involved in the discussion will probably be happy to go along for the ride, and it won't become an issue.  I am including the rule because the Admin Team at Terra Firma has discovered that it is one of the most wide-ranging, useful rules we ever included out of pure ignorance.  I would not want to attempt to run a forum without it.  So ... here it is. 

And just in case we get someone in here who has never run across this forum phenomenon before ... 'Hijacking' occurs when someone knowingly veers away from the topic being discussed, taking it in a direction other than what the originator of the thread intended.  If this starts to happen, I would appreciate it if you would begin a new thread.

[KernilCrash]

Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, sales of merchandise, e-mail harvesting and solicitations are not allowed on this forum.  I will utilize the full capacity of the software to prevent as many of these annoyances as possible.

Notifying the members of a sale that is occuring at some other site IS permitted.  (Example for clarity:  Someone is selling an item at another site.  A link to that site IS permitted.)

Another form of spamming is when an individual joins the forum and posts with the sole intention of promoting their own website or forum.  This is also not allowed, and depending on the severity of the self-promotion, the offender stands a chance of getting booted out of here (permanently banned) on the first offense.

[KernilCrash]

That says it all, but it's also a catch-all provision, folks.  It allows me to take down a reply or an entire topic without warning or explanation.  Those of you who know me, know that I won't do something like that without just cause.  I may whisk a thread out of sight if I'm in a rush and can't make up my mind whether it's a problem, but I won't yank something arbitrarily and I'll always give you an explanation once I have the time to put together a message.

[KernilCrash]

When you accepted the terms of the registration agreement, you accepted that you would read and abide by the posted rules of the forum.  Here's the legal stuff.  It is just as binding as having fun and knowing what may or may not disappear from the boards, so you ought to take the time to read what's in here. 

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[KernilCrash]

I have not included a couple of rules that are commonly used at most larger, more active forums because I do not believe certain problems will occur here.  (This might be evidence that one or two of my cerebral screws have come loose.) 

Therefore, I reserve the right to add new rules, should they become necessary.  (It's my forum, I get to do that.  )