The Terms and Conditions of ATS and You.

I don't know how many times the staff has had to take action against posts that are against the T&C and then we get u2u's or complaints either saying that their post wasn't against the T&C, or what was against the T&C. There's a solution to this. Members should familiarize themselves with ATS' rules. The link is there. If you haven't read them please educate yourself on them. If you have read them, check in from time to time as things are added when the need for further decorum arises.

ATS has risen to the top of the alternate website mountain because of these rules. In a "user generated ecosystem" that means YOUR words continue to reach more and more people. All that is required of ALL members is decorum and civility. By getting to know these rules you can avoid any staff action. That means your posts remain to be read. If they aren't T&C compliant they have to be removed for the good of ALL the community.

There are times that one may perceive a T&C infraction, thus the Complaints function. The staff appreciates the concern and help from the membership in keeping ATS head and shoulders above the rest. Is it an infraction though? If it's egregious it is handled with speed. Insults, bad language, porn, etc. Sometime the staff needs time to discuss it. The staff comes from all walks of life. All political and religious bents. Sometimes discussion takes time to make sure the right call is made. Knowing the T&C will help us all out.

About reading the T&C. It's not a long read, about 15 minutes. Isn't that time well spent?

+1

I'm curious about all the dual threads on the same topic. Why don't the MOD's clean up the board more often? People obviously aren't searching beforehand to see if there is already a thread on the topic they want to post.

The result? We get numerous threads popping up all over on the same damn topic. The clutter gets annoying. How about deleting a few of these threads when they pop up?

reply to post by MysticPearl


I don't mean to be blunt but what has that got to do with this topic? Are you aware of the Complaints function?

reply to post by intrepid


Agreed.

I alert when I feel it's necessary and most of the time the problems are sorted not only swiftly but often silently and behind the scenes. I'm sure there is backlash from some of the actions taken, but that's life and our mods do a great job most of the time.

One thing I can suggest to make things better in future is to bring back the "warn" symbol as it provides a pause for thought for all who see it, not just the offender. Also, why not create a system that takes an offending member straight to the T&C page after any strong offence where access is restricted until they read them and click a checkbox to get back to normal browsing and posting. A reminder of their errors and an incentive to think before hitting "post" or "reply" in future.

For those who have read, understand and refer to the T&Cs and who have been here a while it's frustrating to read another one of these threads in Board Business & Questions, but...

"C'est La Vie"
(translation: "that's life", French. Clarification for T&C 15i. Language)

I will alert more often...tell me when to stop

Cheers Intrepid.

Originally posted by intrepid
reply to post by MysticPearl

 

I don't mean to be blunt but what has that got to do with this topic? Are you aware of the Complaints function?

Honestly, as a relatively new member, no I am not. I know it's not related, but thought it might be ok to ask in this thread, given you are a super mod, and the OP.

reply to post by MysticPearl


Here you go:
Contacting Staff: Alerts, Suggestions, Complaints


When you alert, tell us why you are contacting us, what you found wrong with the post, in the case of dups, a link to both threads would be helpful.


I now return you to the topic of this thread : T&C and You

I've said it before, but even after a number of years here as a lurker then a member, I'm still in awe of the amazing signal-to-noise ratio at ATS. Whoever is enforcing things is doing a fantastic job and, moreover, has done so for years on end. Unfortunately there are always going to be people who, even if intelligent and well-intentioned, won't take the time to understand how ATS differs from other boards, because they will just assume the same low standards of decorum apply here as is usual elsewhere. It took me a long time to get used to the style here and even longer to appreciate how it worked to strengthen the board in general, so it's to be expected that lots of people will have trouble acclimating themselves.

reply to post by intrepid

Thank you Intrepid.
I'm glad to see a thread like this. With the constant rate of new members ( not newbies ) something like this should prolly run once a week. Some forums are worse for this than others. So a good tip for new members who may not realise this? Take note of the topics that can get extremely heated and try to calibrate yourself. If you're the type that gets very passionate over your belief system, country, politics what have you. It mnight do you well to just read and not engage for awhile. There is a lot to learning how to interact on this site without getting thumped.
Took me a while and I got thumped pretty hard a couple times before I wised up. Don't think I would still be around if I hadn't learned one thing that I had to figure out for myself.

NEVER punch a key in anger.

Also, I'm in total agrement with Nerbot. Our mods here, are top of the line.

Randyvious

Originally posted by intrepid
I don't know how many times the staff has had to take action against posts that are against the T&C and then we get u2u's or complaints either saying that their post wasn't against the T&C, or what was against the T&C. There's a solution to this. Members should familiarize themselves with ATS' rules. The link is there. If you haven't read them please educate yourself on them.

Thanks for the reminder Intrepid.

I've read the rules before (and again just now), and wondered if you could clarify the policy on ATS in relation to hoaxers?

The terms and conditions include the following:

15). Posting: You will not Post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate.
...

15l.) [HOAX]: In the event you Post more than three items that are later determined to be of an obviously hoax, fraudulent, or faked nature, your account may be terminated without warning.

Does this mean that people that hoaxers that do not post their hoaxed material on ATS are free to participate here, even if they admit they (for example) regularly post hoaxed material on Youtube? I think this is what the terms and conditions mean and I would welcome this since I firmly believe that there is heck of a lot to be learnt from the participation of admitted hoaxers/artists in relevant discussions here on ATS.

All the best,

Isaac

reply to post by IsaacKoi


If a hoaxer posts things here with the intent of trying to fool members, then I think that T&C rule would apply to them.

If they post their hoaxes elsewhere then they haven't broken any of our site rules have they. They would open themselves up to closer scrutiny though.

Originally posted by nerbot
If they post their hoaxes elsewhere then they haven't broken any of our site rules have they.

I don't think so, reading through the Terms and Conditions.

I wasn't sure if the Terms and Conditions were an exhaustive statement of the policy here on ATS.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


anyone who intentionally hoaxes on our site will be banned. David Nichols wasn't banned (he's the haiti ufo vid maker). He didn't post it here and, once he was unmasked, he actually came to me and provided me with some photos of the models and, eventually, he made another video showing how he did what he did.

Had he come here, claiming the videos were real, he probably would have been banned.

Excellent reminder.

As I read through the terms and conditions I became aware that they are essentially the guidelines of how to behave in a professional business environment.

Any of the younger people on here who haven't already had the soul crushing experience of a "Real Job" or consistently get fired and can't figure out why should take advantage of this fantastic professional etiquette guide that ATS provides for free! Not only that you get free practice in dealing wit difficult people.

Seriously whoever wrote this could probably make a fortune consulting with HR in large companies.

So essentially what I'm saying is getting familiar with the T&Cs will not only allow you function here but will serve you well in your "real" life as well.

I have a question relating to the "End of Hate Speech" clause attached to the T&C's.

In this thread CLICKY CLICKY, an ATS member who is a Muslim, speaks out against the constant tirade of racism and abuse Muslim members, and those who try and defend them; experience here on a daily basis.

On MULTIPLE posts, various people, some of them more than once, have had their posts edited by mods using this clause. What I'm wondering is - if ATS is trying to clamp down on this sort of sickening behaviour, why don't we increase the penalty to a WARN every time hate speech is identified by a mod?

I for one would love to see some of these Uber Trolls disposed of, if not because they're sickening, because they flagrantly transgress against the T's & C's.

The Revenant.

reply to post by intrepid


I thought that this thread was started for a discussion. If it is an announcement, then lock it so no one can post on it. My .02.

I'm curious about all the dual threads on the same topic. Why don't the MOD's clean up the board more often? People obviously aren't searching beforehand to see if there is already a thread on the topic they want to post.

The result? We get numerous threads popping up all over on the same damn topic. The clutter gets annoying. How about deleting a few of these threads when they pop up?

Alerting the mods would go a long way towards it. We're all volunteers, but only see what we see, or what we are alerted to. Especially during the work day, you may not see a lot of cleanup (or at least to a lesser degree). We do try and close them when we see them. I personally hate to delete or trash a thread, and lose whatever discussion is there. Better to simply close.