Guide To Eratosphere - Page 3
The following etiquette guidelines apply. If you are unsure about a guideline, check with a Moderator.
When you are creating a new discussion thread, it's advisable to give a detailed subject which recaps what it is about. You should avoid using short, irrelevant or unclear subjects like "Help me!", "Read this", "Anyone?", "What do you think?" etc.
Before opening a new discussion thread, you should search the site to check whether that subject has been discussed before. If it has, you should consider adding your post inside the existing thread instead of posting a new one.
We don’t mind spirited debate and frank commentary on Eratosphere, but we do want it to remain constructive and mutually respectful . Please observe the advice in this Guide and participate in that spirit.
Please confine your remarks to the poem or article under discussion and refrain from directing offensive personal (ad hominem) remarks at the poet or critic. Disagreement and discussion of points raised in critique is fine, but abusive or threatening language toward other Members is cause for deletion of such remarks and possible loss of Membership.
Engaging in actions which disrupt the functioning of any forum and/ or any Moderator (including making posts which, though not necessarily ad hominem, frequently trigger contentious discussion threads) may result in the suspension of Membership or a permanent ban.
The Moderators may close any thread at their discretion.
We do not recommend posting previously published works in the workshop Forums. Post them there only if you genuinely seek critique with a view to revision prior to republication.
If you need to make a brag post, feel free to do so at The Accomplished Members Forum.
Vanity posts are unwelcome on all Forums.
You should not TYPE YOUR MESSAGES IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS LINE. This means shouting in the Internet and is considered rude.
Formatting of messages with coloring, underline, bold, italic, text centering, indenting, or using a different font size should be used to emphasize a small section of the post and not applied to the entire post.
If you quote a post in your reply, you should only quote a small relevant section of it, not the entire post.
Do not PM or email Staff for small talk or for non-site related questions and conversations.
Readers’ attention floats with the threads at the top of the Forum, so please share these spots fairly. In particular, please avoid bringing old threads, whether or not they are your own, back to the top of a Forum for minor posts such as “thank you” or “good revision”. It’s fine to bump an older thread if the post contains substantive critique or reaction to critique. But once a thread has become inactive for several days, it’s best to use PM if there isn’t something quite significant still to say.
You should raise reminders or complaints, especially ones involving Moderators, in private by PM, not in public on the Forums.
If a Forum thread is closed, you should not open a similar thread. Likewise you shouldn't post a new thread to question the closing. You should PM your comments to a Moderator or Administrator.
If a post is against Guide rules, you should not reply, quote it, or discuss it within your own post. Instead, you should click the "report this post" link and notify Forum Moderators and let them handle it.
If you receive a PM or email from another user, it is bad form to post it publicly without the prior consent of the sender.
If you don't like the PM’s you are receiving from a Member, you may block them by putting him/her on the “ignore” list accessible from your User Control Panel. Do not flame the Forums about such Members or reply to their posts.
We do not wish to engage in monitoring PM’s and we believe that the “ignore” option should be sufficient. However, if you receive an egregious PM (e.g. one involving a real threat) you may forward it to the Administrator for review and possible follow-up action. When sending PM’s a Member should be conscious that this can occur.
In addition to being an administrative burden, non-current email addresses will prevent you from effectively using the automated features of Eratosphere such as password reminder, and if you so elected, notification of new PM or of new replies to threads you had initiated. Hence, it is important to update your email address whenever it changes. This can be done from your user control panel.
If you decide to leave, please don’t request that we cancel your Membership or that we remove your posts. It would add to our administrative burden. Leaving your Membership dormant does no harm—you might want to come back.
