IMPORTANT: ATS Rules, Guidelines, Etiquette, and more...

Yesterday, we had an incident with a new member who became intensely upset over receiving a minor warning for a very short one-line (4 words) reply in a thread. This seems an opportune time to remind everyone of some rather simple "rules of the road" here are ATS. These rules are not designed as a means to trample all over members, but come through the collective experience of board ownership, operators, and senior staff in running and managing online communities. The goal is to maintain a free and open community where nearly all topics are welcome, with a degree of quality control.

One Line Responses
These interrupt the flow of discussion and add unnecessary bandwidth to threads.
Warnings for One Line Responses


Large or Excessive Post Quoting
Another nuisance which is often abused, quoting entire posts.
Warnings for excessive quoting, and how to quote


Serious Offense Warnings
Circumventing the censors, insulting members, and being an overall jerk can result in more serious warnings.
Staff Warnings


Automatic Censors
Our automatic vulgarity censors are in-place for good reason.
Vulgarity and The Automatic ATS Censors


ATS Etiquette
A good general guide as to how we attempt to manage the flow of discussion.
General ATS discussion etiquette


Escalation of Action
General "rules of thumb" for how we deal with troublemakers (in some cases, such as spammers, we take much swifter action than described here).
Actions for general abuse and Terms and Conditions violations.


Repeat Topics
It's getting more and more difficult to find new topics, here's our standard for dealing with repeated topics.
All about repeat topics and what to do about them.


How to Complain
Complaints (or suggestions) are immediately posted to the private staff-only forum. All complaints are seen and discussed.
Complaint & Suggestions Form


Our Points System
An alternative to post-count for measuring and rewarding member participation.
The points system. (updated)


Terms And Conditions
All members must agree to these when you first join ATS.
Terms And Conditions Of Use


Avatars and Signatures
Finally, our rules for your avatars and signatures.
Avatar and Signature Guidelines


More information on our community can be found in this forum: Board Information. While this may seem like a lot of "rules and regulations", it is a necessary requirement in the growth and evolution of any large digital community.

Hmmmm.

Last post "Byrd" but no "Byrd" post appears.

Nice to have links to ATS standards in one place.

*Please delete this at will.*

[edit on 5-1-2005 by MaskedAvatar]

Happens when we "bump" a thread to the top.

Is it possible, that an ATS member, moderator, supermoderator is swapping E-mail address, and some naughty trolls "steal" that ATS username? You know- sending the password to the newly registered (on ATS still old) E-mail address, and there you go... the troll can have an ATS membership with huge ATS points, or moderator/supermoderator/ATSNNreporter credits. I believe, the "original" user can hardly do anything about it, and it is the real failure based on a simple E-mail system.

I mean, many people swap E-mails these days, the trolls just need to "check on" the displayed addresses, whether they are still active, or free.

How about some comments on my theory? It may light up the morality of some people over the Net. Well, and don't even think about the well known IP address trick, it doesn't mean anything.

How do you know? As a matter of fact, if I warn you for a One-Line violation...it u2u's you and deducts points. There is no public posting.

I would be happy to One-Line warn you if you would like to test this.

So I ask again...how do you know he didn't get warned? There are times people "sacrifice" a few points for all kinds of warns. The sternest warn is usually due to name-calling and in a few situations, I myself would be happy to sacrifice a few.

The deal is we try our best. We're human and not perfect. Now, it's a shame we don't have a "Creating Useless Drama" warn.

Hey, a question...

Zed, you say that One-Line warnings are only u2u-ed.
What warnings go with that red "warn" tag in our side profile? Is that only for serious violations?

Why? Is that a good example?

Are warnings meant to be a deterrent, or a form of barter-for-insult-privileges?

Some of the best comedy is in one-liners, but maybe not all people are here in search of light entertainment.

How do you know? As a matter of fact, if I warn you for a One-Line violation...it u2u's you and deducts points. There is no public posting.

--Perhaps there should be...especially for moderators...especially since Simon Grey made his feelings known on the subject weeks ago. Isn't moderatorship given as a reward for excellent and quality postings?--

I would be happy to One-Line warn you if you would like to test this.

--Is that a threat?!! You going to one-line me for this multiple line response or for bringing a violation of your Terms and Conditions to the attention of the community?

So I ask again...how do you know he didn't get warned?

--Usually when a member gets warned for a post Zedd, they have to "EDIT" that offending post or it gets "EDITED" for them by a mod. thats how I would know. And since it's been 6 hours since the offense was noted and it remains as it was...I think we all get the point.

The deal is we try our best. We're human and not perfect.

-- (snore)...how many times does this defense get trotted out of the barn and horse-whipped to death. Nobody's looking for perfection kiddies, but how about a modicrum of consistency.
Its really simple:
A member made a one line post that detracted from a thread. Another member pointed this out. 6 hours later the post continues to be a violation of the T&C...you know, the thing SO created this thread about...6 hours later the post has not been fixed and no "noticable consequence" has been applied. The "correct" action should be for me to go look at the post and see Seekerof's name and a line saying [Edit - post removed as it violated ATS's T&C] - Zedd.

I believe ATS is strong enough to survive this.



And for the record - If the issue was just dealt with quickly and quietly it wouldn't become drama

AH...who am I kidding? The only meaningful thing that gets changed at ATS are the servers.....but that's why I love it so!

I love ATS and I think the mod's are doing a great job!


There is no friend anywhere - Lao Tse

To be honest anyone who gets that upset about a warn for a one line post wont be around for very long either that or they will have very long ignore list.
The mods do a good job around here they allow heated debate but dont put up with the likes of personal insults.
If the new user cant take the heat they should stay out of the kitchen ( whats ATS cooking up today?)

I was warned for the use of a profaned word regarding a news topic from ATSNN.

I have a question: since the ATS.com doesn't wanted any profanity in the forums and while I understand the necessity of no-profanity rule to ensure politeness and friendly discussions in the forums, what does it take for me to express my right to disagree or express my disbelief in ways that others would react to my skepticism or rejection of such other statements or topics?

Am I entitled to express my disbelief with my own choice of words, including vulgar words, as a mean of expressing my disagreement in strong terms?

Are you, in fact, censoring me and others and denying my or others' ability to express disagreement or disbelief with mine or others' own choice of words?

Are there substitute non-offensive words that I or others can use to reflect profaned/vulgar words as a mean of expressing disagreement/disbelief in very strong terms?

I'm just asking the questions and I'm not testing the limit of the ATS's tolerance. Just wanted to get the gist of the matter of the difference between improper usage of profaned/vulgar words and the proper usage of expressing disbelief/disagreement in strong terms.

To deny ignorance is to deny all knowledge. Even knowing ignorance. Some people choose to be rather blissfully ignorant.

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Depends what you mean by 'reflect'. Of course there are non-profane words you can use to express your disagreement, just post how you would speak in front of (or to) your children/parents. Sure you can be highly annoyed, but you wouldn't go swearing like a sailor.

Sorry - Off topic, but that avatar totally slaughters my eyes Kano.

Excellent.

Jack

Thought it might be a good time to bump this as a reminder.

I've been coming across so many excessive quotes recently, it's becoming an epidemic. Contrary to some of the u2u's I've received after giving excessive quote penalties, I'm not on some kind of power trip.

You really only need to quote what it is you are replying to, huge quotes disrupt the flow of discussion. If you're quoting a post with a pic, there's no need to keep the pic in the quote when 9 times out of 10 it's in the post right above you.

Also, try and be aware that your bb code is correct, alot of times I see a forgotten end quote ([/quote ]) and it's almost impossible to distinguish between the quoted text and your own words, it just looks like one huge quote. Often, your sig ends up part of the quote as well when this happens.

And remember, when you receive an "excessive quote" or "one-line" penalty, dont take it personal or think we're out to get you. Just think of it as a friendly reminder to be aware that your post is readable and contributing to the discussion.

Sometimes it's the little things that make this community what it is.

Thanks.

PA

Yeah....what ProudAmerican said! Plus Caps in titles! It means your screaming or yelling the word...plus caps in titles is reserved for site staff....
My little pet peeve ya know...I know some have a pet peeve about "my" pet peeve

People, the excessive quoting is getting out of control.

Please be more aware of your posts, to ensure that they are readable. Use the preview post button if you have to.

Thanks again.

PA

I don't know I feel the one line rule should be more subjective. There are some responses that just don't need more than a one line response. I sometimes find myself trying to make up more than what I wanted to say just to get more than one line in, I'm sure I'm not the only one. You end up with the first line responding to a previous post, then the second one not making much sense or seems totally out of place.

But as long as it's kept as the equivilance of a speeding ticket instead of jail time, misdemeanor and not a felony it's not that big of a deal.

[edit on 30-6-2005 by NoJustice]

Not to be insolent, but this would not qualify as a one-line response, correct?

I agree with NJ on this one, this rule should be on a case by case basis, reviewd and decided on the indevidual basis.

With over 1.8 million posts available to an average of 50,000 daily unique users, I think the site administrators know what works best for keeping this site operating efficiently

The more pointless posts we have (including lots of replicated content via quotes) the more busy the database becomes.

Let's just put some thought into our posts shall we?


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Posted Via ATSmobile (BETA v0.3)


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I am sorry i did not mean to tread on any toes, i was just putting an idea forward, I wasn't complaining just throwing ideas around.




Good point, i did not see it that way.

Again i am sorry if i steped on anyones toes, that was not my intention.