Moderation/Rules of the Board

A forum to discuss Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency and its relationship to Multiple Sclerosis.
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jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Moderation/Rules of the Board

Post by jimmylegs »

Notice re Content and Tone
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-145.html#145
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject: Rules of the Board
Posted by: Administrator - Site Admin
Everything is fair game, assuming it is correctly classified and within good taste...

Off-topic subjects are encouraged! This is a site for the MS community, which is comprised of vibrant people, who don't necessarily just want to confine themselves to discussing narrow topics. Again, please keep things in good taste and you won't have a problem.

All that being said, the boards are moderated on a volunteer basis-- there are a number of people who have volunteered to keep an eye on the forums to try to make sure things don't get out of hand (illegal ads, personal attacks, revealing personal information, etc.). That being said, we cannot and do not monitor every posting for content-- all problems should be reported to the moderator(s); otherwise assume we have not seen the offending posts.

Reminder re Arguments
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-1639.html#1639
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:44 pm Post subject:
Posted by: Arron - Site Admin
Just a friendly reminder: We love the debating that's been going on lately because it forces people to think critically and challenge their own beliefs.

However, there can be too much of a good thing. If you disagree with someone, please succintly state why and let it go at that. Point, counterpoint, counter-counter point, etc. is not useful-- the reality is that after the first disagreement, you will rarely convince another of something they feel strongly about unless you have shocking new information to share. The drawn-out debates also turn people off from reading the messages in the first place. If you really have to get something off your chest, please send that person a Private Message-- there is no need to have a long argument in public.

Banning Policy
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-1964.html#1964
Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:05 pm Post subject: Banning Policy
Posted by: Arron - Site Admin
Multiple situations have arisen now where members have been accused of crossing the line in one way or another and a call has been raised to ask them to leave.

It is extremely difficult to determine in a fair fashion if one should be on the site or not. Just because someone does not agree with you does not mean they should be prevented from posting. However, if the manner in which they respond is making a large number of people uncomfortable and negatively affects the tone of the site, the offending member will unfortunately need to leave, or in forum terms, be "banned."

Effective immediately, if I [receive] more than 5 PMs from established posters (registered for over 1 month, with more than 10 posts) complaining in detail-- with examples-- about a particular member, I will put the member on notice of the complaints and ask them to provide a public response. If after posting the defense, those same complaints are upheld, the member will be banned. If no defense is provided, the member will of course be banned.

Reinstatement will be on a case-by-case basis, run through me.

Notice re Personal Attacks
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-4760.html#4760
Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:57 am Post subject:
Posted by: Arron - Site Admin
Personal attacks, which can consist of slightly veiled innuendo or sarcastic comments aimed at the poster as opposed to the content of the post, are not tolerated at This is MS. We of course reserve the right to ban or suspend any member who violates this rule.

...This goes both ways, debaters.

Notice re Advertising
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:37 am Post subject:
Posted by: Arron - Site Admin
NO advertising is allowed on the message boards, period. If you like a product, you can tell us about it. But if you gain financially from selling said product, your posts will be deleted and you will be banned from the site without warning. Thank you for your understanding of this simple rule.

Notice re External Links
Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:25 pm Post subject:
Posted by: Arron - Site Admin
To this point, this site has maintained an open policy on the posting of links (URLs) to other sites (given common standards like good taste, and non-commercial links).

...However, this open policy has been abused from time to time, most recently in the arena of extraneous, repetitive links to generic pages at a given website. One generic link in particular has been mentioned in 182 separate threads, and many, many more times in each of those 182 threads, probably approaching 1000 mentions! To any reasonable individual, this constitutes an abuse of an open policy, and more practically, clutters the site with repetitive offsite links that can already be readily found.

As/If I notice this abuse, I will selectively disallow the posting of such URLs.
Notice re account closures
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:23 am Post subject: Re: Rules of the board
Posted by: NHE - Volunteer Moderator
Updated Rules of the Board as posted on the Forums FAQ thread. I'm reposting them here in the case that anyone has missed them.

ThisIsMS is a MS discussion forum with a worldwide audience. The purpose of ThisIsMS is to facilitate communication between MS patients, their caregivers and other individuals, such as doctors and researchers, with an interest in MS. The goal of ThisIsMS is to provide helpful information to those who need it so that by working together we can solve our common problems. ThisIsMS does not exist to be any particular individual's soapbox from which to conduct a battle. It is not a sporting arena. Flame wars, personal attacks and other antagonistic behavior will not be tolerated. There are other newsgroups and forums where such activity is acceptable. However, it will not be tolerated at ThisIsMS. Where appropriate, as deemed by the forum administrator and the forum moderators, a single warning may be issued and accounts will be closed without prior notice upon continuation of such activity.

NHE
Last edited by jimmylegs on Wed Sep 29, 2010 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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