Retrotalk : Community Guidelines : The Retrotalk Community Guidelines

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mwsmedia Member Since: September 2009 Contributions: 214 Gold Stars: 4 View User Posts	The Retrotalk Community Guidelines Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:35 pm Central Time Retrotalk is a collection of forums where members of the Retroland community gather to celebrate their shared formative culture, help each other recollect the music, TV shows, movies, toys and other ephemera of their pasts, or simply hang out together and enjoy each other's company. If Retroland is your time machine, Retrotalk is the garage where we all tinker on that machine like kids around a brass and clockwork hot-rod. Retrotalk depends on its thriving, active community of users like you. In many ways, the Retrotalk community represents the heart and soul of Retroland, which is all about people and their shared experiences. More often than not, Retrotalk represents a new visitor's first exposure to Retroland. Because of the great importance of Retrotalk to this site, and because we want you to have a great experience while you're here, we have a set of guidelines we expect all community members to follow both in the public forums and in direct messages to one another. Make Sure You've Read and Understand the Terms of Use for Retroland. These Terms apply to Retrotalk as well. By using this site, you indicate that you agree to abide by the Terms of Use. Always Be Respectful. The Retrotalk community is made up of thousands of people from all walks of life across a wide generational range. That's what makes this place special -- our shared love of our formative culture brings us together, and that covers a lot of ground! Always treat your fellow community members with respect and keep your interactions civil. Some ways to make sure this happens: Never personally attack another community member. You can disagree with a position, opinion or point of view without insulting or attacking the person who wrote it. Address the subject, not the author. Never post content of an offensive nature regarding anyone's race, creed, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, lifestyle, religion, economic status or health. Personal insults or comments of a degrading nature will be deleted without warning and the offending party will be contacted and possibly sanctioned. Don't assume affinity. While Retroland largely deals with pop culture in the United States, the Internet is an international medium. This means we can't assume the other members of the community share our political, ethical or religious beliefs, or lifestyle. Therefore, do not post comments containing stereotypes, blanket assumptions or derogatory content regarding any race, creed, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or lifestyle. Posts of this nature may be deleted without warning, and the poster will be contacted and possibly sanctioned. Don't Be A Troll. What's that? We like Indiana University's definition (edited here): "In online forums, a troll is someone who creates a provocative posting intended to get attention, to disrupt discussion, and to make trouble." Posts of this nature will be deleted without warning and the offending party will be contacted and possibly sanctioned. Don't be a troll... and don't encourage a troll by replying to their post no matter how tempting it may be! Keep It Conversational. Retrotalk is a community -- it's your virtual water-cooler, cocktail party, front porch stoop, backyard barbecue... you get the idea. If you have an idea for a post, think of it as a conversation starter. Avoid posting links or lists without adding your comments on the matter. Why should we click on this link? What is it that you love about it enough to share? What memories do you have about the items on that list? Don't "infodump" without standing on top of your informational heap and explaining why we should care. Stay On Target. Words to live by from Gold Five. For Retrotalk, this means keeping threads focused on the subject at hand. Consider the subject of the thread when crafting your reply -- do you have something to say that contributes to the thread and helps keep it going? "I agree" and "me, too" don't count... unless you can elaborate on your opinion, possibly adding new information or presenting a new, related question. The point is to drive the conversation forward. If you have something to add that diverges from the topic at hand, please start a new thread and link to the thread that inspired you. No Selling. It might seem obvious, but Retrotalk is not the place to promote whatever it is you're selling. This especially applies to the spammers who become members specifically to post links to their snake oil du jour, but regular contributing members of the community need to take heed as well. It's okay to put a link back to your website in your signature, or mention your day job in your Retropeople bio -- after all, we want to get to know you -- but refrain from using Retroland and Retrotalk as your personal marketing platform. Overtly self-promotional posts (spam) will be deleted without warning and the poster will be contacted and likely sanctioned. Your Moderators Matt Selznick -- mwsmedia here on Retroland and everywhere else on the Internet -- is Chief Evangelist for Retroland and your head moderator. He is ably assisted by Silent Ninja. Other moderators come from within and possibly (initially) outside of the Retrotalk community. We are people who love the pop culture that shaped who we are; fellow travelers on the time machine, just like you. We're your peers. We won't be strangers in the Retrotalk community -- expect to see us starting threads and contributing to yours. Every member of the Retrotalk community is responsible for the tone and atmosphere of this community. Through our actions, we shape how the rest of the world sees us, and that's important, since the steady growth of Retroland is essential to its continued success. Your moderators have the added responsibility of acting to guarantee the user experience in the Retrotalk community, and on Retroland as a whole, is as good as it can be. Your moderators will be on the forums every day, seven days a week, reviewing new posts and replies. Our first responsibility is to Retroland -- not to individual members or even to ourselves. When we have to act, we will attempt to do so in the spirit of fairness and equanimity, but we will do so decisively and independent from the opinions or influence of the rest of the community. The decisions of the moderators are final. Reporting Issues To the Moderators Send a Private Message to the moderator for the specific forum where the issue occurred. Please include all relevant details, including the name of the discussion thread and the date. Please keep your message brief and to the point. Use the same standards of behavior you're expected to use in the Retrotalk forums. If the issue relates to a direct message from another member of the community, please contact mwsmedia via Private Message. Again, keep your message brief and to the point and use the same standards of communication as in the rest of Retroland. Publicly addressing complaints, or the results of a complaint, is prohibited. This includes "grave dancing," the practice of speaking critically about a community member who has been banned. Remember that the Retrotalk community is a public one. Putting our dirty laundry out on the front lawn brings down the value of the neighborhood. Bring issues directly to the moderators at all times. Consequences Your moderators take bad behavior very seriously and deliver sanctions against offending community members up to and including banishment from the site. We might give a user the opportunity to act appropriately in the future, and we might not. Situations requiring sanctions are rare and conducted in private. Even the community member who presents a complaint may not be told the outcome. Everyone involved with a sanction situation is required to maintain absolute confidentiality. Failure to respect that confidentiality may result in receiving sanctions yourself. We take this approach because the Retrotalk forums are for sharing our common love of the pop culture that shaped who we are -- not for internal politics or hangings in effigy. Our first priority is to make sure Retrotalk and all of Retroland is a fun, safe place for existing members and an inviting destination for new and future members. Rewards When everyone in Retroland and the Retrotalk community follows these community guidelines, everyone benefits from a fun, enlightening and enriching place -- a virtual community every bit as valuable and meaningful as one in "real life." As mentioned above, Retrotalk is often the first thing new visitors to Retroland see -- it's in the best interest of the community that new visitors love what they find here, and decide to join us. Retroland is the premier destination of its kind on the World Wide Web -- the more people who know this, the more Retroland will thrive. Your actions in Retrotalk affect that growth directly -- being a good citizen, a good passenger (and often driver!) of the time machine that is Retroland is its own reward. Many thanks! _________________ Matthew Wayne Selznick Chief Evangelist http://www.retroland.com
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