Use of the Soaring Café forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Rules of Etiquette. If you violate these rules, we reserve the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without prior notice.
Contents
Principal Guidelines
We created the Rules of Etiquette to provide a basic understanding of what’s allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are the principal guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of these rules:
- Ensure a friendly atmosphere for our visitors and forum members
- Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
- Comply with existing laws
- Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our visitors
- Encourage freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner
General Rules
- While debating and discussion are fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Our decision is final in these matters.
- Please refrain from posting meaningless threads, one word (or short) nonsense posts, or the like.
- Multiple or repeated posting in order to increase your post count is not allowed.
- Cross posting, the act of posting the same thing across multiple forums, is not allowed. Please just post once in the most appropriate forum.
- Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the forum email and private message system to spam other members.
- Please wait a reasonable length of time before bumping posts, at least 24 hours.
- We also do not allow posts that are sexual or violent in nature. Adult/sexual topics and those concerning sexual orientation as used in a derogatory, inflammatory, or insensitive manner are not allowed.
- The SoaringCafe.com moderation team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.
- Discussion of illegal activities such as fraud, software and music piracy and other intellectual property violations are not allowed. There is a zero tolerance policy for illegal activity being discussed.
- Do not post content from private correspondence, such as email or chat, within the forums. Posting any other person’s private information such as email, phone number or address could result in banning.
- Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.
- We reserve the right to remove offensive posts without notice.
- If you are going to post non-english on these forums, please also post an english translation of your post.
- Foul language isn’t necessary, so it won’t be tolerated. Any attempt to bypass the profanity filters will result in an infraction against the user and that post being edited or removed. Using asterisks or any other symbol to disguise bad language is considered bypassing the filter.
- If you are going to post material that is not your own, properly credit the source(s); failure to do so is considered plagiarism.
Specific Rules
Be Responsible
If an interpersonal issue arises, please be mindful of the possibility that your behavior may have contributed to the problem. Taking responsibility for our actions is often a good first step toward a peaceful reconciliation.
Respect Other Users
Simply put, treat others as you wish to be treated; respect them and their views, even if you disagree with them.
Spam/Advertising/Solicitation
Spamming is forbidden. Please report spam with the forum report function and a moderator will review it for removal. Offending spam accounts and associated IP addresses will be banned. Do not reply to spam posts as it increases the amount of work required to clean them up.
No Trolling
A “troll” is a person who intentionally attempts to disrupt, cause controversy, incite an argument, and/or receive negative attention by deliberately posting provocative content. The term may also refer to the act of posting such content, or the content itself.
Trolls are generally deceitful and often use ambivalence as a method of covertly insulting, intimidating, or inciting a person or persons for their own sadistic pleasure. They often pick their words very carefully and are therefore able to defend their masked attempts at creating unrest, frequently redirecting the blame onto the community and its supposed failure to understand them properly. Trolling is strictly prohibited.
Avoid Divisive Topics
There is no explicit list of topics considered to be “trollish”, controversial or provocative, but in the past, threads with posts pertaining to religion, race, nationalism and politics have invariably been closed. Therefore, specifically avoid these and all divisive topics on the Café forums! The forum staff certainly realize that such issues are deeply ingrained human realities.
No Power-Posting Posts
Power-posting is best described as posting empty and worthless messages. It is not tolerated. People may have two reasons to do this: to increase their post count meaninglessly, or to lend support to an idea as if it were a vote. Examples of power-posting include, but are not limited to, replying with “+1”, “lol”, “me too”, “I agree”, or “:)”.
When posting or replying to messages, make sure you have something to say. These empty posts clutter up threads and discussion, invalidate the ‘Show New Posts’ function, and waste bandwidth and server space.
Threads that degenerate into a series of “+1/-1” or “me too/I agree/I disagree” will be locked. Individual power posts may also be deleted.
Bumping
Posting a single word or useless message (bumping) to attract attention to your thread is not allowed. Do your own research, continue to troubleshoot, post the results, and be patient with the community. If people are reading your thread without answering or offering help, try supplying more details, or ask to be pointed in the right direction. Often, the reason for posts remaining unanswered is due in large part to the sparse details in the original post itself, or, the obvious availability of solutions on the forum, on the web, or the community’s unwillingness to point out the obvious.
Cross-Posting
Cross-posting is posting the same question multiple times in different subforums. This is a waste of resources and is not permitted. Any cross-posted topic will be immediately locked or deleted.
Misplaced Posts
Try to place your posts in the correct forum for the topic. Our forums have been carefully categorized so that most topics fit in one logical location. Any post that is deemed by the staff to be in the wrong forum will be moved to the correct location without warning. Most users can find these on their own but if you lose your thread, it is acceptable to contact one of the forum advisers asking where it has been moved.
Thread Hijacking
Thread hijacking is the process of replying to an existing thread with a different topic. This is generally discouraged. It is better to start a new thread if you have a problem that is related to an existing posted issue but clearly different. Posts that hijack a serious thread with off-topic discussion are also discouraged.
Do Not Flame
Flaming, in the most common sense definition, is directing negative, disrespectful, and/or insulting comments toward someone. An equally or more negative response, resulting in a cycling exchange of insults is often the consequence. Flaming fellow members (including the Café team) will not be tolerated. Never resort to personal insults and please avoid sarcastic and patronizing language. Discussions can be productive, but quarreling is always destructive.
Respect The Staff
Members of The Soaring Café Forum Team have been chosen for their ability to exercise consistently good judgment and shall have the final say. Note that this forum is not run as a democracy. The forum staff shall always attempt to implement universally peaceful solutions, but in the end, are charged with the responsibility of maintaining peaceful, civil order for the forum majority. Therefore, they cannot always please everyone with the decisions made. Please do your part to contribute to a healthy community and environment.
If you feel that an egregious oversight has been made, do NOT post complaints in forum threads – they will be quickly closed. Alternatively, use the forum report function, email a member of the moderator group, or email forum@soaringcafe.com to contact the forum admins.
Warnings, User Locking, Banning
If the Forum Moderation Team feels that a member’s behavior is unacceptable and warrants intervention, a warning will typically be issued unless the occurrence is judged to be especially flagrant, in which case a ban may become imminent. Warnings will not be discussed on the Soaring Café Forums by the Moderation Team. If the warning goes unheeded, further action will be taken. This may range from locking the offending user account, to deletion or banning of the user, out of consideration for a peaceful forum and community. Action is generally on a case-by-case basis.
If a user is apologetic, interested in a peaceful solution and wishes to have their account reinstated, a general consensus will be formed by the moderation team for, or against, such a request.
Legality
Criminal solicitation is strictly forbidden on this website. In this context, “criminal solicitation” shall mean, “To actively or passively inform about, facilitate, incite, move, or persuade others to some act of lawlessness or illegal activity.”
Therefore, do not post discussions about or link to criminal solicitation in any form. This includes, but is not limited to information or links to facilitate illegal drug use, theft, network intrusion, creation of code for malicious purposes, prohibited software copying, prohibited use of copyrighted/patented material, so-called “warez”, or sites which provide torrents or links to such content. Illegal content will be removed swiftly and dealt with in full accordance with known applicable law.
Freedom
The free and open exchange of assistance, speech, ideas and opinions is highly regarded and encouraged on the forums, but it must be noted that the freedom granted to forum members is relative freedom. It exists within the boundaries of the above guidelines and principles. Complaints of censorship are therefore baseless and unfounded, since this necessary framework must simultaneously provide reasonable limitations. To illustrate, we are aware of the physical laws which govern energy and matter, yet we do not complain of their oppression. Instead, we recognize that such laws are essential for our welfare. Likewise, the Soaring Café community’s high standards reflected in these guidelines regulate community freedom for the common good and protection of all. The key, then, to true freedom on the forums is to cultivate benevolence toward others and by bringing only benefit to our peers. In addition, this allows members to satisfy all contributive impulses without aggravating themselves or encroaching on the freedom of others. Embracing the above principles and obeying the forum guidelines therefore benefits the entire community by providing freedom from the harmful and negative consequences of a more chaotic approach.
The Final Word
The owners, administrators, and moderators of this site reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any post or ban any user for any reason. By registering with the SoaringCafe.com forums, you agree to this rule and to all of the other site rules and guidelines.
All content posted on the Soaring Café forums is granted to the Soaring Café forums with electronic publishing rights in perpetuity, as all content posted on this site becomes a part of the community. Please note that all posts express only the views of the author. Neither the owners of SoaringCafe.com nor its administrators or moderators are responsible for the content of any post.
These rules and guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.
