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Introduction
Thank you very much for volunteering your time in helping us to keep our forums organized and enjoyable.
The job of a moderator is very important in keeping the community together and helping it remain attractive to newbies. Here are some simple guidelines. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact one of the Administrators.
Conduct
Within our forum, we expect that you will always take the high road. Do not belittle members, do not air dirty laundry in public, etc. If you have a problem with a member, PM them or e-mail them. Outside of your own forum area, we expect you to keep the best interests of the members/forums in mind. It is not in the best interest of anybody to start or contribute to flaming/bashing threads.
The only result of these threads are general negativity in the forums. It is not necessary nor useful to participate. However, you may choose to act as you will. Generally speaking, I will not sanction you for acting immaturely outside of your forum area. However, we will certainly take note of these actions. Please note that it is completely unacceptable to use anything that you have found out in this forum or through being a mod against a member. You can talk about any issues within the “Staff Areaâ€
Confidentiality
It is important that mods have a place to discuss matters frankly without worrying about confidentiality. We expect you to keep all discussions in this forum confidential.
If you will not stick to this, please notify me so that I can remove your Mod access. If we discover that you have breached confidentiality, we will remove you as mod.
Forum Duties
The main thing is to care enough about the forum to make it a priority. This will manifest differently per person.
If you feel that maintaining the forum has become a burden or that you simply do not have enough time, please notify me and I will remove you as moderator. Maintaining the forum will necessarily mean regularly visiting to make sure that there is no spam, multiple topics, problems to take care of. If you need to take a break from the forums, please ensure that someone else will keep an eye on the area, during your absense.
Taking care of your forum area is harder to blanketed define, but probably more important. Please lean on other mods here for support when needed.
Moving Threads
If there are any threads that need to be "deleted", move then to the Garbage, which is located in the “Staff†area! Do not delete posts! Only move them or re-direct them! Use the "Move thread".
The only time you would use "Move thread" and leave redirect in previous forum" is when someone posts a question/thread in the wrong section.
Editing Posts
There are a lot of occasions when you will need to edit a post. Whenever you do, please insert an edit note at the very end.
For example, if a member attached an advertisement of his or her website in a post, you would want to edit that part out and put a note at the end like "(YOUR NAME edit note: No advertisement allowed)".
Language
No violent, Prejudicial language or personal attacks are tolerated in the forum. If you see any inappropriate posts, edit the post immediately.
Remove the offending portion or entire post body and insert a edit note explaining your action. Also post in the “Staff†area to inform other members of staff.
Advertisement
No advertisement of any form is tolerated in any forum. Website links in the signature are fine as long as it doesn't have too many links in it. Use your judgement. Actual links to other sites are discouraged.
WirelesSolution is not a free service to help stores and individuals make money. But also look out, as in some area of the forum they are allowed to make advertisement posts!
Spam
The following are considered spam:
Very short posts that do not add value to the current discussion.
Double posts. If a member posted something and you realized they made a mistake, use the edit/delete option.
Off topic posts will be either removed or moved to the appropriate place, depending on moderator.
Posts that obviously serve no purpose other than uping one's post counts. (These are fine in the Lounge ...To an Extant)
Posts like "XXX, I have a question for you" are considered spam. They should be done via private messaging.
Any other posts that we deem inappropriate for other readers.
Responses to spam posts should be considered as spam and be removed. However, spam warnings should not be given in such cases except in severe cases.
Posts that contain large amounts of smileys and/or spaces to make it look like they contain useful information often don't. Give out official spam warnings to repeat offenders. Give a bit of leeway to new posters (you can tell by their join date).
FLAME
A flame is an insult or slur directed to a member. Listed below are our definitions of "flames":
Insults - Any type of insult directed from one member to another member. Please remember that there is a big difference between "criticism" and "insulting".
Homosexual Slurs - Any type of homosexual slur directed from one member to another member, whether it'd be false claims that the member being flamed is a homosexual, or mocking a homosexual member for their sexual preference.
Sexual Slurs - Any type of sexual slur directed from one member to another member, whether it'd be describing explicit sexual behaviours involving the member being flamed, or typing sexually explicit slurs using the likeness of the member being flamed.
Racial Slurs - Any type of slur directed from one member to another member or ethnic background insulting a specific ethnic background.
Relevancy
When you found a thread that is not relevant to a forum, immediately move it to the appropriate forum. Sometimes you should leave a "trail" and sometimes you shouldn't. I usually leave it if there isn't more than 2 trails.. Try not to leave too many.
Polls
We currently allow polls in most forums. Remove polls if they are idiotic and irrelevant. ex. John Doe made a poll titled "Who's da man?" and put his name in the options. Polls like "What's the juiciest kind of carrot???" are not productive and should be deleted.(unless posted in the lounge)We can remove polls from threads using the admin control panel. PM me or post in the “Staff†area if you need this done. You can also split all the other posts into a new thread and delete the original thread.
Closing Threads
When you can foresee that a thread is going downhill, you should close the thread. A prime example will be flame wars or totally off topic discussion. However, do not close threads just because the initial question/concern was answered. It is because although the first question is answered, the thread starter might have another question related to the original one. Bottom line is, don't close a thread if a normal conversation is going on smoothly (unless it wanders away too far from the original topic).*Whenever you close a thread, make a post to briefly explain the reason behind it. Moderators can post to closed threads - just click on the "Closed" button.
Stick-Unstick
Sticky or Unstick whatever you deem necessary to maintain the forum. If there is more than one moderator in your forum, consult each other or make a post in the Moderator forum. DONT just take matters into your own hands
Announcements
If you feel an announcement is in order for your forum please discuss this with either post in the “Staff†area or myself via PM.
Forum Specific Rules
Please follow the assigned rules.
Warnings Tracking
Please log all official warnings in the Member Moderation sub forum. One thread should be created for each member who has received a warning. You can easily sort the warning threads by clicking on "Thread" in the column headings. Make a new post on the member's moderation forum for each formal warning issued. A formal / official warning can be done in public by editing the offending post and replace the offending section or the entire post with the warning message, or it can be done via private message. If it is done via private message, you could copy and paste the message along with your warning thread. Each warning, edit needs to be in a separate thread.
Suspensions and Banning’s
Do NOT Permeably Ban everyone... some offences are more serious than others. Im leaving this to your own discretion as i believe we are all adults here and can understand whats considered serious and whats not.
Multiple Accounts
Not allowed. End of story.
ILLEGAL PROGRAMS/SCRIPTS
ROMs and Emulators for some games and consoles are legal, however, some of them are not. Cracks, serials, or key generators, however, are illegal. All of them are allowed to be discussed here at Unique Webmaster in the proper forum, but, members/moderators are not allowed to provide links to Web sites that distribute ROMs, Emulators, cracks, serials, key generators, or any other application deemed inappropriate by a moderator, veteran moderator, or administrator.
Note from me
I don't really like setting out "rules" and "sanctions". You are all adults and volunteers, and we are not out to herd you around. If there is a problem, however, I don't particularly want to hear excuses, either. You are all capable of doing a good job, and if circumstances arise that make it impossible, I expect you to seek help or step down. I don't expect perfection, either (i know all cant be like me ), but if you care about the forum then do a good job.
Conclusion
If you have any questions, please let us know in a separate thread in the staff forum.
Another Note
The staff forum, where you are reading this, is a place where you can chill out and talk about problems with other users and talk about problems in general and get to know other mods. I would just also like you to read the posts that are made on the top of most forums and they are the rules for that area! Please show good knowledge when viewing the forum!
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