15: Principles of Moderation

The Moderators aim to keep a balanced and rather light approach to moderation.

The board is privately owned by Dale Wisely. It is non-commercial in nature, and is analogous to a private party. As guests, we all post here because the owner, our host, allows us to post here. There are no particular participatory restrictions on the moderators; as C&F members, moderators are free to be active participants in all discussions. When acting specifically in our capacity as moderators, we will probably say so explicitly if the context leaves any doubt.

The moderators are here to keep the general jollity of the party going, and work something like this:

1. We will lock and delete threads, and delete individual posts, in keeping with our best judgment.

2. We delete threads/posts that refer to other threads/posts that have been deleted or locked. So, let x = a deleted or locked thread or post. Let y = a "what happened to x?" thread or post. We’ll delete y.

3. We will occasionally make a decision that a given member of the board contributes too much trouble and not enough positive and helpful content. When we decide that’s the case, we will disable or delete that person’s account (and, insofar as we can detect them, disable or delete any subsequent accounts that person opens.) That will almost always involve consultation among moderators and may involve consultation among senior members of the board. However, people who post here have no right to due process, or for explanation. Again, it’s a private party. We reserve the right to uninvite.

We won’t normally ban someone without privately conveying suggestions and warnings to the person before we put the hurt on them.

4. This is a music forum with a lot of leeway for people with musical interests to engage in non-musical conversation. We do not intend for this to be a board for people who rarely or never post about music, so we reserve the right to uninvite people who don’t contribute to the content about music.

5. We’re not even going to entertain the idea that policy should require us to explain our actions, so if we don't care to, that's our prerogative. End of story. Besides, it takes more time to answer "Why did you do that?" than to actually, uh, do that.

6. Please do not question what Moderators do within the open forums, or make suggestions for proposed Moderator action. Such posts will be deleted, barring rare exception. As ever, where you have concerns, PM one of the Moderators.

16: Editing and Deleting Posts

This topic is touched on in FAQ but only in generalities, so since people keep asking, here's more detail:

As a general member you are free to edit or delete your own posts (Edit and Delete clickies are on the lower right of your post field; "Delete" is the little X in a box). However, this liberty only extends for a 72-hour period beginning from the time of submission. If you wish to edit or delete after that period, contact a moderator. If it poses no real problems, we'll help.

17: Text Enhancements

Style is a personal thing, but there is also a point where style may trespass beyond common Internet courtesy. It is fairly common practice to occasionally use capital letters, boldface, oversize, and colored text (what we are calling enhancements) in place of italics or underlining to briefly convey emphasis or humor, and we think that's fine. What we strongly discourage at C&F is the use of these enhancements well beyond the brief and occasional; all-cap sentences, paragraphs, or posts all show bad etiquette in increasing order of offense because in Internet terms it is the equivalent of shouting. When you think about it, the same measure really applies to the other modes mentioned above as well. With that in mind, in the examples below we may confine ourselve to using caps in conveying the basic idea:

Okay: "Chiffy's advice made a HUGE difference for me, and I think everyone should follow it."

Not okay: "CHIFFY'S ADVICE MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE FOR ME, AND I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD FOLLOW IT."

Now imagine the above in bold, oversize, or multicolored. Yep. Grotesque and repellent to behold, isn't it. The operating principle here is that in posts the regular, unenhanced default font is by and large the best, the most dignified, of unfailing good visual taste, and as such is good for all. Plus the reader is far more likely to take you seriously.

As for colored (and occasionally all-caps) text: the only absolute exception to the above applies to moderatorial announcements. The mods here have traditionally used all-red text in emphasising the official nature of their posts when communicating expressly in a moderatorial capacity. Since the mods have found all-red text to be a useful tool in executing their office, they reserve the use of all-red text done at length for themselves alone. Moderatorial use of all-caps text is rare, and reserved for instances of urgency or particular importance beyond the norm.

Occasional conservative use of red or any other color by the general membership as a highlighting device when quoting others is of course acceptable. On a larger scale, sometimes people will accentuate quoted lyrics or text from another site by coloring it in full; while this is also reasonably acceptable, it still risks being bizarre, so please consider giving preference to other ways such as quotemarks or italics instead. If you still wish to use colored text in such instances, remember to not use red, but instead blue, for example. Coloring, bolding, or other enhancements to the greater or entire body of your own personal text just because you think it will be "more effective" is not considered the same thing, and we strongly discourage it. To an extent this will not apply to signature lines, however.

So this is about the abuse of text enhancements. When we see posts that we feel violate such etiquette issues, the mods are not required to point it out, but may step right in and edit out the offending style in preference for the normal, unenhanced default style. No one likes a shouter.

18: Posting PM or Email Content in Public Threads

Don't. If it's absolutely important, only do so with the sender's, or moderatorial, permission. Anything else will be deleted or modified.

The only steady exception to this is publishing spam or phishing email content, for the sake of your fellow Chiffers' good and/or entertainment.