Do we have any Terms of Service or some sort of guidelines as to what is or is not acceptable behavior? There was a topic that Mr. Happy had said needed to remain civil which I appreciate. But I do take issue with a threat to remove posts under a standard of the post not spreading 'a sense of good will'. While I understand the point trying to be made, I for one don't support censorship based on an unclear standard. If there is a level of conduct that needs to be maintained, so be it, but i think that it needs to be made clear what the expectations are explained in no uncertain terms. What I cannot support is a moving target if you will, or something truly undefinable such as 'Moderator's Judgment'. Then what is acceptable or unacceptable is completely up to interpreation and consistency of enforcement will varry between moderators.

If we are goijg to move towards enforcing acceptable behavior, i can understand that, it's Skycutter's site after all. He can make the rules. But I do believe those rules need to be spelled out and explicitly clear.

i agree with capo on this point and this needs to be defined.

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CapoCastillo
Do we have any Terms of Service or some sort of guidelines as to what is or is not acceptable behavior? There was a topic that Mr. Happy had said needed to remain civil which I appreciate. But I do take issue with a threat to remove posts under a standard of the post not spreading 'a sense of good will'. While I understand the point trying to be made, I for one don't support censorship based on an unclear standard. If there is a level of conduct that needs to be maintained, so be it, but i think that it needs to be made clear what the expectations are explained in no uncertain terms. What I cannot support is a moving target if you will, or something truly undefinable such as 'Moderator's Judgment'. Then what is acceptable or unacceptable is completely up to interpreation and consistency of enforcement will varry between moderators.

If we are goijg to move towards enforcing acceptable behavior, i can understand that, it's Skycutter's site after all. He can make the rules. But I do believe those rules need to be spelled out and explicitly clear.

Terms of Service or Guidelines as to what is or is not Acceptable Behavior! Profanity & "Rated R" themes, general rudeness that offends Forum Members and Visitors to this site alike, will not be tolerated. That has always been the unwritten rule of this site from the very beginning!

I also do not believe in censorship, I have no interest whatsoever in writing a set of Forum Guidelines. Instead I'd like to say that the standard for behavior is to be, a sense of common courtesy. While there has not been major problems in this area, there has been a few minor issues, and the Moderators have dealt with those issues in a fair manner.

From this point forward, please assume that there are children of grade school age on this board and conduct yourself accordingly.

As I have said before, this site belongs to the Forum Members! I keep it running for those members who truly love this game, I hope that each, and everyone of you continue helping me in making this site great!






The Cutter

Those guidelines sound good and are common sense but...


The " general rudeness that offends Forum Members " could be stretched to mean anything.

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G.A.W.
Those guidelines sound good and are common sense but...


The " general rudeness that offends Forum Members " could be stretched to mean anything.

Basically the Guidelines are common sense! Profanity & "Rated R" themes, general rudeness that offends Forum Members and Visitors to this site alike, will not be tolerated.

General Rudeness i.e. Offensive Material; abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “ClassicMarvelForever.com” is hosted or International Law.






The Cutter

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G.A.W.
Those guidelines sound good and are common sense but...


The " general rudeness that offends Forum Members " could be stretched to mean anything.

Which is why even we Moderators have to be careful, and try to look at things more objectively. Short of blatant foul language and directly obvious insults, things can be hard to judge, especially with the lack of context and nuance that often befalls mere text. Sometimes heated debates can start to look like personal attacks and intentional rudeness, when such may never have been intended, and even the poster may not realize that a comment came across seemingly bearing a different intent.

In short, so long as we all strive to remain polite and civil towards each other, there shouldn't be any serious problems. If some post or behavior strikes you as rude, insulting, or otherwise out of line, do not hesitate to contact one of the Mods or SkyCutter by PM, and we'll do our best to check it out and try to settle it with minimal hassles. And this most certainly includes if a Mod's behavior seems out of line. We try to do our best, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not infallible.

In the end, this community is like an extended family. We're not always going to agree, and sometimes things can get heated, but we shouldn't let that prevent us from having an overall good time when we get together.

What is the standard for determining if a thread should be locked?

A very good question. 2 have been locked within days of each other- And I discovered this just as I was going to comment.

Something to consider. It would be possible and yet regrettable for multiple members to " not back down " on a particular topic and yet NOT break any rules to the above guidelines. in a way a half way decent topic could be torpedoed be one or two members on purpose ( a kind of sabotage ) without some to voice there opinion.

Why should it be locked, only because the debate isn't going any-where constructive. perhaps but...

many topics for some have been or are banal and boring with no redeeming quality. Bust Size's of super here women anyone?

I agree. Why are threads getting locked? Because one or two members asked for them to be locked? What about the other members who may have still been interested in posting in said topic(s)?

Now there has been 3 threads locked within 10 days.

This seems unusual for this site, doesn't it ???

I'm not one to say that Moderators aren't within their rights to lock a thread, but i think there needs to be a standard or guidelines that need to get violated to do so. That way everyone knows when a line has been crossed.

I will lock a thread when all I see in it is fighting, not discussing. Saying the same thing over and over, back and forth with no end in sight. Now, I didn't lock the cap/batman thread, but to me deadsidekick starting it back up right away is wrong and I don't like it. If a thread gets locked that means drop it. I'd want to see that first thread be eventually pushed down off the first page before it's brought up again. So first time this second thread goes down the same road as the first one I will lock it.

I think a lot of threads in the past needed to be locked but there were no mods. Now there are some mods and those functions are available like lock, move, delete, merge and so when those actions need taken they will be.

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tystates
I will lock a thread when all I see in it is fighting, not discussing. Saying the same thing over and over, back and forth with no end in sight. Now, I didn't lock the cap/batman thread, but to me deadsidekick starting it back up right away is wrong and I don't like it. If a thread gets locked that means drop it. I'd want to see that first thread be eventually pushed down off the first page before it's brought up again. So first time this second thread goes down the same road as the first one I will lock it.

I think a lot of threads in the past needed to be locked but there were no mods. Now there are some mods and those functions are available like lock, move, delete, merge and so when those actions need taken they will be.

No disrespect, but I think the standard needs to be something more than because you don't like it. I mean so what if the thread is just going around in a circle, if people want to debate something ad infinatum, there's no harm unless the arguments get into the realm of ad hominem, which didn't happen in several of the threads that have been locked.

Although recently some debates seem circular there can be and has been nuance to comic book arguement/debates.

Much detail can and sometimes needs to be put into an arguement of ideas when dealing with a universe ( a comic book universe with all it's diverse details )

That's 4 now in three weeks.

yeesh.

My solution...
1)Start another section of the board called "Threads nobody wants to read" to give a place for people to post on stuff other than in the general forum.
2) Ban the word "Batman" in all forum sections except this new forum.

Result: Batman fanboys can argue about batman all day where nobody else has to read it or have it taking up screen space among threads they want to read.

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Memphis
My solution...
1)Start another section of the board called "Threads nobody wants to read" to give a place for people to post on stuff other than in the general forum.
2) Ban the word "Batman" in all forum sections except this new forum.

Result: Batman fanboys can argue about batman all day where nobody else has to read it or have it taking up screen space among threads they want to read.

Both of those solutions seem a bit off-the-wall to me. I mean, If nobody want's to read a thread, it wouldn't get read. The threads that have been closed seem like they were fairly popular, with a lot of views and responses.

Also, banning Batman threads? I mean I'm no fan of the guy, but he's one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. Batman has some passionate fans, and that's not inherently a bad thing. Now if the debates are getting too heated and attacks start getting personal, that's one thing, but the answer should be we establish a code of conduct that if violated will lead to thread locking, or censure of the individual. But let's define these things and establish a social contract. Let's not ban Batman topics, that's just silly.

Memphis was just joking on the batman thing. i hope.

Moderators can just put a neat looking symbol next to the thread to indicate- what they think is a spiral-out of control thread that got out of control- ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK kind of thing

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G.A.W.
Memphis was just joking on the batman thing. i hope.

Moderators can just put a neat looking symbol next to the thread to indicate- what they think is a spiral-out of control thread that got out of control- ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK kind of thing

G.A.W, Interesting idea!






The Cutter

This is interesting. And a constructive debate, too, by the way.

About three or four of you guys are saying the standards are too vague. Or maybe subjective. And that may be true. So I'd ask those people to suggest a set of rules or standards --- if you want something more specific than "behave as though there are children present."


If we could be more specific in what we're looking for, maybe a mod could get some ideas of what you're looking for, and either implement ones that make sense, or keep the ideas in the back of their mind in case that problem begins to grow, or maybe just say, "No, I was made a moderator because I'm a reasonable person. You will have to trust me to exercise good judgement." Any would be a valid response.


Here's a suggestion: Post here what kind of rules are you guys looking for; be specific, as if you were being asked to write the Welcome/Rules and Guidelines sticky thread all newbies read.

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Mark
This is interesting. And a constructive debate, too, by the way.

About three or four of you guys are saying the standards are too vague. Or maybe subjective. And that may be true. So I'd ask those people to suggest a set of rules or standards --- if you want something more specific than "behave as though there are children present."

If we could be more specific in what we're looking for, maybe a mod could get some ideas of what you're looking for, and either implement ones that make sense, or keep the ideas in the back of their mind in case that problem begins to grow, or maybe just say, "No, I was made a moderator because I'm a reasonable person. You will have to trust me to exercise good judgement." Any would be a valid response.

Here's a suggestion: Post here what kind of rules are you guys looking for; be specific, as if you were being asked to write the Welcome/Rules and Guidelines sticky thread all newbies read.

Well one of the things that I wanted to avoid was having the construction of a ToS policy to be done via a comittee of posters. While it sounds like a good idea at first, it's a good way to have contradictory rules and tie the hands of the admins/mods if something popular with the masses gets incorporated but proves to be unworkable.

But I would suggest:

1) Posts that include personal attacks on other posters, prolific obscenities, or explicit content are grounds for thread locking.

2) Before a thread is locked, a moderator should post a public warning in the thread about the restricted content that a thread lockage is immanent (maybe a 3 strikes sort of rule).

3) In instances that are questionable (i.e. flame wars that don't cross the line, but engender ill-will amongst the posters, like some of the political posts) can be brought to a moderator for judgment by either the community or the mods themselves. On questionable issues, a ruling should be made by either a) a majority of mods or b) unilateral decision by Skycutter.

Of course those 3 suggestions won't fully address the issue, and may not realistically work for Skycutter or the mods. But it should give a sense of the 'rules of the road' other people seek.

I think that sounds like a good starting point, Capo.