Tomw,
This will be the last attempt I shall try at presenting a softer approach to Newbies and the ramifications of stringent start up rules.
Here is for your perusal, the moderators statement from a forum which has been experiencing growing pains as well, and has confronted the newbie problem from a slightly different angle than that which you are considering.
I present it in full (was going to use excerpts.... but decided I wanted you to suffer the whole way through...coz I'm basically evil)
I would like to point out the way they have decided to treat the "silly newcomers", and the armament the moderators have.
Please do me the courtesy of reading it fully and dispassionately.
I'll shut up on this topic now, as I can see no more that I can add to sway your opinion away from creating startup barriers to newbies.
It may help you form ideas for other aspects as well, although I'm sure you have seen it all before.
DIYAUDIO GROWING PAINS
Recently there has been a lot of discussion regarding diyAudio's growing pains. The thrust of the arguments have been twofold:
- That the quality level of discussions is being watered down by off topic and garbage posts
- That the level of peer respect is being worn down by impolite and inconsiderate users.
To address these two concerns the rules below have been created to serve the community, and will be enforced by a team of moderators who care deeply about the health and future of diyAudio.
FORUM RULES
- No personal attacks or bullying. If you disagree with what someone is saying, then present a mature and intelligent case to prove otherwise. Malicious intent will not be tolerated. What you do over private email is one thing, what you do on our forum is another.
- No offensive language. Sure, most of us use four letter words in normal conversation without too much thinking, but this forum is about thinking. Words are the clothes in which thought is dressed. And luckily, these threads are cheap (pun intended) so please choose language that reflects the quality of your ideas.
- No threadjacking. Threadjacking is the practise of stealing another's thread by posting off-topic replies such that the original topic becomes diluted or lost. Off-topic posts, and even more importantly replies to off-topic posts, are welcome, but should also address the original thread topic.
Some of the greatest discussions have come as a result of off-topic replies. If something interesting does arise that warrants further discussion then continue your discussion privately over email, or even better start a new thread and link to it. This rule will of course be used with discretion.
- No posting of safety endangering information without an accompanying safety-warning message that adequately explains the risks
- Usage of multiple registrations for the same person and/or same internet access account is not permitted without prior approval of the site, and may result in a permanent ban of the individual and/or account holder.
- Topics unrelated to audio or electronics should be confined to the Off Topic section. Discussions of politics, ethnicity, religion, or other divisive issues are not permitted and will be removed, without notice, at our discretion.
Violation of forum rules will result in users having their accounts suspended and/or terminated, at the discretion of the moderators.
These 6 rules will be enforced in good faith to keep the discussion quality level and the level of peer respect, high.
MODERATION OF DIYAUDIO.COM
diyAudio.com is a place for all members of the DIY audio community to ask for help and share their knowledge. Several members of the community have been appointed as forum moderators. This is a distinctly separate role from their participation as members in the forum.
It is a moderators role to enforce the forum rules. As such, moderators should lead by example through intelligent posting and polite communication.
It is not a moderators role to ask users to prove the quality of their arguments through empirical evidence, that is the role of the community (and the moderators may of course still participate as members of the community). The moderators will use their best faculties to separate their own personal opinion when analysing whether posts contain worthless or irrelevant information and should be removed.
Any comments in regards to moderator behaviour should be sent privately via email to webmaster@diyaudio.com.
MODERATORS STATEMENT
It has come to our attention that some people are being naughty.
We do not want naughty boys
We may have to give you a serious warning
We may have to put you in the sin bin for a week or two
If you offend several times, we may have to kick you out
Some things we do not like are:
Telling people where to get porn
Being rude to other members
Using F word or C word
Deliberately moving threads off topic
Intimidating new members
Posting non factual information
Omitting safety information if applicable
Being a pest to other members
Posting with caps lock on.
We like good discussion. We have a hands-off policy towards some noise and some chaos and some members being a little bit picky. But not at the expense of making the forum bad news for the majority.
We want members to feel safe walking down the street. We want members to feel they can post without being attacked.
It works like this:
New members should be able to come here without being slapped down the first time they post. Even if it's a stupid question. Even if they cannot spell. Even if they don't know where the caps lock key is on their keyboard. They are new-comers. Treat them right. There is nothing wrong with holding off a few posts and then suggest they put new batteries in their spell checker or consider doing some work for themselves but give them a chance to settle in. You would like that courtesy yourself.
If you feel someone is wrong please don't call them an arsehole or a dipstick or "don't you know any $%$#@^&ing thing".
It's not polite.
You are quite welcome to think all those things to yourself and a few more choice comments, but please engage brain before putting your keyboard to work. This is a DIY group, not an insulting group.
If you feel you have a desperate need to post where to get porn on the internet please do not insult our intelligence because we all know. Those who know, don't need to be told. Those who don't, we are not going to tell them. It is an automatic sin bin offence.
We have an automatic parser, which replaces F word and C word with **. So far since being tightened up it has intercepted 52 F words. We are not prudes, we know guys speak with enthusiasm but sometimes what makes a point in speech looks pretty bad in print. Sorry but those words are out. We don't recommend you try and circumvent our parser because there will be a moderator waiting for you on the other side.
We have 2891 members, 4947 threads, 48221 posts and over a million views. If you put 2891 people in a room and turned off the lights quite a number would end up seriously injured. They would never come back so we loose members. Some of the more experienced members get exasperated with some fellows running around causing mayhem. A lot of new guys come here to learn, not to get pushed around.
We are not trying to spoil your fun, just turning the lights up a bit so we can spot the troublemakers.
There are 8 moderators. All over 7 feet tall. All over 17 stone. All trained athletes with bulging muscles and hair trigger reflexes. Each moderator is equipped with two low slung colt 45's, night vision glasses and armour piercing tracer shells. But they are kindly people. Anyone can call on a moderator to help out. If you have a complaint, email the webmaster. If you have a suggestion to improve the site, email the webmaster. If you want a free diyAudio.com T-shirt email the webmaster. (There are no free T-shirts - Jason .
Respectfully,
The diyAudio Moderators
I particularly like to think of you Tomw with the low slung 45's and night vision glasses...... not to sure if you meet the 7" tall pert though.
.......oztules