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Code of Conduct
These guidelines are based on the ArchLinux Forum Etiquette and Debian Code of Conduct.
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, use the forum report function or PM the moderator group. Please do not post complaints on the forum.
Code of Conduct
- If you willingly choose to use the ArchServer distribution, you are welcomed to the community, and encouraged to embrace "The Arch Way".
- Arch is community developed. Proactively seek to give of yourself and bring only benefit to your peers and community.
- When asking for help, read the manual, do your research and provide details for those you are asking for help.
- When offering help, be patient and tactful.
- Communicate in public in English only. Use of other languages is accepted where that is explicitly allowed such as the "Other Languages" section of the forums, or the Language tools in the wiki.
- Make sure that you address your questions and comments to the appropriate place. In particular, don't send user-related questions to developer-related mailing lists.
- Do not use foul language.
- Try not to flame; it is not polite.
- Use common sense all the time.
- Please remember that the ArchServer Project team are NOT paid staff; all efforts are contributed gratis.
- If you have a question regarding Arch development, please ensure that your topic poses a specific question, and be open-minded to responses. If possible, please be productive and file a bug report, preferably with a proposal for solution.
Respect Other Distributions and Operating Systems
- Maligning other GNU/Linux distributions, operating systems, or users thereof will NOT be tolerated.
- The entire ArchServer team is happy to volunteer their time and energy to provide you with the ArchServer distribution, documentation and forums. Kindly show respect toward the volunteers, users and communities of other distros and operating systems as well.
- Views, experiences, opinions and light-hearted banter are always welcome, but unproductive and/or malicious slander is not.
Advertising/Solicitation
- Publicity for a cause or the promotion of goods and/or services will be monitored closely. Generally, if it is related to Arch (as a project or community) or GNU/Linux/FOSS, it will be allowed.
- Commercial advertising, invites, plugging, or blog-type promotions are typically discouraged, or outright banned.
Mailing List Rules
- Do not send automated "out-of-office" or "vacation" messages to mailing lists. You will be unsubscribed if the message reaches other users.
- Avoid sending messages in HTML; use plain text instead.
- Do not send large attachments.
- Do not quote messages that were sent to you by other people in private mail, unless agreed beforehand.
Forum Rules
These rules are generally applicable to the forums. They are in addition to all other Code of Conduct Guidelines.Personal Topics/Rants
- Rants and complaints are frowned on and may be closed as they are discovered.
- Posts of this type are much better suited for a blog or other personal web space, especially if they are not related to the ArchServer Project.
Ineffective Discussion (BIKESHED)
- Questioning or discussing the methods used by the ArchServer development team will be monitored closely and locked if deemed unhelpful and/or unproductive.
- Harsh and/or unproductive criticism is also uncalled for.
Respect Other Users
- Respect other users and their views; even if you disagree with them. Personal attacks against community members will NOT be tolerated. "Examine that which is said, not he who speaks it."
- Don't be a Help Vampire.
- Please mark your thread as [SOLVED] by editing the original post title when a solution is found to assist others in the future when they are looking for a solution to their problem.
Pasting Pictures and Code
- Use [ code ] tags when pasting console snippets.
- Use http://pastebin.ca/ (or similar) when posting large amounts of code.
- Do not post full screen pictures; use thumbnails instead. Please avoid using picture hosting services that force unwanted pop-up windows on users (eg, imageshack)
Old Threads/'Necro-Bumping'
- Do your part to keep the forums tidy.
- Do not post in threads that are 6 or more months old.
- Resurrecting old threads generally creates disjointed zombie information for the community and can also make forum moderation unnecessarily complicated.
- If necessary, you may link to the older thread in your new thread.
Maliciousness
- Threads and posts that are deemed to be malicious will be removed.
- Malicious posts include harmful or dangerous advice given under the pretence of helping another user.
- Examples of this include obviously damaging commands such as "rm -Rf /" and forkbombs.
- Other malicious posts include posts soliciting a user to unknowingly expose personal details or that deliberately reduce another user's privacy and/or security without their knowledge.
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.
- 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, often redirecting the blame onto the community and its 'failure to understand them properly'.
- There is a dedicated section of the forums for threads deemed to be trollish in nature.
- Also, please do not feed the trolls. Every post has a "Report" link to let the forums mods know about inappropriate threads.
Avoid Controversy/Controversial Topics
- There is no explicit list of topics considered to be 'trollish', controversial or provocative, but in the past, threads with posts pertaining to the topics below have invariably been closed. Therefore, specifically avoid these divisive topics on the ArchServer forums.
- Religion
- Sports
- Race
- Nationalism
- Politics
No Power-Posting/Empty 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 you reply to messages, make sure you have something to say.
- These empty posts clutter up threads and discussion, invalidates the 'Show New Posts' function, and wastes bandwidth and server space.
- Threads that degenerate into a series of '+1/-1' or 'me too/I agree/I disagree' with no content 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, you may 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 in the wiki, on the forum (by using the search function) or on the web, and the community's unwillingness to point out the obvious.
Cross-Posting
- Cross-posting is posting the same question multiple times (for example, posting in both 'Newbie' and 'Installation' sub-forums).
- This is a waste of resources and is not permitted.
- Any cross-posted topic will be immediately locked or deleted.
Spam
- Spam is not allowed.
- Spam is a blight upon the face of the internet.
- Please report the offending post with the forum report function and a moderator will review it for removal.
- Offending spam accounts and associated IP addresses will be banned.
Warnings, User Locking, Banning
- If the Arch Forum Moderation Team feels that a member's forum behaviour is unacceptable and warrants intervention, a private 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 Arch Forums, IRC channels, or mailing lists 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.
- 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, or facilitate, incite, move, or persuade others to some act of, lawlessness or illegal activity."
- 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
- pirating/pirated software or copyrighted/patented material
- 'warez', or sites which provide torrents or links to such content
