We finished a few updates to the board policy this afternoon. Don't worry - nothing major has changed, just a few clarrifications and a few more points. But this might be a good time to review it.

Here's a sumary of what's changed:

Bans:
This is now clarrified - it's now clear what happens when someone gets to the end of the listed system. They start again!

Six or more warnings received within a period of three months will now automatically lead to a ban of one month. Eight warnings withing three months will lead to a ban of one month and a day, ten warnings will lead to a ban of a month and a week, and so on. Warnings do not "disappear" after a ban - they will stay on your record for three months.

Also added is this little bit: When an appropriate number of warnings is reached, one of the Administrators will start a thread in the Announcements forum announcing and explaining the ban. This thread will be closed after the initial announcement - discussion of administrative action should take place in the Questions, Suggestions & Feedback forum.
Some of you might remember there was a discussion about this in QSF a little while ago: this is the result.

Spamming

There's a new line in this paragraph that warns about making too many irrelavent off topic posts out of the context of a thread.

Plagiarism/Pirating/Privacy/Ratings

A New paragraph to make this clearer:

Please do not post material on the board you do not have a right to post. This includes, but is not limited to, Instant Messanger logs, email, pictures, or other private details. Also do not post links to NC-17 or X-rated sites, or post any NC-17 or X-rated material anywhere on the BBS. This will also result in a warning, and the deletion of the offending material. If you would like to post R-rated fan fiction, filks, or role plays on the board, please do so in a separate thread, clearly indicating in the thread title and the first post in the thread that this kind of content is included in the thread.

Dual Usernames

Again, more clarity. And an update to make any resulting action by the book.

Deliberately trying to mislead people with two distinct 'identities' posting at the same time, will not be tolerated, and will lead to an immediate ban of the second username. Warnings for actions taken by the second username will be added to the original poster's warnings.

Take note of this new bit though:

If you feel someone is using more than one account or suspect the identity of another poster, do not post publically about your suspicions. Speculation of this kind leads to witchunts and confusion. Instead, email your concerns and evidence to an administrator. Repeatedly making accusations of this nature in public may lead to an official warning.

In short - if you have a suspcion - put your thoughts in a private email to a mod or an admin rather than posting about it. That way we can get more efficiant action over it and avoid any mass hysteria.

Signature Lines

Your signature lines should be no more than 10 lines (single-spaced) - and we ask you to remember how long signatures add to the scroll rate of other members. Also, photos in your signatures should be kept to a maximum of 15KB for the same reason. A photo/graphic in your signature line will count as one of your 10 lines. And last but not least, do not post your signature more than once per thread.

If we feel that your signature line is getting too long, we will e-mail you and ask you to shorten it. An over long or offensive signature may lead to an official warning.

There are one or two other tweaks and clarifications, but I think those are the main ones.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this - we took suggestions and comments from members mods and admins, even when you thought we weren't paying attention.

The Moderators SEction has also been updated.

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[This message has been edited by Lisa (edited October 21, 2001).]

Lisa, you are one busy lady. How do you find the time???

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[url=http://planetary.org]Make The Future Happen Now[/url]

Oh well... thanks for the *clarifications*, Lisa.

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[i]What if everything you see is more than what you see-the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things.-Shigeru Miyamoto

And Mr. Murdock's part still says that there are only two moderators in misc. This is turning into a running gag! For years to come there will only be two misc moderators, no matter how many are listed.

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Yesterday, Margret came to me and said she wants to get an axe for Christmas. Now, two things about this:
1) It's May at the moment.
2) Arggghhh!
– Mil's [url=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mil.millington/things.html]Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About[/url]

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Powerful things come in innocent packages

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Cauda, inventor of the
~~~~~~~~Slipstream Tail Hug~~~~~~~>

Say I received 5 warnings over the course of 3 months. The day before my warnings were to expire, I received a 6th warning and was banned for a month. As I read the policity, one of three things is going to obtain upon my return:

1. I will have 6 warnings on my ban; 5 of them with one more day to serve, and 1 of them with 2 months left to serve
2. I will have 6 warnings on my ban; 5 of them with one more day to serve, and 1 of them with 3 months left to serve
3. I will have 1 warning on my ban, with 2 months left to serve
   

[There are other possible variations, I suppose, but those seem the most likely.]

Could you please clarify which of those things will happen?

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"The conclusion is inescapable... mathematical thinking is, and must remain, essentially creative."

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The conclusion is inescapable... mathematical thinking is, and must remain, essentially creative.

quote:

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Originally posted by Cauda:
I guess that means one of them doesn't really exist. I wonder which one.....

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Well, I know Neroon exists, I've met him in RL. I'm just not entirely sure about myself sometimes.

What ever happened to closing the Announcement threads and then posting in QSF?