Each forum in the Cloudy Nights Discussion forums has guidelines for their respective forum. New members to a forum should review these guidelines to quickly ascertain how the forum functions.
Find below the Guidelines developed by administrators and the moderators for the Binoviewer group. I encourage you to email me your thoughts and feelings on them. webmaster@cloudynights.com
Binoviewer Forum Guidelines
For all participants:
1. Controversial discussions, debates and even differences of opinions are acceptable. But all discussions should be polite, and not give cause for offense. Think twice before posting.
2. Do not post private email to the list without permission of the original sender.
3. Anything inappropriate for a large group should be discussed privately, via e-mail.
The moderators understand that some situations may come up that are not covered by the above guidelines, and will handle them on a case by case basis. Members should understand that in some cases, after an initial private email warning, some members may be banned for a limited period of time.
As we are a community that's part of a larger whole, be sure to read and abide by the general forum guidelines (TOS) posted for the entire Cloudy Nights site as well.
Tom Trusock 5-12-03
Addendum to Binoviewer Forum Rules 3-30-06
Folks, we thought this situation was taken care of by the various general rules regarding courtesy and civility but things are getting out of hand. An issue which used to crop up in Binoviewers a long time ago but which had settled down is creeping up on us again.
The noise level is getting way too high; folks trying to read the threads are being subjected to endless repetitive comments. Since the majority of repetitive posts has been in support of one or two vendors it's become impossible to moderate the Forum evenly without making it appear that these vendors are being targeted. To remedy this, I'm invoking the "Two Comment Rule".
In Binoviewers, an individual may post the same information or opinion a maximum of twice per day - and only once in a given thread. Posts exceeding this limit will be deleted without comment and without notification.
This way all viewpoints can be expressed but none will be over-represented. This is probably the only online Forum in which supporters of all binoviewer and binoviewer accessory vendors are accorded equal courtesy - and there are reasons why other boards have given up the effort so to do - but here it's gonna stay that way. I've kept this Binoviewers forum alive in spite of pressure from many directions to eliminate it. The more difficult the users make this job the more likely it becomes that I'll cave in and let it disappear.
John Crilly
Forum Administrator
