Where is this link to the forum policies, that you want me to read?
That's fascinating -- the link to the TOS and policies is even more enigmatic than it was before. There were supposed to be clickable links to the policies in each of the little words "forum policies" in the individual headings; now there aren't. There used to be a link somewhere in that bar menu, not in the place I'd have thought to look for it but somewhere; I can't find it now.
We have had exhaustive discussions about the policies, which contained links to the original content, a number of times, and you could 'search the community' for some of them.
Brian -- fix this. Put the links back and make navigation to the TOS for Kalmbach as an organization and Trains Magazine in particular better and quicker. I found it highly interesting that Googling for them didn't produce much except peripheral references and, in one case, a synopsis of the MR policies but not the policy document itself!
RME That's fascinating -- the link to the TOS and policies is even more enigmatic than it was before. There were supposed to be clickable links to the policies in each of the little words "forum policies" in the individual headings; now there aren't. There used to be a link somewhere in that bar menu, not in the place I'd have thought to look for it but somewhere; I can't find it now. We have had exhaustive discussions about the policies, which contained links to the original content, a number of times, and you could 'search the community' for some of them. Brian -- fix this. Put the links back and make navigation to the TOS for Kalmbach as an organization and Trains Magazine in particular better and quicker. I found it highly interesting that Googling for them didn't produce much except peripheral references and, in one case, a synopsis of the MR policies but not the policy document itself!
I guess like the Tech Industry heading toward Y2K - they have the application but have lost the source code.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I'm baffled. Who is the "you" that wants the original poster of this thread to read about policies, and why isn't the question asked in the thread that "you" stated the suggestion?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
It's on the Model Railroad Forum:
If you are new to our forums, welcome! Below is an outline of our general forum rules. If you ever see any of these being violated, please use the “Report Abuse” link that’s found in the lower left of every single post in our forum. (It looks like a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point.) An automated message will be sent to our moderators and the infraction will be dealt with.Thanks for participating in our forums. Your contributions make our forum a great resource for train enthusiasts from around the world. Your assistance policing our forums helps keep the environment positive and enjoyable for people of all ages.Now, to the rules:- Please keep discussions on topic (that is, railroad-related). - Your forum signature should not be used as a place to express your personal beliefs (religion, politics, marital status, sexual preference, etc.). Remember, this is a forum tied to our common bond of railroading; don’t let your personal viewpoints on unrelated topics interfere with the common reason we’re all here.- No buying and selling via the Forums. Our forums should not be used as an advertising medium for companies who want to promote their business or products, or by individuals who want to promote their items for sale or their eBay auctions. Our users are the drivers behind this policy. They don’t want the useful information in our forums watered down with advertisements or solicitations to buy something. If you’d like to advertise on our site, scroll to the bottom of this page and click the “Advertise” link. Show promoters, check out our Coming Events section. You can post your events free; click “Add My Event” in the left column.- No swearing or foul language. And we don’t care if you use symbols to mask the words. The meaning is still conveyed and we don’t want it in our forum. Please keep in mind that we have readers of all ages. This isn’t a tavern.- No personal attacks or name-calling. Please keep conversations cordial. We understand that there will be differences of opinion. Please don’t let those differences turn ugly. Accept that others might not have your same point of view, don’t sink to personal attacks. Nothing is gained by doing so.- No political discussions or signature messages. We know, railroads are sometimes affected by politics. However, we’ve found that political discussions almost always turn into arguments. We have a common thread of being interested in railroads. Don’t let that common bond be destroyed by political differences.- No inherently divisive discussions or signature messages. Hot-button topics like guns, abortion, religion, immigration, and crime aren't welcome, for the same reasons as political discussions and signatures. We all have our own views, and this isn’t the place to share them. Remember, this is a railroading forum.- No inappropriate images or videos. If you choose to post photos or links to videos, please keep them railroad-related and use your best judgment. Someone getting hit by a train or using poor judgment around a train (e.g. playing “chicken” with a train) isn’t welcome.- Don’t use our forum as a means of promoting another forum (or discussion group, Facebook page, online magazine, contest, fund-raiser, etc.). Within your forum profile, you’re allowed to share your own Web site and blog URL. Leave it at that. (To update your forum profile, log into the forums, then click your username where it says “Welcome back so-and-so” near the top of the forum.)
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Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Thanks, Norris, for importing the Model Railroading policy--which, I am confident, is the same for all of the Kalmbach forums.
Basically, it tells us that we are to respect one another, and not bring material that has no real connection with railroading in (except, of course, for the social threads, and we are to respect one another there), nor should we make inflammatory posts.
Johnny
Deggesty Thanks, Norris, for importing the Model Railroading policy--which, I am confident, is the same for all of the Kalmbach forums. Basically, it tells us that we are to respect one another, and not bring material that has no real connection with railroading in (except, of course, for the social threads, and we are to respect one another there), nor should we make inflammatory posts.
Apparently, the OP on this thread had his knuckles raked for one reason or another, and threatened with time out?
Generally, it has been a personal observation that the adults here have been most respectful of Kalmbach's Rules....Certainly, it was a far different time that some years back when the intermural 'flame fights', and general aspersions were being cast as disagreements arorse among the likes of 'Futuremodal, Michael Sol, and several others whom I have tried to forget...Those were the times when Murphy Siding and Selector got a little older and grayer....
Recently, time have been somewhat genteel by comparison...Selector has been able to just deal with reclacritrant students and Murphy Siding has one to deal with the occasional spinter in his fingers.....
To paraphrase Captain Marko Rameus of the Red October..." Sometimes a little revolution can be a good thing"...
DeggestyThanks, Norris, for importing the Model Railroading policy--which, I am confident, is the same for all of the Kalmbach forums.
The official policy is in the Kalmbach terms of service, which is not linked at present (but I think should be - there should be 'hot links' from each of the 'read our forum policies' notes in the forum section descriptions directly to the part of the TOS regarding forum policies.) It can be found here.
For convenience, I reproduce the relevant section of the current TOS. In particular, note where it is similar, and where it differs, from what Mr. Otte posted.
Forum TermsViolating any of the Terms below may result in your forum account being locked. In the event that your forum account is locked, we may, but are not obligated to, remove forum posts you have added to our site. Please keep discussions on topic. No personal attacks or name-calling. Please keep conversations cordial. We understand that there will be differences of opinion. Accept that others might not have your same point of view. Don't sink to personal attacks. No swearing or foul language, and don't use symbols to mask the words. The meaning is still conveyed and we don't want it in our forum. Please keep in mind that we have readers of all ages. Your forum screen name and signature should not be used as a place to express your personal beliefs (religion, politics, martial status, sexual orientation, etc.). Remember, our forums are hosted to bring people with a common interest together in one place. Don't let your personal viewpoints on unrelated topics interfere with the common reason we're all here. No advertising and no use of company names as screen names. Our forums should not be used as an advertising medium for companies who want to promote their business or products, or by individuals who want to promote their items for sale or auction. Our users are the drivers behind this policy. They don't want the useful information in our forums watered down with posts that are nothing more than advertisements No political discussions or signature messages. No religious discussions or signature messages. No inappropriate images or videos. If you choose to post photos or links to videos, please keep them on topic to the forum thread. Don't use our forum as a means of promoting your forum (or online group, sweepstakes, prize drawings, contests, etc.). Within your forum profile, you're allowed to share your own website and blog URL. Please, leave it at that. Please respect copyright material. If you want to share copyright material with our users, please link to it. Don't take a story from another website and post it in our forum. Likewise, don't take a photo that you don't own the rights to and use it in our forum.
Now, I note in particular that there is no exception tha says individual magazines or divisions can add or take away from these Terms. That is both a good and bad thing in this context, but would be easily fixed (if desired) by adding a couple of lines to the 'master' Kalmbach TOS permitting that practice.
However, until that is done, the above is the sole legal and applicable policy that Kalmbach Publications maintains for its Forums, and the terms in it ... including the right to lock accounts and remove posts ... remain in force. One thing which that rather pointedly establishes is that arbitrary proscriptions of, say, discussions of graffiti or the hobo lifestyle are themselves not permitted (and note that our present mods in the Trains forum 'officially' relaxed both those proscriptions when they took up the moderation cudgels).
It may also be instructive to compare the immediately following TOS for blog posts, which is considerably shorter, and examine the different character of posting in blog comments for Trains Magazine.
Blog Comments TermsViolating any of the Terms below may result in your account being locked. In the event that your account is locked, we may, but are not obligated to, remove comments you have added to our blog. Please keep comments on topic (that is, specifically related to the blog post you're commenting on). Please keep comments cordial. No swearing or foul language, and don't use symbols to mask the words. The meaning is still conveyed and we don't want it in our blog. Please keep in mind that we have readers of all ages.
[My general layman's understanding of how TOS 'constitutional interpretation' ought to work is that individual moderators can take a more lenient interpretation of the TOS, but can't enforce more stringent restrictions than are actually provided, or be 'discriminatory' in enforcing some provision of the TOS for some people, but not others. Of course it can be like small-town traffic court in that 'the letter of the law' can be applied to you but not necessarily anyone else in the session merely at a judge's discretion, or more strictly if you tick the judge off or irritate him in some personal way, and have fun appealing the decision to some higher authority at your own expense if you want to try... ]
Note that this policy dates from 2010, but pointedly does not contain any term that forbids criticizing a moderator's decisions in any way, which I recall being a hot topic in the late, lamented modac fiascos. The specific provision about this is
You must not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate site staff or other site members.
It would take a Stalinist article-58 mentality to extend this to locking or banning people who criticized arbitrary moderator decisions. That nonetheless was done for a while, until more sensible people looked at the situation objectively.
Nor, in all these years, has anyone fixed the amusing typo that seems to claim soldiers can't post anything about war, or added (as the Trains Magazine mods did) a proviso that 'political discussion' relevant to a thread topic -- as, for example, Amtrak threads almost always involve -- is permitted (within limits that themselves should be defined in TOS). I also repeat that the very first term continues to slam the door (officially) on any issue of thread drift or 'freedom of speech' issues -- discussions that do not stay on the OP's announced topic are in violation of TOS, and to paraphrase what Juniatha used to say 'full stop, end of statement'.
The point remains, however, that these are the current TOS, not anything cached or copied from posts made by individuals, and until they are amended they are rules this community should abide by -- or agitate to get amended.
If it isn't posted here by Kalmbach - it didn't happen.
With some regret, I note the difference between how the Kalmbach organization defines and maintains their TOS and how they set out their privacy policy -- which hot-links from many places except, amusingly, from the link on the official Kalmbach TOS page, which is broken. (As a case in point, although COPPA is not mentioned by name, there is a section in the privacy policy that specifically establishes legal basis for the kinds of specific protection that law calls for.)
To paraphrase what Balt just said, 'if it isn't posted in the official TOS by Kalmbach, it shouldn't happen' -- and if anyone wants to modify or amend or even explain any of the official TOS provisions, outside the applicable organization TOS, that carries no official weight even if the 'anyone' is a moderator or an editor. The place to fix, or explain, anything is in the applicable TOS itself ... and only a few words there will do so everywhere for everyone.
Forgive me please. but curiosity has gotten the better of me... what "amusing typo"?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Look for the phrase that is a euphemism for having a spouse.
RME Look for the phrase that is a euphemism for having a spouse.
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