I guess I have been taking too much of a hands-off approach to the forum. I've been extremely busy for months and haven't been able to read every message and thread posted here. Apparently that's a problem and I'm going to make my best effort to read every single message posted to the forum. Having done so tonight, I've deleted a few threads and probably a couple dozen recent messages. This is more deletions in a single night than I think I have ever deleted in a six-month period.

Effective immediately, the forum rules will be enforced with extreme prejudice. Useless posts or posts that I perceive to have a good chance to stir up conflict will be completely deleted. I hate doing that because sometimes a message has good information mixed in with useless taunts and I hate to delete the good information. But I have no choice. If you want to contribute to the forum, please do so without childish taunts or trolling. If you don't, even if you spend 30 minutes preparing a useful message and include a one-line snide remark, that message will be deleted. Which is a shameful waste of your valuable contribution.

I have updated the forum rules. I would ask that everyone review them. However, the relevant changes are:

1. "DO NOT BE ANNOYING, DO NOT BE EASILY ANNOYED. Borrowing from Fidonet-era netiquette, make an effort to not annoy others. At the same time, make an effort to not be easily annoyed by others."

2. "MODERATION BY MODERATORS ONLY. Do not post messages that assail others for violating forum rules or norms. Either ignore the violation or report it to the moderator or webmaster for appropriate action."

3. "DOCUMENTATION RESPONSES. Replies to a message that do nothing but tell the poster to read the documentation are not considered useful unless they indicate the specific page of the documentation that the person should read. If you feel the person asking the question hasn't spent enough time reading documentation, either ignore the question or vote it as "Didn't Search First."

4. "The use of "SMS" abbreviations is not professional and is highly discouraged (but is NOT prohibited)."

5. "POSTS BECOME PROPERTY OF THE COMMUNITY. ... Additionally, posts that have been contributed to the forum will not be deleted simply because the poster later changes his mind about having made the posts."

I added the first rule (borrowed from Fidonet-era policies) because if everyone followed this rule, most of our problems would be avoided. Most of us are adults. We need to act like it.

I added the next two rules to attempt to reduce the number of replies that do not add anything materially useful to the forum. Instead of posting such replies, either ignore the original post in question or score the message accordingly. Or, if there is a substantial rule violation, notify me via email.

The addition regarding SMS is because some recent posts have suggested that using SMS is against forum rules. It is not. It is simply discouraged. Messages that mock an SMS message do not contribute to solving a problem and only clutters up the forum and stand a good chance at taking the thread off-topic. Thus I am adding this clause to make it clear that using SMS is not a violation of the rules but simply makes the poster look unintelligent and lazy.

I added the last clause (regarding deleting messages) because I have, from time to time, received requests to delete old messages because the poster subsequently becomes embarrassed at having posted the message. That's not my fault. Don't post embarrassing messages and this won't be a problem.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
Craig Steiner
8052.com Webmaster