Forums | MacLife

Greetings. This is just a quick outline of the guidelines for Unplugged, mainly a reiteration of forum rules and general netiquette, but I decided it would be useful for clarifying guidelines for participation in this forum.

If you're new here, welcome. Don't be afraid to post, but please take the time to read these rules and understand what this place is about. A reminder, for old and new members alike, this is a forum for life outside the computer. Discussions about Apple, the Mac and other computer related issues have their own appropriate forums. Political and religious discussion has its own forum, over in the Ministry of Free Thought. The forum index lists the available forums and includes a brief description of the topics they cover.

Although Unplugged is a catch-all for general chat, topics do still need a topic (hence the name). Meaning, any thread started has to be started with the intent of discussing or pursuing a particular topic, as opposed to starting a thread with no content. Similarly, avoid starting topics about other forum members. If you want to talk to or about another member, contact them privately.

Be polite. Please treat other posters in a polite and respectful manner. If someone is rubbing you the wrong way, please be constructive in your criticism rather than going off like a bucket of prawns in the sun. Try to limit your attacks to the post rather than the poster. No flaming, trolling or spamming is welcome here, including indirect as well as direct attacks on other members. If someone posts something inappropriate, please do not allow it to perpetuate by feeding the fire. Message either me or any online moderator and the issue will be dealt with appropriately.

When quoting someone, please trim their content to the specific parts you are quoting, especially if your reply is short. Keep sig length to a minimum, as well as frequency if it is large, and avoid posting large images within threads out of respect for the bandwidth & display size challenged. For those unsure about how to manage this, read the Guide to BB Code in the forum FAQ.

No gratuitious cussin'. It's always been a forum rule, and while the filters allow for a more relaxed environment, I still request that you try and save those rude words for special occasions only. The same applies to general obscenity, if you're about to post something explicit or vulgar, stop for a moment and think what your mother would think if she read your post. If your mother is as rude as you, then imagine a kid reading it in a public library and whether or not you would feel comfortable with that. Remember that this is a forum associated with a magazine, and as such your behaviour does reflect on MacAddict.

I think that covers everything I want to say for now. If I think of anything else, I will update this as necessary.

Zombie threads: I don't consider threads to be zombies until they're about 3 months old, but i also take it as a case by case basis. Try not to bring up old threads unless there's a specific reason for it.

And remember, no posting in all caps!

Last edited by justine (2007-02-10 12:48 pm)