Code of Conduct

Adopted on Saturday, November 22, 2008.
Last updated on Monday, January 19, 2009.

Section I - General Policy:

By registering and participating in The News Source's Forums and website you agree to the following code of conduct. If you are unable to agree you have the right not to participate in forum discussions at any time.

This is our community and we invite you to participate in it. Most people have a common sense feel for what is and what is not appropriate in our forums and you folks generally do a great job of policing yourselves. We do, however, need to have a few set policies for everyone to refer to when the need arises.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum and website will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible where acceptable, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or web-master (except for posts by these people) and they will not be held liable.
You agree not to post any material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing any of these may lead to you being temporarily or permanently banned from these forums.

The IP addresses of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any post, topic or thread at any time they see fit following the guidelines outlined below. You agree that the web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and/or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.

1. Be respectful of all users at all times. If you do this the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention.
2. Respect the forum staff. We provide a service in our free time to keep the forums running efficiently. We will occasionally ask for input, but in some cases we will not, please respect our decisions. Also, we do edit for content, if you have an issue with our moderation, please open a request in the forum resolution center.
3. Profanity: Remember that the forums are used by people of all age groups and of all tolerance levels regarding profanity usage. Explicit profanity/swearing is not allowed, and under no circumstances will we allow any profanity to be directed toward another person.
4. Forum Threads and Flaming:
* Flaming and condescending messages: Flames are messages that personally attack, call people names, or otherwise harass another forum member (or any person). These, along with any generally condescending posts will be moved or removed at the moderators discretion.
* If the thread is flame-bait (appears to be intended to start an argument or is likely to cause an argument rather than enhance discussion), it will be locked or removed without notice. Individual flame-bait may be deleted or edited at the moderators' discretion. Any users who continue to post in this manner or engage in other questionable practices, like trolling (posting in an attempt to engage people in arguments) may be subject to more serious sanctions.
* If a post or thread contains spam the post will be deleted. The poster may be banned. Active users in good standing are allowed to have links to personal sites in their signatures, in their profile, and may post them in threads on occasion (just not often, please) as long as the content of those links does not include abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated material or any other material that may violate any applicable laws.
5. Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity: Messages containing sexually oriented/violent/illegal dialog, images, content, or links to these things will be deleted. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be deleted. Posting or linking to any of these could result in a ban.
6. Please remember that these forums are inclusive of ALL people, and we strive to maintain accessibility to everyone.
7. The web-master, administrators and moderators of this forum will preserve forum content when possible. However editing, locking and deleting content may be necessary and if so will be done at the discretion of the web-master, administrators and moderators when the forum code of conduct has been violated.

Section II - Other Forum Policies
1. There are no stupid questions. You're not a stupid person simply because you do not know how to do something, or do not have the answer to a question.
2. Try to give information in the title of your post, instead of using a title like "it's broken," use a title that is specific, such as, "Unable to get sound to play in Firefox." A clear title will attract more views to your thread, as it gives a clear indication of the content of the post to the people that are willing to help you. Ultimately this will allow you to get more help of a better quality.
3. Searching the The News Source's Forums and website is a quick way to see if someone has posted a related topic. Please try to keep related discussions together.
4. It's always nice to let the people that help you know that you appreciate their help. It's extra nice if you then share that information to another user that has the same question you just had. If your question is resolved (which is hopefully always the case!), it would be helpful for other users and the people helping you to label which procedure worked for you by quoting or clearly referring to it. Giving feedback as to what procedures worked not only makes the person helping you feel a sense of accomplishment, you will also be helping any other user with your same issue searching for an answer.
6. It is up to the user to check this policy. Updates can and probably will happen. By using this site and forum you agree to these terms. Violators of the policy will be warned or banned if necessary.

Public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Originally from the Official Ubuntu Code of Conduct: http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct