Here's an update for all Fieldlines members, about a process that's been going on in the background this last week.
Some of you may have been prompted to re-confirm the site terms of service, too. That was also getting refreshed.
We decided to update the posting guidelines and terms of service details because these things "drift" over time, where we want to evolve or add new features but the rules remain written as they were 10 years ago... eventually stuff has to catch up.
The main change is bringing attention to forum sections that have recently been created, such as Steam, Microcontroller projects, Miscellaneous stuff like help with adding images to your posts, and a better set of links back to the founders at Otherpower. (Even though they don't play a large role here any more, we still owe them thanks).
In parallel with this, the admin's and I have also noticed that we have evolved our posting terms, such as posting images, which all users new and old can do, no matter how long they've been members. The sizes are a little bit larger, but what's posted in line with your message is resized so that it doesn't clog the screen or low-bandwidth connections. If there's a bigger image file stored, you click on it so see the full-size, but only if you want to use the bandwidth for it. Otherwise you don't have to click on it nor load the full-size file.
Rules for posting links inside messages remains limited to after 10 posts. We still see attempts to do this by new members signing up and all too often the links are spammy stuff.
Posting Classifieds has recently been changed. Now, when a Junior user posts a Classified, myself or another moderator or an admin will review the post before it's globally visible to all users. As you might guess, the reason is to block any attempts at advertising stuff that doesn't relate to off-grid living, project building, energy production, or other similar stuff we do here. Users with full membership (>50 posts) don't get previewed, because of their long track record of contributing to Fieldlines.
We still maintain that users have freedom to post stuff off-topic in the Pub and in their User Diaries, but we also maintain that if you want to go political, please don't do it on Fieldlines.
If anyone wants to take further interest in these changes, or noticed something they want to ask about, please post questions here and we're happy to tell you more.
