Management Team
08-04-06, 10:08 AM
Over the past few days Luke has have reviewed numerous other forums and websites to do some research and gain insight into the rules, regulations, expectations, policies, guidelines and consequences commonly and typically used in the operation of a forum such as ours.
He has taken what he thinks to be some very well written, thoughtout and specific points and done his best to customise, make them relevant, workable and applicable to TBGA.
Some may find various points listed here to be somewhat pedantic, dare we say, even anal. However we believe that with the growing numbers we have seen (esp in the last six months or so) and the numerous threads dealing with contentious and somewhat highly specific issues, a detailed and comprehensive set of guidelines is necessary. We feel that by creating this we are best placing ourselves to deal with any topics and/or situations that belittle and undermine the good feeling and postive environment we are attempting to foster.
The "mission statement" that appears at the top is old to some, new to others. This has been brought back from "the old days" as we feel it best sums up the reason for the Group's existence, it's direction, it's foundations and it's intentions. We think this is something we have been lacking badly and would be a good thing to make known again.
Please read the following. Feedback is welcomed and any points raised will be taken to the Admin Forum for discussion and consideration by the Management Team.
Thank you for taking the time.
The Management Team
“To foster participation in bowhunting.
To promote humane and ethical hunting.
To protect the right to hunt.
To assist and educate fellow hunters.”
This forum is run for the benefit of bowhunting and our bowhunting members. In the interests of 95% of our moderate and conscientious membership and having a fun friendly place for us to swap stories and ideas these guidelines will be enforced.
Board-wide Policies
This document is designed to clarify various responsibilities of members here at The Bowhunters Group of Australia (www.aussiebowhunter.com). Please read and become familiar with it.
Rule Policing
TBGA now operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences. Strike consequences will operate on an escalating scale. For example:
First strike – editing (moderation) or removal of offending post/s and no further consequences issued.
Second strike – immediate referral to Management Team for discussion of action and consequences.
Third strike – immediate suspension or cancellation (banning) of membership for time decided by administration in light of offenses. (Should strike three result in a “suspension”, upon return to active status, any and all strikes reaching “second strike” level will result in immediate and permanent cancellation of membership.)
a.Repeated and continued arguing with Management Team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate strike counted against you. Should this continue and exceed three strikes a suspension will be put in place as above.
b.Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact administration, e.g. if warned by a moderator you should contact the administration. If admin feel you were treated badly they may remove a warning. Their decision is final.
c.Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
d.An exception to the three strike rule applies when users post insulting, indecent, inappropriate or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban at the discretion of Administration.
e.Repeated low level “strike one” type offenses will summate and escalate to “strike two” level and “strike three” level, if necessary.
f.Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While admin may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a very rare occurrence.
Forum rules
- Do not post inappropriate pictures of animals that do not respect the game taken. This includes unnecessary gore etc. It is a mark of respect that when taking photos you pose your game in a considered manner. Specifically, pictures of animals with arrows remaining in them are OUT. (If you are not sure about a pic check with the Management Team). Additionally, there are many long standing members that would be happy to edit your pictures if necessary.
- Language: there is no excuse for using what is clearly inappropriate language. Do not deliberately miss-spell words to avoid censorship by the automatic language filter.
- Discussion of unethical and illegal hunting practices and methods (including those determined by the Management Team to be unacceptable, questionable or ill-defined) is not permitted.
- All messages express the views of the author, and The Management Team will not be responsible for the content of any message.
- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a strike.
- The Management Team reserves the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as inappropriate, indecent, vulgar, spam, contrary to forum rules and guidelines etc. as noted in these points is up to Management Team and not users.
- Members should remember this board is accessible to a public audience. Posting any matter that portrays bowhunting in a bad or distasteful light, posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a strike.
- “Restarting” a locked thread will result in an automatic level two strike.
- Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or posting material in violation of copyright and privacy laws will receive a warning and their post will be removed.
- Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline () image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to, or that is excessively large in data download size may be removed.
- Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should refrain from using excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
- The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging.
- Unsolicited advertisements by retail outlets are not permitted. Likewise, non-genuine classifieds advertisements (as determined by the Management Team) are not permitted. Any such posts will be deleted.
Avatars
Users are permitted to utilize a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth).
- Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth.
- Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges
He has taken what he thinks to be some very well written, thoughtout and specific points and done his best to customise, make them relevant, workable and applicable to TBGA.
Some may find various points listed here to be somewhat pedantic, dare we say, even anal. However we believe that with the growing numbers we have seen (esp in the last six months or so) and the numerous threads dealing with contentious and somewhat highly specific issues, a detailed and comprehensive set of guidelines is necessary. We feel that by creating this we are best placing ourselves to deal with any topics and/or situations that belittle and undermine the good feeling and postive environment we are attempting to foster.
The "mission statement" that appears at the top is old to some, new to others. This has been brought back from "the old days" as we feel it best sums up the reason for the Group's existence, it's direction, it's foundations and it's intentions. We think this is something we have been lacking badly and would be a good thing to make known again.
Please read the following. Feedback is welcomed and any points raised will be taken to the Admin Forum for discussion and consideration by the Management Team.
Thank you for taking the time.
The Management Team
“To foster participation in bowhunting.
To promote humane and ethical hunting.
To protect the right to hunt.
To assist and educate fellow hunters.”
This forum is run for the benefit of bowhunting and our bowhunting members. In the interests of 95% of our moderate and conscientious membership and having a fun friendly place for us to swap stories and ideas these guidelines will be enforced.
Board-wide Policies
This document is designed to clarify various responsibilities of members here at The Bowhunters Group of Australia (www.aussiebowhunter.com). Please read and become familiar with it.
Rule Policing
TBGA now operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences. Strike consequences will operate on an escalating scale. For example:
First strike – editing (moderation) or removal of offending post/s and no further consequences issued.
Second strike – immediate referral to Management Team for discussion of action and consequences.
Third strike – immediate suspension or cancellation (banning) of membership for time decided by administration in light of offenses. (Should strike three result in a “suspension”, upon return to active status, any and all strikes reaching “second strike” level will result in immediate and permanent cancellation of membership.)
a.Repeated and continued arguing with Management Team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate strike counted against you. Should this continue and exceed three strikes a suspension will be put in place as above.
b.Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact administration, e.g. if warned by a moderator you should contact the administration. If admin feel you were treated badly they may remove a warning. Their decision is final.
c.Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.
d.An exception to the three strike rule applies when users post insulting, indecent, inappropriate or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban at the discretion of Administration.
e.Repeated low level “strike one” type offenses will summate and escalate to “strike two” level and “strike three” level, if necessary.
f.Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While admin may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a very rare occurrence.
Forum rules
- Do not post inappropriate pictures of animals that do not respect the game taken. This includes unnecessary gore etc. It is a mark of respect that when taking photos you pose your game in a considered manner. Specifically, pictures of animals with arrows remaining in them are OUT. (If you are not sure about a pic check with the Management Team). Additionally, there are many long standing members that would be happy to edit your pictures if necessary.
- Language: there is no excuse for using what is clearly inappropriate language. Do not deliberately miss-spell words to avoid censorship by the automatic language filter.
- Discussion of unethical and illegal hunting practices and methods (including those determined by the Management Team to be unacceptable, questionable or ill-defined) is not permitted.
- All messages express the views of the author, and The Management Team will not be responsible for the content of any message.
- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a strike.
- The Management Team reserves the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as inappropriate, indecent, vulgar, spam, contrary to forum rules and guidelines etc. as noted in these points is up to Management Team and not users.
- Members should remember this board is accessible to a public audience. Posting any matter that portrays bowhunting in a bad or distasteful light, posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a strike.
- “Restarting” a locked thread will result in an automatic level two strike.
- Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Users linking to or posting material in violation of copyright and privacy laws will receive a warning and their post will be removed.
- Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline () image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to, or that is excessively large in data download size may be removed.
- Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should refrain from using excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
- The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings (as above) and/or the revocation of private messaging.
- Unsolicited advertisements by retail outlets are not permitted. Likewise, non-genuine classifieds advertisements (as determined by the Management Team) are not permitted. Any such posts will be deleted.
Avatars
Users are permitted to utilize a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth).
- Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth.
- Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges