[jasonlambert]

This post is just a quick clarification on why a post may be removed by a moderator, and a clarification on the rules of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Your posts may be removed by a moderator for any reason, including by not limited to:

• You have posted the same question more than once - Please post your question once. In which case one of your questions will be removed and one will be left for on-going discussion. If you post and dont receive a reply after 12 hours feel free to bump (post in the SAME thread) again.
• You have posted your question in the Site Announcements or Tutorials forum sections - In which case a moderator will normally move your post to a more appropriate section rather than delete it totally.
• Your post is spam - Spam is NOT allowed at linuxforums. Spam posts will be removed, and in 99% of cases the offending user will be instantly banned. The definition of spam will be "any post from which you or a 3rd party to which you are associated will financially benifit". - The one thing I would like to point about about this case is announcements about OPEN SOURCE applications RELEASED UNDER THE GNU License ONLY may be posted in the "Linux News" section by person(s) associated with the development or creation of that software.
• Your post is an obvious troll - Trolls not acceptable here. A troll post shall be defined for the purposes of this discussion as any post designed to bring out a flood of angry/predicatable responses. Eg, starting a thread titled "Windows and BSD are better than linux" on a linuxforum..
• Your post was a flame - ie, a personal attack on another member. This is not acceptable, and the post, and occaisionally the entire thread will be removed. Occaisionally this will result in a ban as well - usually when you have done this on more than 1 previous occaision.
• Posts that are not in English - All posts must be in english. If your post is not in english a moderator will remove it.
• Posts that are too badly written to be read, eg written in l33tspeek - This is quite flexible, not everyone has perfect grammar/spelling (myself included), but posts are are just too ineligible to even make sense will be removed
• Posts written in ALL CAPS - when you write in ALL CAPS it makes your post very hard to read, and is also considered to be shouting. Posts are sometimes removed, sometimes left, or sometimes edited. This is at the discretion of the moderator.
• Posting your homework questions - Dont be so bloody lazy. If you post your homework for someone else todo, dont be supprised or get upset if your post is removed. Asking for a brief pointer on one *particular area* IS ok. Verbatim Copying of multiple assignment questions and attaching a note at the bottom saying "please help me" is not.
• Attacking or threating behaviour - Towards anyone on linuxforums.org, including moderators and users will result in an instant ban.
• Race, religion or hate related posts - Will be removed, depending on the content of the post and the users history may also result in a ban.
• Asking howto hack, how to break the law etc - Will result in your post being removed, any may also result in a ban at the moderators discretion.
• Posting Offtopic - If you want to discuss something not related to linux, please post in the coffee lounge, within the above guidelines of course.

A moderator is not obliged to inform you that a post has been removed. Unfortunatly while this was more likely to happen in the past, as these forums are growing bigger and the workload on moderators is increasing it is not always possible to send everyone a personal message to explain why posts have been removed.

I hope to be able to develop an automated email notifications system for post removal as well as acculative "ban points" to make life for users fairer and life for moderators less stressful, but due to my own workload with developing more urgent new features for the forums (loads on the way, btw), this is unlikely to get done until 2005.

Everyone involved tries hard to keep linuxforums free of trolls, spam, flames etc and keep linuxforums a positive place to discuss linux and other things, while at the same time trying to maintain the balance of a open and fairly non-restrictive community. Obviously as a publicly accessable community we have guidelines of what is acceptable any what is not acceptable so we remain just that - a happy, vibrant community.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions on the above, or would like me to clarify anything please post.

Jason

[Weaselbert]

I certainly wish you luck in your efforts! I must say though that this forum is one of most pleasant I have found when it comes to member behaviour.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by jasonlambert

Posts that are too badly written to be read, eg written in l33tspeek - This is quite flexible, not everyone has perfect grammar/spelling (myself included), but posts are are just too ineligible to even make sense will be removed
e lounge, within the above guidelines of course.

Jason

This may just be my English background, or I'm just being difficult, but I found it kind of funny that in your post about improper grammar/spelling, you seem to have misspelled something and put in an extra word.

I think what you mean to say here (unless you were just emphasizing the point) was "posts THAT are just to ILLEGIBLE to even make sense..." But then I may just be overanalyzing. Great job on the forums, btw.

[Cloud]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ineligible :P

But yeah, thats kinda funny

[sarumont]

Originally Posted by techieMoe

I think what you mean to say here (unless you were just emphasizing the point) was "posts THAT are just to ILLEGIBLE to even make sense..." But then I may just be overanalyzing. Great job on the forums, btw.

Even J makes mistakes, but he was indeed referring to posts that are illegible, illogical or any combination of the two. We're not going to bin a post because you misspelled something or added a word. We're not your English teachers.

[scientica]

Originally Posted by sarumont

We're not your English teachers.

W00T?!?!?!?!?!?!!1 U !(R)?
(read: [what? you are not "questionmark"] )

(IMO) It's great that this thread is up - I'm sure it'll also have a certain preventive effect (at least among those who read it )

[edit]btw, maybe you should make this thread a sticky? [/edit]

[kkubasik]

these rules already are, the problem is, most of the people that post those types of questions generaly dont spend the time to read things. Lots want to get answers to there homework, or compramise a network, and sometimes don't even bother to learn computers well. sorry, a little vent about that *inhale exhale* but yes,