Rules and guidelines for forum post content

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As a reminder: all forum posts and their content, including attachments, are governed by the Terms and Conditions of this site. The administration has the right to remove, or not remove, what they deem necessary. Based on the rules of the site and when US Law is applicable content may be modified or removed.

With this in mind please be aware of the following before posting a message:
  • This is a globally accessible web forum. Any and everyone can see your posts; this includes your employer. This site is indexed by Google, Bing and various other search engines so the content is even more freely available on a web search. Given the popularity of this site in the radio communications field you can never know who is reading your posts. So think before you post. Will your post violate a NDA or other signed agreement? Could you be providing content that may be considered private or proprietary? Please do not make the mistake of posting information that could land you unemployed. I'll give you an example... Lets say your employer uses communications which you have access to. Through some other means you determine frequency and/or tone information, or talkgroup information, from this radio. You then post it on the RadioReference forums. This may be grounds for your employer to terminate your employment or place you on administrative action. So what should you do with info you have gleaned? Submit it to the database and mark it as anonymous that way no member of the public will know its source. As of 08/30/2011 we will not longer honor requests to delete posts made after that date.
  • There are people from different countries which do not speak English as their primary language on these forums. Before replying to a post to criticize another's grammar or spelling please keep this in mind. Think of how you would look attempting to compose a message in their language if you were not fluent in it.
  • Please respect the religion, race and/or nationality of a member on this site regardless of what you believe. No one is permitted to criticize another because of what they believe in or their physical appearance. If you have a disagreement form a civilized opinion and offer it to the applicable Tavern forum. Continued hate speech will get you - quickly - removed from this site. We support free speech here but not when it demeans another member. This is a private forum; we determine your rights.
  • Before citing laws attempt to determine if your laws are applicable to the thread or member, because they may not be. Different country equals different law. Yes, it's great you can cite the code and sub-paragraph but no one is impressed by it, so save it. If you attempt to self-police a thread you may be seen in violation of the site rules by doing so.
  • The forums are to have content viewable by all ages unless the forum explicitly states it is for adults only. Consider the language rules like the rules for prime time television. This means no curse words!
  • Everyone is to be seen an equal here. No member may criticize another because of their education or ignorance of a topic. You may not call someone stupid or dumb or any other word in an attempt to make them feel less for not having knowledge of a particular subject. No member may harass or threaten another member either.
  • No visitor or member of this site may send an offer, without permission, to another member in an attempt to offer services or a product for a fee. This is considered spamming. Only authorized representatives may offer their services and they will never offer them privately.
  • All goods transactions are to occur in the Classifieds section of the website. No one may advertise items or services available for sale or trade outside of the Classifieds section; this includes advertising a Classifieds item on the forums. No transactions dealing with copyrighted software will be allowed at all; please see this announcement for details. Good or services that are offered without any compensation (not including shipping) are allowed in the regular forums.
  • You are responsible for the activity of your account. If someone gains unapproved access to your account please notify us immediately.
  • In an effort to keep the forums operating smoothly and information easily accessible you are required to post in the correct forum. You may not under any condition, unless approved by a moderator, post the same thread to multiple forums; this is considered "cross-posting". Choose the most applicable forum and give it some time. If you do not receive a useful answer within a week post the question to another forum. If a moderator moves your thread, do not get angry. We've been here for a while and know where content goes so calm down. Also, please do not post the same post to several threads.
  • All replies to a thread are to be on-topic or within reason. If someone posts a question about programming a Motorola trunked system in to a specific model this does not mean you can reply and ask how to program an EDACS system in to the same model. This is considered thread hijacking. Please respect the "OP" (Original Post or Original Poster) as they govern what the thread is about. If they want to take their own thread off-topic, that is their choice, not yours (OP: this does not mean you can self-moderate your thread; report the post(s) instead). When in doubt, create your own thread.
  • Replies to a thread should be aligned with the spirit/intent of the thread. Replies that are meant to derail the thread or don't contribute to the OP's original intent are examples of thread crapping.
  • Please do not ever post to a thread simply to say "bump" or something similar. Wait about a week then make a post with a little more substance. Did you try other things to help your problem? Say it in the reply. Please give others the chance to visit the forums - many who do not on a regular/daily basis - that could possibly assist you in your thread, or post. Do not post just for the sake of following a thread. At the top of the thread is a drop-down which will allow you to Follow the thread without posting.
  • No one using this site regardless of membership status may sell/re-sell, request or attempt to trade software which is originally sold for retail. This is to include programming software of any type, registration keys, general software applications, operating systems, etc. This rule extends to private messaging and using the link to email a member. If caught you will receive an immediate infraction so it is in your best interests to be as descriptive as possible when asking about software. Note: P2P, torrents, etc can be used for legitimate sources of software so discussion of them is permitted in the Tavern.

Copy/Pasting Content From Other Websites
When taking content from another website, such as a news reporting website or another frequency resource, it is very important you do not take the complete article or body of text. This information is copyrighted by the owner and requires permission to be used by anyone else. Please provide a short snippet of text or summary from the article and then link to it.


If and when a problem occurs:

Due to the size of this site we depend on the community to assist us by notifying us when a post violates the forum rules. In the lower left of every post is a Report Post link. Click the link to report the post. It will immediately notify the staff who will act swiftly and appropriately. We take them seriously so please provide enough serious information when reporting a post. Lack of information will result in a report being ignored or delayed action.

When a member violates our rules please do not engage the member in a debate, encourage or instigate this member to continue what they have started. I will repeat for clarity's sake, DO NOT ENGAGE the member. Report the post and move on.

Please Note: regarding use of the post reporting system:
The post reporting system can also be used to notify a moderator you would like the thread stuck (made a Sticky) or unstuck, or other general thread changes unrelated to rule violations. So please ignore the warning about use of post reporting when you click the icon.​


Infractions:

This web forum invokes an infraction system. When a post is deemed a violation of the site's rules a message will be automatically generated with a note stating why and any further action that may occur. These infractions carry points. The more infractions, the more negative impact on your membership. You could lose posting privileges or be banned temporarily or permanently. These infractions will be received as private messages whether you have them turned on or off.

We use the infraction system to track offenses and keep the system formal. It is up to the discretion of the moderator handling the situation whether they decide to issue an infraction or contact you by other means. The standard is to issue an infraction.

The management structure is as follows:
If you have a problem with a specific post or member and don't wish to use the reporting system please contact one of the moderators starting from the top of this list. Jumping the chain of command may result in a delayed response. At the bottom of each forum thread index is a list of moderators for that forum. Please contact one of them first.


Lastly, YOU as a community make these forums, the staff and its rules do not. These rules are in place because not everyone can contribute to the forums in a positive manner. When everyone can work in a respectable and harmonious nature you will not see any action take place. Please respect the moderation staff for the job they do. They volunteer their time; the stress of performing administrative action is not what they want. We do not choose moderators because of how well they police others. All staff, including DB Admin, are held to a higher standard with regard to how they conduct themselves on the forums and are not above the rules.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!
 
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