View source for 68kMLA:Forum Rules

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<center>''We reserve the right to change or add to these rules without notice. Last update: {{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{padleft:{{REVISIONMONTH}}|2|0}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}.''</center>

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==68kMLA Forum Rules==

====No flaming, trolling, slander, etc…====
In the interests of keeping the forums a fair and civil place, personal attacks against '''anyone''' will not be tolerated. Furthermore, we will not tolerate any posts made with the intention of causing other members to react aggressively. Such posts will be locked or removed without notice.

====No spam, advertising, etc…====
If you sign up here simply to post spam or advertisements for products or services, you will be banned and your account will be deleted. End of story. We have a zero tolerance approach when it comes to spam. 

Furthermore, to reduce the number of spam "sleeper" accounts, we regularly purge the member list of accounts that have zero posts. If you do not make at least one forum post in the first week of your membership your account may be removed. This action is purely to remove unused spam accounts, but we appreciate that it may affect some genuine users who simply have not posted yet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this, and suggest that if you are affected by this you simply sign up again. Once you make at least one forum post your account will no longer be queued for deletion.

====Search the forums before posting…====
Quite often, a topic has been posted before. Please make use of the search functions to see if you can get an answer to your question without posting a new topic. It's often better to revive an old thread with new information rather than post a new one. However, reviving old threads for a pointless "me too!" style post is generally frowned upon.

====Post in the appropriate forum…====
Before posting a new topic, please take a few moments to evaluate which of our forums best suits the subject you are posting about. We offer a number that are specialised to specific topics so please use these so that other members can find the topic more easily.

====No cross/multiple posting…====
The forum is small enough that you don't need to post multiple copies of one topic. We will merge or remove multiple topics without notice.

====Use proper English…====
Please do not use "txtspk" or "1337spk". For everyone's sake, use correct English (be it British English, American English or whatever). Also, typing ALL IN CAPITALS is considered bad etiquette and frankly just makes your posts harder to read!

====No excessive quoting====

Also, a little note about "house style" on the MLA - we discourage excess quoting as it tends to make threads cluttered and difficult to follow. Although most of our members browse here with modern machines, being a vintage computing community, we still aim to keep the forums readable on slower and small-screen devices. 

<u>Please keep quoting to a minimum</u>. 

<b>The rule of thumb is:  if your post makes sense by ''reading the thread'' in order, down the page, then you don't need the quote.</b>

<u>Please <b>don't</b> quote the comment directly behind yours</u>, '''unless''' you need to extract a small part of a long comment and reply specifically to that. If you are responding to an earlier comment in thread, '''please quote only the relevant part''' to which you are responding, rather than the entire comment. 

If you are quoting from another thread, the same applies, and in addition please provide a link to the relevant thread & comment. The URL for a specific comment is revealed by clicking the comment number (ie, ''#14'') in the top right corner of each comment.

====Please keep all topics clean and safe for work…====
We try to run a family friendly forum, so please keep all topics clean and safe for work. There are plenty of other places you can discuss the seedier side of the internet – this is not one of them. Topics that we feel are not suitable for discussion here may be removed without notice.

====Please avoid profanity…====
While we won't censor your posts, we'd appreciate it if you'd avoid using profanity. While you may not, please appreciate that some people find it offensive. Please show respect for the other members of the forum and keep your language clean.

====No excessive posting…====
Posting just to raise your post count will not be tolerated. We want to encourage intelligent discussion here, not just run a chat room and constantly posting "me too!" style responses gets annoying quickly. Although The Lounge is for posts that don't fit in anywhere else, endless off-topic threads get tiring quickly. If you want to chat about the weather then our IRC Channel might be a more appropriate place to do it.

====This is not an eBay/Craigslist/etc seller appraisal forum…====
While there are certainly some items listed on eBay/Craigslist/etc that our membership would find interesting, we will not tolerate posts that insult a seller for the price they have decided to sell the item at or the contents of their listing. While we don't mind users questioning the price of an item posted, it is the seller's prerogative to choose the price they sell their item for, and not knowing the exact value or specifications of old computer equipment certainly doesn't make them an "idiot". Posts linking to an auction with the sole purpose of questioning the price or listing details will be locked or removed. Not only can they can encourage people to overstep the fine line between fairly questioning the price and flaming the seller, they lead to a generally bad atmosphere on the forums.

====No Microsoft (or other company) bashing…====
Threads or posts pointlessly bashing any company or any of their products will be removed or locked. While we understand some of you have a hatred of certain companies, starting threads to bash them just because you don't like them will not be tolerated. Structured, analytical, discussion is fine – if you're discussing a flaw in one of their products from an unbiased view, for example. But anyone saying "it's because <insert company name here> sucks" is out of order.

====Politics, Religion, Etc.====
One of the most common kinds of threads that are difficult to moderate and frequently get moderated improperly are threads that deal with politics, religion, and other sensitive subjects. As such, it is site policy that all such discussions be left outside. While we respect your beliefs and views and your right to hold them, this is a computer forum. We reserve the right to lock or remove any such posts without notice.

====Please obey the law…====
Any topics that are discussing matters that are legally or morally suspect, and that might get the poster or the forum in trouble will be locked. The last thing we want is a lawsuit against us because someone was discussing how to pirate the latest version of <inset product name here>, how to hack the FBI, etc. The 68kMLA will never condone software piracy.

====Avatars…====
We allow you to choose a small graphic to use as an avatar. However, we reserve the right to remove any image that we deem inappropriate without notice. Although animated GIFs are allowed, we discourage you from using them since they can be distracting.

====Signatures…====
For the benefit of other members of the forum, especially those on small screens, please try to keep your signatures short. Having more than three or four lines is probably too much. If you really want to have a complete list of every machine you own, then your user page on the [[Main_Page|68kMLA Wiki]] is probably a better place to do it. You can link to your user page using the <nowiki>[wiki][/wiki]</nowiki> BBCode tags – see [http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9161 this forum topic] for more information. Other URLs, images and smilies are disabled in signatures.

===="Three Strikes…"====
We operate a "Three Strikes…" policy when it comes to warnings. Members who break the rules will first be issued with a warning via a Private Message. A second offence will result in a temporary suspension and a third will result in a permanent ban from the forums. Please note that this policy is just a guideline and be waived depending on the case.

====Moderator decisions are final…====
This is not a democracy. The moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. All decisions are final and should, under no circumstances, be the subject of open debate on the forums. If you have a problem with the actions of a moderator, please PM either the moderator in question, one of the administrators or e-mail [mailto:admin@68kmla.org admin@68kmla.org]. 

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