[Hubert Poo]

GUIDE TO GENERAL FORUM CONDUCT & WARNING AVOIDANCE KEYS



It has been suggested on occasion that some confusion exists regarding just what constitutes appropriate conduct on the forum and why it should be so. In response, the moderation team is quite happy to clear up such uncertainty for the benefit of all concerned. I know it seems like a long read guys but it's important and I ask you kindly to just take five minutes out, digest it, and take especially close notice of the keys in bold.

GENERAL FORUM CONDUCT

There are some major keys to remember in avoiding warnings and becoming an exemplary member of TSR Motorsports.

Two of them stand out as immediately important, and reveal the core of how to use the forum properly and make the most of it: Personally insulting a user is a very different matter to criticising their post in an appropriate, responsible manner. Please try and remember that - the vast majority of warnings and alerts come as a result of personal insults, not things against post content (see the definition of trolling, below) so try to ensure you make a clear difference in any posts by being especially aware of your tone. Never make personal remarks - ALL opinions are important and a free forum relies primarily on an ability to agree to disagree.

Everything else stems from that basis. Let's go into it a little further, and unwrap what exactly constitutes general conduct becoming of the forum. In general terms it just means you should be nice to people! But it also demands you use your common sense and remember those around you. If you are abusive to others on the forum, then you'll get warned. Devolving that further, abuse can be anything as simple as calling someone an idiot to swearing at them - how you anticipate the other person to react should be paramount in your thoughts prior to posting. If you know them, and mean it as a joke, fun all around. If you are angry at them and mean it, then that's a very different matter.

Even the simplest of remarks, however innocuous, can cause massive trouble if one or two react badly. So it's important to use your common sense, anticipate reactions to your wording, and try to develop knowledge of the posters along such lines. It sounds complicated but in reality just means you should think before you post.

Let's look at some practical examples. First of all, though the swear filter allows you to include swearing in your posts, whatever you do don't swear at someone with abusive intent. If you're upset with someone's remarks, however strong or light, swearing at them along the lines of "you %%%%%%%%ing idiot" will get you a warning. Removing the "idiot" and saying something like "shut the %%%%%%%% up" is again hardly nice and shall result inevitably in warning points being issued.

Secondly, minus the swearing, just using offensive terms such as "idiot", "moron", "cock", "bastard" etc. directed at another user will garner a warning. Again, think before you post, use your common sense, and treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated. TSR can be a wonderful place to make friends if you just extend a little kindness; why spend your time testing the fences and being nasty for the sake of it? There's also the quality of posting to take into account; we want to talk about motorsport, not spend our time insulting one another, surely? Not only will the warning points add up, but your time on the site will sadly be very short. We genuinely don't want that, so please be good to the people around you and remember that we all have something in common - the love of the sport - regardless of differentiated allegiances or viewpoints.

There is a particularly major offence known as trolling. Most of you reading this will know what it is, but for some of the newer ones a quick definition may come in handy: trolling is a deliberate attempt to inflame users by making regularly insensitive, offensive, or abusive posts, directed at whatever the posters hold dear. Your freedom to discuss things openly does not extend to inflaming situations, seeking to provoke others, or to goading them about a loss etc. Excuses such as "it's not my fault they react badly to me telling them the truth" won't cut it, I'm afraid - you have an adult responsibility to be sensitive to the situation around you. I'm likely to look just as poorly, if not more so, on acts of provocation as I am to posts of retaliation.

To use an example, let's say I was unwise enough to wander into TSR Football, then onto the Liverpool society just after they lost the Cup Final and started taking the mick. The fine line between banter and trolling will be dictated partly by your sensitivity to the situation. It doesn't take a genius to suggest that the Pool fans would be extremely upset and, here's the important factor, highly sensitive given the situation to any such posts. You should always be aware of that. So, remembering all of the above comes in handy - common sense, thinking before you post, a sincere wish to treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated, and a degree of sensitivity to the situation all absolutely concur that making nasty posts at such a time would be a very bad idea. Your knowledge of the sport itself as well as the forum as time goes on will also make clear when jokes are jokes, and when things are often taken much more seriously; you have to make appropriate judgements relative to the situation.

But, to use the TSR Football analogy further, what if you're the Liverpool fan drowning your sorrows after the cup final, seeing some self-congratulatory troll make inflammatory posts on your society? First of all it's important to remember that if it upsets you, under no circumstances should you reply like for like abuse on the forum. Instead, that's where we come in - the moderators. On the user bar of each post there is a small, round symbol with an exclamation mark in the middle - that's the warning marker. If you see a post which contravenes any of the above rules then hit that button and rather than feed the troll report them. We as mods are empowered to deal with such activity in an appropriate, disciplined manner; if you reply like for like, then it will only get worse, perhaps even to the extent where both of you receive warnings for similar offences. Finally, it should also be pointed out somewhat heavily regarding such abusive posts that if in doubt, report. If you genuinely feel the post concerned contravenes the rules then use the system without hesitation - in fact, it is always good to assume the responsibility of helping others on the forum by just such moderator assistance. Good reporting is a much underestimated skill and you'll learn a lot about how the forum works, what things are right and wrong - and indeed why they are such - by helping us out. This doesn't only extend to making post reports, but also of subtly helping to direct conversations back on topic - please post in the midst of these situations on the real matter at hand - the motorsport - and quite often, if you keep at it, the difficulty will diffuse itself. Your posts may at first look out of place and get lost, but short burst posts of pure sporting related matter will eventually get taken up by others and propel the thread back on topic; for example, ask short questions referring to the event in question so you provide a ready made platform for topic continuance. The shortness is important because it allows you to post quickly and in enough quantity to encourage quick resumption of normal order. Keep at it and don't be intimidated. The forum dynamic is such that a steady flow of posts can effectively break flame wars up quite easily, so please don't hesitate to help keep threads on topic; don't get involved in arguments, but help to dissolve them by getting involved in the thread topic. It's not just my job, but part of our collective responsibility to the site as adults. I'd also like to point out that it's important to make every effort to welcome new members and help them to feel comfortable in their surroundings; this is something anyone can do with just a little kindness and some smilies.

PRIMER OF THE KEYS

So, to finalise, let's recap the main keys to general forum conduct . . .

* Personally insulting a user is a very different matter to criticising their post content in an appropriate, responsible manner.

* Agree to disagree.

* Use your common sense and remember those around you.

* Think before you post.

* Treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated.

* Under no circumstances should you reply like for like abuse on the forum.

* Rather than feed the troll report them.

* If in doubt, report.

* Assume the responsibility of helping others on the forum.

* Don't get involved in arguments, but help to dissolve them by getting involved in the thread topic.

The use of all these keys should, when combined, stand to help TSR Motorsports create an enjoyable atmosphere of which everyone can be rightly proud. You all have many individual talents; some of you have especially acute knowledge of the sport, histories, drivers, minority information and trivia etc., and all these things really can do so much more than may be immediately apparent for those around you. Your talents are special, even on a distant little website. Use that ability to make an input. We're not just a forum, we're a team, and those talents stand to help one another in our own way. When the time comes for you to move on, who knows what friends you will have found as a result, or what skills you may have learned?

If I may be so bold as to throw in my own experience, TSR and those whom I have met on here has given me a great deal indeed, inestimably so even - and I believe strongly that you stand to receive the same too, merely by seeking to discover just what those around you can offer.

Rich