Hi everyone, In light of some suggestions I have received I have decided to formally post the rules for the 49ers Paradise Forum. Please read through them all before posting. Please also be aware that this is a work in progress, and will be updated as I receive suggestions by email.
Most of these rules are not new, but please read through them anyway. They may seem a little harsh, but they have been inacted in order to help maintain the high regard this forum has gained since its establishment. Thank you for your cooperation.
1. Members who are inactive for 366 days or more may be deleted.
2. Members who are over their private message limit by more than 5 will receive one warning before having messages automatically deleted, and a new password assigned to them.
3. Spamming the board will result in being banned. Spamming is explained, but not limited to, the defnition below.
Spamming: posting non 49ers or football information in any section of the forum except the "Post-Game Show". Attempts to solicit anything in a section other than "Post Game Show" or "Niners Classified Ads." Repeated posts that say nothing, (things like "I agree", "update me", "what did I miss"). Anything that can be perceived as simply trying to increase one's post count, or trying to reply to every single topic in the forum. Entertaining personal conversations within a 49ers topic. Essentially any post which does not add to the football content and information in a topic.
4. Images posted on the forum, and in signatures can not exceed 150x150 pixels (images should be cropped down or reduced using a photo editor, not simply re-sized using width and height attributes) unless they are being used by a corner writer, in a corner article. Avatars may not exceed 130 width by 150 height pixels, but should be kept to 100x100 whenever possible. You are only allowed one signature picture at a time.
5. The use of copywrited material is strictly prohibited. Please make sure that all material is sourced. All articles copy pasted must contain a source, and should not be posted in their entirety. DO NOT POST ARTICLES WRITTEN BY OTHER FAN SITES
5b. Users can not post entire articles in any thread. Articles that are posted that already exist in the Hot Off The Press section will be deleted.
6. The use of profanity and personal insults or political or religious commentary is strictly prohibited. Members and Guests who are seen as a detriment to the community or acting against the spirit of 'dise will be banned - sometimes without warning. Misconstruing facts is also a detrimental act to the community and will result in the user being banned.
6b. Religious Commentary: Absolutely positively no religious discussion even if a coach or player issues a 20 page statement on how religion influences his football decisions
6c. Political Commentary: Respect political sides, and avoid political discussions when possible. One cannot suggest that anyone who is left, right, center is less of a person or less smart, or greater than anyone else because of their political beliefs. In this sense, "respect" is defined as: not insult, berate, or attach negative connotation to. Individuals may not generalize or speculate regarding the nature of various political groups, or of individuals based on their political affiliations.
6d. Detriment To The Coummunity: Individuals who:
- Act with the purpose of harming the site or others (spam, attacks, types in all CAPS)
- Someone whos posts add no value to the conversation at hand (ie in a Smith conversation talks about Walt Harris) and does so repeatedly
- Persons whos posts require continuous monitoring for any reason above the norm
- Acting as an imposter
6e. Spirit of Dise: Individuals shall act in accordance with the spirit of 'dise, as defined by, but not limited to:
- the intention to have a 49ers forum where people are respectful, well mannered, and have the purpose of talking 49ers and football without trash talking
- the betterment of the community through ongoing positive discussion, site maintenance, or other work to benefit the site
(this rule is not meant to impede reasonable heated disagreements and arguments that are based on football and not on personal attacks)
7. Members shall not instigate or gang up against another member as defined by, but not limited to what is below.
7b. Ganging up is defined as: The repeated intimidation of others by the real or threatened infliction of physical, verbal, written, electronically transmitted, or emotional abuse. It may include, but not be limited to actions such as verbal taunts, name-calling and put downs. Whereby intimidation does not mean multiple people arguing against one person ... it means arguing to the point where a reasonable person (The Admin) believes that one would be intimidated from posting their thoughts again. Emotional abuse is explained is to include passive agressive remarks posted throughout other topics on the site with the sole aim of targeting an individual poster (not the content of posts) and their competence. To be clear, mutliple people participating in a discussion does not make it ganging up. Only if the discussion evolves to an argument, with intimidation or emotional abuse taking place will it be considered ganging up.
7c. Instigation is comments directed with the specific purpose of eliciting a response that would be against the site rules, whether or not the initial comment itself is against other site rules.
For example:
"Hey person "x" I understand after your weekend out that you could say you have Crabs to go with your VD"
OR
"Hey person "X" you know player Y worships the devil"
8. Off-topic posts (particularly off 49ers topic posts) in any thread other than the post-game show will be automatically deleted unless they are seen to add to the community on the site. Please make use of the "Quick Memos" and the "Chat" for conversation purposes outside of the topic.
9. Please avoid "replying with quote" while quoting an entire post. Please only quote the part of the post that you are indeed replying too, or simply use the "reply" feature instead.
10. Repeated topics will be locked and deleted as soon as possible. DO NOT POST A NEW TOPIC without checking to see if a similar discussion already exists.
11. The adminstrator reserve the right to lock any topic that is getting too long and post a "continued" topic.
12. Moderators have a right not to be insubordinated. That is to say, that forum members should treat moderators, even in a dispute, or if anagered, with respect. In this way, respect is defined but not limited to: with courtesy, without insult, in conversations that are fact and not personal based that may or may not include a history of actions.
12b. When a member feels that they have been unfairly or unjustly warned / banned / etc. by a moderator, or when a member feels that a moderator is out of line in using correction against another member in the open forum a member may attempt to resolve the dispute, without prejudice by:
- First attempting to contact the moderator / co-admin / admin in question to work it out between them. The offending party must make a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue
- The offended party may escalate a detailed claim to a co-admin or admin. The claim should be detailed with links, or detailed copy / pasted parts of the conversation. Deleted conversations can be recovered by the Admin with the proper investigatory material (ie thread, author, day, etc).
-The co-admin or admin will make an effort to mediate before arbitrating a solution.
13. When a dispute occurs in the forum or by PM that is significant enough that parties are offended members will be asked to follow the following procedures to resolve:
1) The discussion will not take place in the open forum but rather by personal message
2) The parties involved will be asked to first each propose a solution to the dispute
3) An admin or co-admin may attempt to mediate before arbitrating the dispute
Note, these disputes tend to be personal in nature, not over a football discussion (ie a heated debate of WCO vs Digit would not qualify as a dispute). These disputes may or may not break the rules of 'dise (there may or may not be a personal attack, instigation, bullying/ganging up, religion, insubordiation). If a rule of dise is proven to be broken in a dispute the appropriate remediation will occur.
14. Users who break a rule will receive a warning or will be banned. The ban schedule is:
1) First Ban - 2 weeks
2) Second Ban - 1 month
3) Third Ban - 1 year
4) Fourth Ban - indefinate
Whereby the Admin agrees to not deviate from the ban schedule above regardless of the severity of offence, the lone exception being against SPAM, Hack, or Impersonation attemps to the forum.
15. Paying for a subscription with 49ers Paradise does not provide the right to violate or negotiate the terms and conditions of the site. In order to be re-instituted after a ban, a subscribed member may not cancel their susbcription unless the ban period exceeds 1 year.
