Posting Guidelines

[Az]

Hi All, here's the first draft of Catsey's posting guidelines.. what do you think? Fair?

POSTING GUIDELINES

These are our Posting Guidelines which are in addition to our normal terms of use – please take a few minutes to read them.

Why do we need them? Our terms of use and posting guidelines help prevent abuse, and set guidelines on what we deem is un/acceptable behaviour. If you plan on spending time at Catsey, please read up on them - they'll help show why and how we are different to most other cat sites.

1) Respect your fellow members.

Other websites allow people to be disrespectful to each other - we don't. No matter how much you disagree with someone, there's no need to get personal. If you can't articulate your posts without getting into a fight, then refrain from posting. Of course you can debate and discuss until the cows come home - everyone is entitled to their opinion after all, we're just not allowed to get 'nasty' when we find others don't agree that's all.

2) No text or teen talk.

Please take time to preview your posts before hitting the submit button. Please also make sure the language you use is commonly understood English - we want to spend time reading your posts, not waste half an hour trying to decipher them. Please do not use bad-language. Please use adequate punctuation - start sentences with a capitol letter, use I instead of 'i' when referring to yourself etc. Please note we're not asking our members to be spelling masterminds, just take enough time with their posts so they are not akin to those of a chat room.

3) Be considerate.

One thing we have to acknowledge is that we are a community and we must consider the feelings of our fellow community members when posting. Mostly, we try to keep debates to the appropriate sections. We don’t like to turn threads in the pictures section into debates for example. Most of the time people are excited to show off their cats and the last thing they expect is negativity. Same goes for the introductions section, it’s just for people to introduce themselves and for us to learn a bit about them. Of course, we get the odd troll now and again seeing how far they can push us, but in all honesty they stand out a mile and are generally acted upon quickly and effectively – if you think someone is deliberately trying to get a reaction, ignore them – they normally post to cause a stir and if they don’t get it they quickly get bored! If you are concerned about any post you can use the report post icon to notify a moderator.

If you really must say something about someones cat after seeing their picture – then a friendly PM may be more suitable, but remember, don’t patronise, presume or accuse! And if you get a ‘mind your own business’ type reply, drop it – you were the one sailing close to the wind anyway.

To Recap:
- Consider other peoples feelings
- Keep debates in the appropriate sections


4) Cat Health & Wellbeing sections

We have some sections which we like to keep as information archives – the Cat Health & WellBeing Sections. These are our most searched sections, where generally people are looking for views and opinions about a specific topic, and often, in a hurry. So understandably, when posting in these we have some extra rules to help keep the threads on-topic and easy to read and follow.

When creating a thread your title should act as a short summary of your post, otherwise someone who may be able to offer an opinion may miss it. Imagine if all the threads had non-descriptive 'general' titles – a user would have to click on all of them to see what they were actually about! Not everyone has the time to do that, so by ensuring a summary is present in your title other users can quickly see what is being asked and can reply if they have something to input on that particular subject.

In addition to a good title, it is helpful if you put as much information as possible in your post, don’t assume people know any of your ‘history’ – we have thousands of members and it would be near impossible for everyone to remember everyone elses personal circumstances.

When replying to threads in the Health & Wellbeing sections please be extra careful not go off-topic, remember these threads are not just for the initial poster, but for everyone else who may be searching the threads on the same topic in future. Off-topic posts will get deleted without notification so please don’t be offended if it happens to your post, we are trying our best to keep the site running smoothly to the best of our ability.

We have lots of friendly members here and sometimes people just want to make a supportive post that doesn’t actually answer a concern – as these posts are essentially, spam, it’s best not to make such posts unless the thread starter was specifically looking for support. If you really want to post supportive comments they can be tagged on to your reply if you are answering the question anyway, or, you can PM them to the user. If we allowed posts that didn’t add any actual information to the thread, then people searching/reading them in future would have to wade through lots of unnessecery posts/comments to find what they are looking for, hence our reason to try and keep the threads as on-topic and informative as possible.

So to Recap:
- When starting a thread make sure the title includes a summary
- No-off topic or ‘spam type’ posts
- Non-questions, debates, concerns etc may be more suited to General Cat Chat

5) No Spamming Please

Type A - This type of spamming can be considered as posting just for the sake of it, or posting just to increase post count, or going off topic in a thread. All threads should always remain on topic.

If you are looking at ways to increase your post count then there are lots of genuine ways to do so… you could make some comments in other peoples picture threads, welcome some new people in the Your Introductions section, or you could always take part in discussions or offer your input in other threads/questions etc

Please don’t post ‘For [friends name]` type threads, as these are usually seen as spam. If you want to get someone in particular’s attention, use the PM system, if their PM box is full they will get sent an email reminder automatically.

Type B - Another form of spamming is when some uses the site to advertise something, it could be a website, a kitten, a product, or basically anything that the person wants to advertise. This is not allowed whatsoever. If anyone wants to advertise they should contact us to take out banner advertising.


6) Reporting people who you suspect break our rules.

Catsey will rely heavily on our regular members to help 'moderate' the forums. If you see any posts which you feel break any of our guidelines/rules/Terms of Use, please use the report post icon to notify a moderator. Please do not confront anyone yourself - as this will only lead to the thread turning into a flamewar, which will just spoil it for everyone else (trolls love that!). Best thing to do is completely ignore them BUT make sure you report their post. That way you know a moderator will take a look at the offending post as soon as possible. If a mod feels action is necessary, they will act accordingly. Mods will have a rule-book to refer to, so please don't take mod-actions out on the mods, they are just doing what's been requested of them. If you have an issue with a mod action, PM Admin, or contact us using the contact us link at the bottom of this page.

[Fran]

Seems perfectly fair to me Az, I think you have highlighted everything in a clear, concise way.

[yola]

That's very clear and it's good to have such things clarified. I especially like the one about no text talk and proper punctuation!

[dinahsmum]

Fine by me!

[Annestaff]

Good job Az

[babycakes]

very clear and to the point can't see anyone misunderstanding anything

[Kay]

Very fair, Az.

[Elaine]

Seems reasonable but I can see alot of my posts will be deleted due to spamming (both A and B types), punctuation, innapropriate language, rambling..........

[dandysmom]

Very clear and reasonable, but I have a question..? What is a blog entry? Were here do I find it?

[Az]

Glad you all like it Will get it put up when I get five.

DM - I've removed reference to the 'blog'... it's a Dogsey thing