New Forum Rules

[Roguelet]

As a participant on this forum, it is your responsibility to know and follow our rules. Please read this message in its entirety prior to posting.

Board Rules

1. You will be held accountable for what you post.
This is a public forum viewed by a wide spectrum of people. Outright inflammatory, vulgar, harassing, sexual, racist, or otherwise inappropriate statements, legally unsubstantiated defamatory accusations, and excessive swearing will not be tolerated and will be dealt with at the discretion of the moderators. Due to the popularity and size of the forums, policing each post is impossible, and members bear the ultimate responsibility for their comments. The Pedigree Query owners, staff and moderators are not responsible for the content of the forums, but the moderators will work to maintain the closest adherence to the rules of the board as possible.

2. Please place your threads in the correct forum and try to keep all posts on topic to that particular thread.
The forums are a wonderful source of information and support for our members. If you wish to share information or search for input on non-horse topics about which members might have a similar level of knowledge, please post in the appropriately titled off-topic forum. Please resist the temptation to hijack threads in any forum; instead you can create a spin off thread; placed in it's appropriate forum location.

3. Keep conversations productive, on topic and civil.
Discussion and disagreement are inevitable and encouraged; personal attacks, diatribes and sniping comments are unproductive and unacceptable. Whether a subject is light-hearted or serious, keep posts focused on the current topic and of general interest to other participants of that thread. Utilize the private message feature or personal email where appropriate to address side topics or personal issues not related to the topic at large.

4. Do not post copyrighted photographs or articles unless you have legal right to do so.
Feel free to post links to articles and pictures, and feel free to post articles and pictures that are not protected under copyright laws. You may post a snippet or small quote from an article in addition to the link, if there is a specific portion of that article that you wish to address in your post.

5. Respect and help the moderators.
As members are often passionate about their beliefs and intentions can easily be misinterpreted in this type of environment, try to explore or resolve the inevitable disagreements that arise in the course of threads calmly and rationally. If you see a post that you feel violates the rules of the board, please notify one or more of the moderators assigned to the forum where the perceived violation occurs. They will then take whatever action they deem appropriate for the situation. Do not ever air grievances regarding other posters or the moderators in the discussion forums.

Understand that the moderators exist to maintain a generally informative and enjoyable forum for the exchange of ideas, information and opinions. The moderators’ decisions are final and while you may not always agree with them, respect that such actions are done in the best interest of the board, based upon a number of factors, not always readily apparent to you. If you question the handling of a situation, contact a moderator privately and respectfully, in order to discuss it. However, realize that a moderator is under no obligation to and in some cases is simply not able to discuss some of these situations in detail.

Harassing, stalking, or threatening a moderator in any way, either publicly or privately, is cause for immediate permanent suspension of posting privileges on this forum.

6. Do not post a PM on this board unless consent to do so is granted by the author of the PM.

7. Do not post personal information about a poster unless consent to do so is granted by that person.

8. Posters may have only one identity (Pedigree Query Profile) for posting to the forums.
False and/or misleading information is not to be used when signing up. A username cannot be the name of a living person other than the actual poster him- or herself. Setting up or use of another Pedigree Query Profile or username to gain access to the forums after having been suspended or banned is absolutely forbidden, and is grounds for permanent banning without warning.

9. We reserve the right to enforce and amend the rules.
The moderators may delete, edit, move or close any post or thread at any time, and may suspend or revoke a user’s posting privileges at any time to maintain adherence to the rules and the general spirit of the forum. This is at the discretion of the moderators. These rules may be amended at any time to address the current needs of the board. Realize that the moderators have no control over your pedigree side membership, and revocation of posting privileges in the forums in no way affects your membership privileges on the pedigree side of this site.

Thanks for being a part of the Pedigree Query forum!




I will give everyone time to comment and make suggestions on these rules, as long as it is done politely and constructively. If attacks or inappropriate comments are made, the "discussion period" will immediately end.

I may then choose to adjust the new rules based upon input I receive, and after that time the rules will become official and will be posted clearly. Once the new rules are posted, each person here will begin with a clean slate and will not be judged on past behavior; only future behavior with regard to the new rules.

[Toccet02]

It all sounds fine to me.
The only thing is that it's easy to get off on silly tangents on threads . . .or to join in on such a hijacking...but I'll watch that!

[larrygene]

Thanks for putting in black and white what is expected from each and every poster. It is evident there was a great deal of time and consideration put into these rules before posting. Simple respect and a kind nature will go a long way toward making this the very best board possible. I applaud you, Rogue, and the other moderators for putting together these quidelines.

Thanks,
Larrygene

[Bunty Lawless]

The rules above look to be very well thought out and professional. I echo Larry Gene in his compliments and appreciation of the efforts expended.

The only element I would be concerned as being missing from the above rules, is the need to have a non-discretionary rule as to how many written warnings every poster (as equals) will get prior to being subject to a discretionary permanent or temporary suspension.

While discretion of the Moderators and the forum owner(s) is certainly a tool they should absolutely have, just as judges in the judicial system possess, there is also a requirement of all who enter here, to know what the procedures are and that they will be evenly applied. Otherwise, there will still be lots of dispute over whether or not someone was given the same chances as the next, to check their behavior.

When posters are online, in the heat of one of the possible offenses, there needs to be some way to contact that person privately, requiring a response, so the Moderator can be assured the offending individual received "NOTICE".

The way these boards function, it is often obvious that one is posting a response simultaneously with another. (Sometimes arguments actually get started by that bad timing.) So, perhaps looking ahead with circumvention of a problem in mind, the Board/Moderators could have a procedure of either PM and public forum warning from the Moderator, or just a PM & email warning. Another possible way would be if there is a function that a pop up or instant message can be activated, for Moderators only.

That would be the only place I see a loophole in the keeping of the peace.

[spex4me]

Read and agree to.

[Georgerz]

Very well thought rules. I will do my best to abide by them. Thank you.

[Tucumcari]

Me as well! I am happy to see all kinds of new posters lately and hope they find this a warm and inviting AND informative forum!
Kudos, Rogue

[Daisy Jal Dastur]

Thank you very much, Rouge - your efforts are appreciated!

[Tucumcari]

Wow, Daisy, seems like I haven't seen you around for a long time either. MAybe I'm just not paying attention

[Daisy Jal Dastur]

Wow, Daisy, seems like I haven't seen you around for a long time either. MAybe I'm just not paying attention

LOL - no, no... I've been around, just been crazy busy at work (just got a promotion - woohoo, more money to spend on the horses!!!)

[MINNOW]

Talking about people not being around,any one seen B Cassady Lately,It was because of him and his encouragement I plucked up enough courage to post on P Q. I hope he is still around,he is great at breeding.Always willing to help.

[Roguelet]

I forgot one... (see, this is why I wanted some "feedback time" before these rules became official!)

The "new" number 8 is one of our longstanding rules and needed to be included.

To address this comment:

The only element I would be concerned as being missing from the above rules, is the need to have a non-discretionary rule as to how many written warnings every poster (as equals) will get prior to being subject to a discretionary permanent or temporary suspension.

I agree, there is a gray area there and gray areas are never good. After a lot of thought, though, I'm still very hesitant to create a standard number of warnings simply because all infractions are not created equal by any stretch of the imagination, and I think the window needs to be left open to deal with infractions at the level they deserve. Some will be so minor as to not deserve a "black mark" but just a quiet suggestion, others will be so flagrant that they will deserve a hard slap in the face (figuratively speaking, of course... )

I think we're getting a very fair and respected group of people as moderators and I think we're just going to have to put some faith in them. One reason for the extra moderators, in addition to getting things dealt with more quickly because there will be more eyes on the board, is to help eachother out. If a mod is on the fence about the action to take, there are now other mods who can work together with that person to make the best decision possible for each specific situation.

So, I'll leave these up a bit longer in case there are other comments or suggestions, or anything else I've left out, then they'll become official and the mods can get to work!