Off-Topic Content Will Be Deleted

Hi everyone,

A user alerted me to a few posts in another thread, which I have removed. I would like to take this opportunity to drop in and offer some more information regarding the policies and rules of this forum.

First, I want to apologize for not having policies and rules up yet. If you are one of the people affected by this recent action and these policies, please understand that this is not intended as anything personal against you or an indication that you did anything wrong. There were no policies posted at that point, so how could you have? I'm making a long post now to clarify things for the future.

Ours is a very tight-knit and supportive community. It is truly a wonderful thing to be a part of and is a continuing source of inspiration for, I think, everyone here, myself included. I have seen in other online communities how discussions of inflammatory topics can tear the community apart, greatly damaging the invaluable sense of community which makes forums so wonderful.

From my research on other forums, the best practice seems to be providing guidelines on what are appropriate topics and behaviors for the forum. Basically, there are some topics which, when brought up, tend to derail the conversation and the community,. Just as one might be hesitant with a new acquaintance to discuss politics or religion, a similar etiquette for online forums helps keep discussions on topic and friendly.

I will eventually post a new thread outlining the policies and guidelines for this forum. Until that point, I will use the policies currently in place at another forum known as TMSHelp.

The portion of those policies addressing what is appropriate is as follows:

There is no guarantee than any particular post will stay on the board. Occasionally, posts and threads are deleted, although only a very small number of posts have actually been deleted since the board's inception. Among the categories of posts that will be deleted:

• Advertising
• Links to websites selling or advertising products
• Vulgar or profane
• Personal attack
• Copyrighted material
• Chain letters or pyramid schemes
• Impersonating another person
• Way off topic
• Illegal
• Politics
• Religious proselytizing
• How the Forum should be run
• Other (personal judgment of Moderators)

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To this, I would like to add that generalizations about ethnic, racial, religious, and national groups will also not be permitted.

The posts I recently removed are as follows. I want to emphasize that both were written by good friends of mine,* who I know have the very best of intentions. Nevertheless, the posts were off-topic and that is why I have taken action.

* I should emphasize that I am posting this as a forum administrator than as a friend. As a forum administrator I will attempt to be as even-handed as I can, not taking personal friendships into account.

User A wrote:

User B responded:

If people would like to discuss the quality of Chinese goods and the relationship between the US and China, I suggest that you use the personal message facility to contact each other individually and carry the discussion off-line. Alternatively, should you wish to discuss these things, there are I am sure many forums to be found via Google search.

Moderating a forum is a tremendously difficult task. It takes a great deal of work, but I feel that this community is worth it.

If anyone would like to provide feedback to me on this post feel free to send me a personal message or an email at forestfortreesweb@gmail.com .

Thanks,
Forest