Forum Etiquette Discussions

[Admin]

This thread was really a need of the hour... Thanks so much for writing this one

Reps added.

[saurav_k]

@just4kix

thanks for this thread. very descriptive indeed. cleared lot of my doubts. i would like suggest a few things and ask a few questions giving a few examples just like rupu1983 did in a previous post on this thread.

1) does long articles containing only a few sentences/statements copied from other sites fall under the category of copy-paste?

as mentioned by you in case of this thread it seems to be so :

http://www.indiabroadband.net/litera...lagiarist.html

2) are these rules (specially copy-paste) not applicable for moderators themselves? can we not report any post/thread by a moderator?

if not, then the report button on moderator's posts/threads should be removed.

if yes, then why even after reporting no change(like quoting the copied parts using the edit feature and providing the link) is done to such threads?

ex: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...indows-xp.html

may be copied from Personal Computers: 23 Ways To Speed Up Windows XP

and

http://www.indiabroadband.net/fashio...po-trends.html (Lifestyle in BPO's (Advantages, Disadvantages & Future BPO Trends))

may be copied from India call center jobs - Advantages, disadvantages and future BPO trends

3) if similar threads like these can co-exist ,

ex 1: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...t-browser.html (Best Browser?)

and http://www.indiabroadband.net/softwa...-browsers.html (War of the web browsers)

ex 2: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...like-most.html (Which anti-virus software do you like the most)

and http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...virus-use.html (Best antivirus to use ??)

then what was wrong in having this as a separate thread?: http://www.indiabroadband.net/sports...tml#post102620 (Is this the end of #1 status for Australia?)

this was posted as a new thread after more than a month when this thread was created: http://www.indiabroadband.net/sports...australia.html (Is this the end of #1 status for Australia?) and the last post on this thread before my thread was merged here was 22 days old. wasnt this a case of bumping threads? Also the thread i created was a bit different - it talked of the events over the past 1 month while the older thread was created when the test series was going on.

4) this is more of a curious query - i understand that copy-paste is not allowed(without providing links). is paraphrasing allowed?

5) why some reported instances of copy-paste threads are deleted while a few are locked and a few are left open with a warning message ?

http://www.indiabroadband.net/politi...n-we-same.html

http://www.indiabroadband.net/window...-out-soon.html (direct X 11 will be out soon.........) - the copied content on this thread has still not been put inside "quote/unquote" and link has not been provided.

6) this is also just a query: i found a member (who posts quite frequently), continuosly chasing my latest posts(using my profile statistics - "Find all posts by saurav_kataruka") in each and every thread and section in which i posted and posting just after my post. this act gets really very irritating and annoying sometimes. is this ok in terms of forum etiquettes?

7) plz explain the infractions system. what are yellow infractions meant for? does someone gets a yellow infraction before getting a red one? what i have seen so far this does not happens.

8) This is a suggestion which can be added to the first post as a forum etiquette -
A separate "chat"/"gossip" thread can be created in "general offtopic section". Some instances of Thread Hijacking and Off-topic talks starts in this way:

example:
A who is a old member of the community and has been absent for some time makes some post related to the thread topic

B who is a friend of A comes in and

B to A: its been a long time. where have you been these days? nice to see you back.

A to B: i have been busy with .... thats why ...

and the discussion continues.

this was just an example. these kinds of off-topic chats start in many ways. in such cases B can just leave a visitor message for A and ask him to come to "chat/gossip" thread.

May be i couldnt put it very well like j4k's examples (i think you can understand what i want to say here)



plz forgive me if i have said something wrong here. frankly speaking, i wrote all these things here because i felt a bit hard done by on some occassions. i felt like i have been treated harshly on some small issues while many others are getting away with more serious issues. maybe because i am currently near the top of the stats page or maybe because i am straight forward like in this post. nothing personal against anyone and i still respect the admin and mods and all the senior members of this forum and really care for this forum.


PLZ DELETE THIS THREAD AFTER CLEARING THE DOUBTS AS I THINK IF THE DOUBTS ARE CLEARED THEN THIS POST SHOULD NOT REMAIN HERE AS THIS IS A STICKY THREAD - WHICH MOST NEW USERS MAY REFER TO.

[The One]

Great work!!!

Repo for you.

[just4kix]

@just4kix

thanks for this thread. very descriptive indeed. cleared lot of my doubts. i would like suggest a few things and ask a few questions giving a few examples just like rupu1983 did in a previous post on this thread.

Thank you. As I said more than once, Forum Rules and Etiquette list is not an exhaustive CPC. These are guidlines and these need to be adhered to for making a grand forum. We cannot list individual examples and go case by case. It all depends upon the sensibility of the poster and interpretation of the person who reports the post or the mdoerator.

The poster has a to understand the principles of good forum behaviour. If some post is reported/deleted/commented wrongly, the thread owner should apply for justice if s/he feels that injustice has been done.

1) does long articles containing only a few sentences/statements copied from other sites fall under the category of copy-paste?

I think I have made the case pretty clear. There is no problem in publishing information from other web pages as long as it quoted properly. ALWAYS GIVE CREDIT TO THE SOURCE. If you don't then you are infringing copyright and plagarizing. It is suggested that you use QUOTE tags but that is not strictly neceassay. You could also start the post like this:

From "The Times of India, Web Edition, dated: dd/mm/yyyy"
...
... Full article ...
...
Source: http://<url>

2) are these rules (specially copy-paste) not applicable for moderators themselves? can we not report any post/thread by a moderator?

Rules and etiquettes are applicable to all.

3) if similar threads like these can co-exist ,

ex 1: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...t-browser.html (Best Browser?)
and http://www.indiabroadband.net/softwa...-browsers.html (War of the web browsers)

ex 2: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...like-most.html (Which anti-virus software do you like the most)
and http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...virus-use.html (Best antivirus to use ??)

It is possible that duplicate threads exist. Whenever such threads are noticed, moderator will attempt to read them and merge the duplicates. Duplicate posts do not serve common interest. But mods cannot possibly keep a watch on thousands of posts that are going on and check on duplicates. Many a times, mods realize that the post is a duplicate but it is not difficult to find the matching post.

then what was wrong in having this as a separate thread?: http://www.indiabroadband.net/sports...tml#post102620 (Is this the end of #1 status for Australia?)

this was posted as a new thread after more than a month when this thread was created: http://www.indiabroadband.net/sports...australia.html (Is this the end of #1 status for Australia?) and the last post on this thread before my thread was merged here was 22 days old. wasnt this a case of bumping threads? Also the thread i created was a bit different - it talked of the events over the past 1 month while the older thread was created when the test series was going on.

I find that you are behaving in a very kiddish manner. Your post on Australian Cricket team was indeed in your own words. But a thread on the exact same lines was already existing and hence I merged the thread. I found a lot of sincere effort on your part to put your own thoughts. Note that I did not delete your post as duplicate. Becuase we sometimes delete duplicate posts without notice.

But ever since such incidences, you started reporting other such posts. Now let us look at the many common problems that are often reported: "cannot access BSNL usage site", "BSNL BB not working", "torrent issue", etc. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of duplicate posts on such topics. It is simply not possible to police them all.

But you felt that you are being singled out for treatment.

4) this is more of a curious query - i understand that copy-paste is not allowed(without providing links). is paraphrasing allowed?

5) why some reported instances of copy-paste threads are deleted while a few are locked and a few are left open with a warning message ?

I have already stated on this. Forum decency mandates that you provide due credit to the source. Even if one or two lines are copied, you (not you personally, but all members) state like, "Rediff.com writes ......" or "Sashi Tharoor says ...." or "Sir Vivian Richards opined that ...". That is the proper etiquette.

But it is not possible for the mobs to verify each and every sentence of each and every post. We are like the traffic police. If we find traffic offenders, we will catch them and impose fines. The offended party cannot claim 'others have done it, still doing it, so why am I the only one to be punished?'. That argument will not be acceptable at all. But when we catch offenders we do punish them.

We have been very linient in this rule. But in the days of the competition we have become extra vigilant for obvious reasons.

6) this is also just a query: i found a member (who posts quite frequently), continuosly chasing my latest posts(using my profile statistics - "Find all posts by saurav_kataruka") in each and every thread and section in which i posted and posting just after my post. this act gets really very irritating and annoying sometimes. is this ok in terms of forum etiquettes?

I know about whom you are talking about. Believe me that member is trying our patience too long. Sri Krishna forgave Shishupal for 100 offences that deserved the death penalty. I will not say more.

7) plz explain the infractions system. what are yellow infractions meant for? does someone gets a yellow infraction before getting a red one? what i have seen so far this does not happens.

Yellow infractions are like Yellow Card in a soccer match - they are warnings. They are effective for 10 days from the date of issue and expire later. No points are deducted from your reputation points total.

Red infractions are like Red Card in a soccer match - they are severe breaches. They are also effective for 10 days from the date of issue and expire later. One point is deducted. But depending on the severity of the breach, we may let the member continue with the forum, place a temporary ban or a permanent ban. Usually Red infraction is not required for permanent ban - we simply ban them. Prime examples are spammers advertising goods, dubious posters, people posting links to porn/piracy, etc.

It is not necessary that a person will get yellow infraction first before a red one. It all depends upon the situation.

8) This is a suggestion which can be added to the first post as a forum etiquette -
A separate "chat"/"gossip" thread can be created in "general offtopic section". Some instances of Thread Hijacking and Off-topic talks starts in this way:

example:
A who is a old member of the community and has been absent for some time makes some post related to the thread topic

B who is a friend of A comes in and

B to A: its been a long time. where have you been these days? nice to see you back.

A to B: i have been busy with .... thats why ...

and the discussion continues.

this was just an example. these kinds of off-topic chats start in many ways. in such cases B can just leave a visitor message for A and ask him to come to "chat/gossip" thread.

May be i couldnt put it very well like j4k's examples (i think you can understand what i want to say here)

Point noted. I have already said that threads must not be hijacked. Sometimes I have myself been guilty of the same.

plz forgive me if i have said something wrong here. frankly speaking, i wrote all these things here because i felt a bit hard done by on some occassions. i felt like i have been treated harshly on some small issues while many others are getting away with more serious issues. maybe because i am currently near the top of the stats page or maybe because i am straight forward like in this post. nothing personal against anyone and i still respect the admin and mods and all the senior members of this forum and really care for this forum.

There is nothing to forgive and I appreciate your speaking out.

But you are completely wrong in your opinion that you have been singled out for special treatment. How does it benefit me whether you and anyone else wins the competition? As a mod I am not participating and I believe that Admin is equally unlikely to be a participant. Why should he partcipate? If he wins, he will be paying himself!! And Smoothvibes is also a gentleman. But both Admin and Smoothvibes will speak for themselves.

All we want from the competition is new members, awaken dormant members, increase forum awareness and popularity, and have some quality posts. But at the start of the competition, all we got was a lot of junk (though not from all). There was even one guy who created two id's and the two id's were bumping each others posts. Or perhaps there were two guys who started a 'chat' in a thread.

The top poster currently is cool_techie_tvm. Although he is a very old member, he was dormant. He became very active just after the competition was announced. In all likelyhood he in in line to win the top prize though it is early days yet. Do you know that not one of his post is ever deleted (unless the whole thread is deleted)? So please do not think that we are biased against new members. Be reasonable. Be sensible. This is all I can say.

[cool_techie_tvm]

The top poster currently is cool_techie_tvm. Although he is a very old member, he was dormant. He became very active just after the competition was announced. In all likelyhood he in in line to win the top prize though it is early days yet. Do you know that not one of his post is ever deleted (unless the whole thread is deleted)? So please do not think that we are biased against new members. Be reasonable. Be sensible. This is all I can say.

For sometime the screen was blurred when i read that paragraph. Thanks indeed for the support

[udayan]

It is amusing to see some members falling head over heels to win the highest poster contest. Man, have you guys forgotten why you have joined this forum in the first place ........it is to gain from the experience garnered by older members using broadband. This contest is indeed laudable in its motive to increase participation but certainly it does not warrant needless sniping on others and submission of moronic posts like "lol, :lol:and more :lol:"

Post something of interest, guys!

[ShAdOwCoN]

Moral of the story :
Cool Techie TVM is Uncle Jay's Pet

Kidding


Moral of the Story :
The journey[posts] is more important than the goal[Prize] .... Pls Make quality posts , if you feel theres anything unfair you can shout ...... The contest is an evolving one , will take a few tries to get the optimal settings for it

[smoothvibes]

Hi Saurav_kataruka

As all of your points are already answred by just4kix but still as this point is looking towards me so would like to explain.

2) are these rules (specially copy-paste) not applicable for moderators themselves? can we not report any post/thread by a moderator?

if not, then the report button on moderator's posts/threads should be removed.

if yes, then why even after reporting no change(like quoting the copied parts using the edit feature and providing the link) is done to such threads?

ex: http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...indows-xp.html (23 Ways to Speed up your Windows XP)

may be copied from Personal Computers: 23 Ways To Speed Up Windows XP

and

http://www.indiabroadband.net/fashio...po-trends.html (Lifestyle in BPO's (Advantages, Disadvantages & Future BPO Trends))

may be copied from India call center jobs - Advantages, disadvantages and future BPO trends

I work in a Wipro and got an email address too, whatever i have posted in these two threads are copied from mail only, one article which is on BPO already got the tag and a small line on the bottom of post which says copied from my mail and i am not ashamed that i copied it from my mail as its meant for basic discussion. Other post which you are pointing is from some website (according to you) but according to me it is from my mailbox and as i deal with tech stuff all day long and all my co-workers are also engaged in similar work so we keep on sharing such mails which can add something to our knowledge base and that's what i tried to do in that article. As you stated that you are very straight forward so as i am and let me say it in very simple words that i am not willing to put that in any quotes and not providing any source address as i never copied it from any such website.


For all the offtopic talks and as you said for chat purpose we already have one thread from long time please check Chaat Thread


As just4kix already said that admin & mod's are already not the part of this competetion.
I have said my part and apart from this your all the points are already cleared by just4kix. If you have some more issues then you are more than welcome to post them here.

[saurav_k]

@ just4kix

thanks for all the clarifications. i appreciate the fact that you took my post in the correct spirit. i really like your ability to express things in words. i also admire cool_techie's efforts on this forum and already once said to admin that i find all posts by cool_techie absolutely valid and unquestionable.

i request you to go through the rest of this post also.


@ smoothvibes

As all of your points are already answred by just4kix but still as this point is looking towards me so would like to explain.

none of my points is looking towards you and i have nothing personal with you. i just asked a general question regarding the rules/etiquettes being applicable for mods also or not. and just to elaborate my point i cited those threads as examples which just happened to be yours.

If you have some more issues then you are more than welcome to post them here.

i have had no issues. so having some more becomes obsolete. i made it clear before writing my post that "

i would like suggest a few things and ask a few questions giving a few examples

". i never talked of any issues.

I work in a Wipro and got an email address too, whatever i have posted in these two threads are copied from mail only, one article which is on BPO already got the tag and a small line on the bottom of post which says copied from my mail and i am not ashamed that i copied it from my mail as its meant for basic discussion. Other post which you are pointing is from some website (according to you) but according to me it is from my mailbox and as i deal with tech stuff all day long and all my co-workers are also engaged in similar work so we keep on sharing such mails which can add something to our knowledge base and that's what i tried to do in that article. As you stated that you are very straight forward so as i am and let me say it in very simple words that i am not willing to put that in any quotes and not providing any source address as i never copied it from any such website.

i think we all are related to some field (educational or professional) and exchange mails with our co-workers, batchmates, classmates, seniors, teachers, mentors, friends, people of special interests matching ours etc etc. we all update our knowledge base.

i think the copy-paste rule/etiquette deserves some updating that:

we can copy-paste stuff from our mails(of course related to the forum sections) without putting them in quotes and without providing links even if they are found to be existing on other websites at a date earlier than our post.

i think this is logically and directly implied from your post - specially from the clarification you gave about your second thread.

plz correct me if i am wrong.

i know that

As just4kix already said that admin & mod's are already not the part of this competetion.

but, copy-paste rule/etiquette is not related with the competition only. and i have not posted this point(the second point made in my first post in this thread to which you replied) in any relation with the competition.

i am not here just for the competition and all my questions and suggestions were intended for clearing some doubts, some discripancies which i found here.

@ just4kix again

don't you think that copy-pasting stuff from our mailbox without quoting and without providing links even if it is found on other websites is not an act of "infringing copyright and plagarizing"(as said by you) ? can we do this? and in case of any copyright claim can we argue with this statement that "the stuff is copied from my mailbox"?

[newprouser]

Perhaphs a simple : "From My Email " or "Source : Email" should solve the problem. simple na


Anyways emails have a higher tendency to have hoaxes/ un verifiable sources so how can anyone identify them as copyrighted.

Thanks uncle for such an elaborate post highlighting all the rulez crystal clear :clap: great job

[ Damn, Still not able to rep you.. perhaphs u can use ur mod powers to increase ur point by 2 on my behalf ]

IMO , whatever the rules , only the actual attitude of members can make a difference. Its best if everyone does his best to be within the rules but ofcourse with the new spamming committee comming up that's difficult, so better ban us soon :lol:

[Rameshjeee]

Gr8 post...Repo added.

[rupu1983]

Do NOT provide information on how to obtain warez

By providing information on how to obtain warez, you are contributing to worldwide piracy. If someone is asking for warez, report the post. If you are unsure whether the information that you are about to provide constitutes under warez class, please PM the Administrator or the Moderators.

Do NOT advocate warez

Under no circumstances promote or advocate warez. Recommending the use of warez is against forum policy.

[/LIST]

Again confusion kix please clear it
1. If any one provide link of database of torrent site is it under this piracy rule or not.Because according to rule i think it's indirectly "contributing to worldwide piracy" which you have written.

2.If anyone write the name of torrent site not providing url is it also under the warez rule or not.

[just4kix]

Again confusion kix please clear it
1. If any one provide link of database of torrent site is it under this piracy rule or not.Because according to rule i think it's indirectly "contributing to worldwide piracy" which you have written.

2.If anyone write the name of torrent site not providing url is it also under the warez rule or not.

We cannot be bothered about monitoring other sites such as torrent trackers. But we should not be telling someone, 'Hey, this great movie is available here as a free or torrent download'.

There are a few posts where people have recommended downloads. They may have escaped attention. Please do report such posts.

Our servers are located in US and hence we can't be too careful about this.

[newprouser]

Our servers are located in US and hence we can't be too careful about this.

too careless ?

[just4kix]

we can't be too careful

[just4kix]

I think that we should end the discussion on copy/paste. Everybody is sensible enough to know what the rule/directive means. If there are other suggestions, these are welcome.

[newprouser]

I feel that "Flaming" should also be included in your list. Not many people realize that they are irritating everyone else with their personal fight.

Another thing is that sometimes people consider others comments/suggestions as personal.They should learn to ignore things, in cases where both sides of an arguement are justified.

[just4kix]

Good idea npu. Will add the same to post # 1.

[saurav_k]

one suggestion:

i think this can be added in the etiquettes list:

post chasing can be very irritating and annoying at times. when a single user keeps on posting everywhere just after your post within seconds repetatively it gets very irritating for the original poster.



P.S - This is just a generic suggestion - not targeted on any individual.

[amitkool21]

one suggestion:

i think this can be added in the etiquettes list:

post chasing can be very irritating and annoying at times. when a single user keeps on posting everywhere just after your post within seconds repetatively it gets very irritating for the original poster.

i think he was talking about an incident what happened between me and him.........on that topic he posted something and suddenly i also posted to reply him.........than he replied me that why are you chasing me......than i said because you posted in my subscribed thread..........(i searched for this in my whole subscribed threads but wont found it i think that topic was may be got deleted or those posts are deleted).........now the thing is we cant add this thing in Forum Etiquettes because if any user use his/her email service for the subscribed threads than he'll get an immidiate mail for new message to that thread and he'll open it to post something......thats what the thing what happened with me also...........

[essbebe]

@moderators.
Some new posts in very old threads ( still open)
with or without solutions may be kindly locked.
Say after a month, if the original thread starter has not responded.

Many foreign forums have an entry in RED , directing the
user to start a new thread.

Assume somehow a user ( specially newbies) selects an old thread,
either via Google/yahoo search or from "archives"
either to post his problem/or offer a solution,

He should scroll through the thread and read all the posts.
If not satisfied, can give link to that old thread, and open a new thread.
EXAMPLE:
Mtnl forum. thread starter. by
'@pucci. on 12/03/2008
@wsh1966 on 15/01/2009
@prabindatta on 21/03/2009
@ essbebe today 24/03/2009 !
scrolled through 13 posts to read solutions etc.

Also limit the number of posts to, say 50 in a thread Getting eye strain scrolling through the pages. to find out who said what.
Some of the "Sticky" posts are closed, and fresh thread started.


Of course "Don't Care " and
follow "Antakshri" method:
read only latest post and reply!
whether relevant /or repetitive to earlier posts.



http://www.indiabroadband.net/mtnl-b...nload-com.html (can't open microsoft & download.com)
latest post on 21/03/2009
by newbie. @prabindatta.

[scorpio]

Attention:
As per popular decision, we are limiting the external kinks in signatures to two (2) only. Internal links are allowed to exceed 2 but please restrict total links (internal + external) to no more than 4 or 5.

Also Forum rules in FAQ Page for signature state:

All members are advised to adhere to the above rules and prune their signatures if required. If we find signatures that do not comply with the above rules, we may delete them. Also note that advertising rules apply to signatures as well.

Why is this rule implemented?
1. Long signatures make the post lengthy for no reason at all.
2. Long signatures are irritating to many.
3. We do not want to be a medium for free advertising. The webmaster has a right to earn money out of sponsored links.
4. Links to personal websites and blogs are allowed. That is not considered advertising as long as they are not revenue earning sites for the owner of the signature. But surely two such links are more than enough.
5. The three text lines should be good enough for you. You can announce yourself with that but the three lines are not intended for personal biodata, your computer specs, your ISP details, etc. Please use the User CP for this.
6. The idea is that people should be able to scroll quickly from post to post and not distracted by long text, animated GIFs, etc.

Hope you will understand the reasoning.

Deliberately bumping the thread to bring attention...

But gif is animated image

[just4kix]

Small gif's are OK.
There will be no hard and fast rules. If the Admin/Mods think that a signature is "not right", we will edit it out.

[kirankumargb]

Yes what J4K told is correct... they should be as brief as possible... come on guys just think you reading some big post all the time, how would it feel... so should be very brief indeed...
After all these days spending time here i know that Admin.Mod's are not so tough with rules, they are giving us much more liberty than we could ask... so should not make their lives also tough when they are making it so easy for us....

My reply here is not intended to anybody please dont misunderstand me... just telling my thought thats all...

I agree J4K and will see that i shall not violate the rules...!

[skap]

thanks all, got clarified.!
anything problem in mine?