Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 8/6/08

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
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Matt Weiner
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Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 8/6/08

Post by Matt Weiner »

Rules

Everyone, please remember that this board corresponds to a real-life activity. It is not an Internet entertainment site existing in a vaccuum. If you are disrespectful to someone, you will likely have to see them in real life. Think before you post and we'll all be better off.

RULE A NUMBER ONE THAT APPLIES TO EVERYBODY: Do not discuss specific questions and answers from tournaments that will be running at other sites at later dates.

College section: No illegal content or stupid anonymous troll accounts. Anything else goes though you of course put your own reputation on the line. Administrators reserve the right to post the IP address of any stupid posts.

High school and off topic sections:

1) Language must be appropriate for a high school academic setting. This applies not only to words that are uncouth in themselves, but to the overall tone of any address to specific people.

2) The use of something approximating proper English is required. This means appropriate capitalization, "you" instead of "u", and other things that you might expect of people engaged in an activity associated with intellectual knowledge.

3) Threads should be kept on topic. If you want to discuss a tangential issue, feel free to start a new thread. If you want to discuss a moderation decision, use e-mail.

4) Posting other people's phone numbers, e-mail addresses that the user has not chosen to put in his or her profile or posts, etc, is not allowed.

5) Discussions need to follow basic rules of logic and rhetoric. In particular, the "you would like Tournament X more if you won it" and "you are only disagreeing with me because you have a bias against the region I'm from" cards are not in the deck of available arguments here.

6) Deriding people for enjoying quizbowl or intellectual activities is not permitted.

7) Basic civility is required.

8) The rule on calling people out on behavior at high school tournaments is: don't do it before talking to your coach, don't do it before talking to the TD, don't do it before attempting to resolve the situation elsewhere, don't do it from a new, unfamiliar, or anonymous account, don't do it if you do not have a long record of worthwile posts about more germane topics, and don't do it unless you are earnestly trying to start a discussion about how to deal with similar behavior in the future. In summary, calling people out for dramatic purposes is not permitted.

Long website addresses

Do not post long URLs that make the thread impossible to read. Either use a site like tinyurl.com or, better yet, use the url tags to hide your address behind text. Patrick King provides a tutorial on how to do this:
Also, if you need a long URL, use the special url tag so that the URL itself is not displayed, but rather a shorter piece of text that can describe it. (You need to deselect the 'Disable BBCode in this post' before you do that)

The syntax is as such:

Code: Select all

[url=___________]text[/url]
Don't place a space between url and the equal sign or the equal sign and your address.
And make sure you remember the close tag so that your link doesn't trail on forever!

Example:

Code: Select all

[url=http://www.hsquizbowl.org/phpBB2/]World of HS Quizbowl Bulletin Board[/url]
translates to:
World of HS Quizbowl Bulletin Board

Notice that when someone clicks your link, they actually know what it means.
Moderators will change any URLs not following these rules to put them in compliance.

E-mail addresses and spam

There are NO active email addresses at the hsquizbowl.org domain. Any e-mail you receive from "[email protected]", "[email protected]", or any other such address is FAKE and should be deleted on sight.

For spam protection, any accounts associated with Russian or French IPs or e-mail addresses will be deleted on sight. If you are a legitimate quizbowl participant who plans on posting from Russia or France, let me know ahead of time.

Signatures

Will work again when the next version of phpBB comes out. Signatures reenabled 2/7/2007

Editing

Will remain disabled for the time being. Contact a board staffer if you need to fix something important. Editing reenabled 1/9/2007

Tournament announcements


Use this standard format for the title of a thread announcing a tournament of any level:

ANNOUNCEMENT: Quiz Bowl Tournament (00/00/00) at Name of Host (City, State)

Use the SAME thread to post updates and results from your event instead of starting a new thread. If your tournament is moved or cancelled, you should definitely post to that effect. Board staff will change the thread title from ANNOUNCEMENT to RESULTS, DATE CHANGE, or CANCELLED as appropriate.

Tournament attendees should follow the directions posted in the announcement regarding how to register. What this means is: if the announcement says to email a particular person in order to sign up for a tournament, then do so, don't just post in the thread and expect them to accomodate you.

Board staff

The board staffers and their handles here are:

Chief Administrator:
Fred Morlan/leftsaidfred


Administrators:
Evan Silberman/BuzzerZen
Mike Sorice/ImmaculateDeception
Matt Weiner/Matt Weiner

Moderators:
Emil Thomas Chuck/E.T. Chuck
Pat Freeburn/Dolemite
Trygve Meade/millionwaves
Tricia Southard/sabine01
Last edited by Matt Weiner on Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:35 am, edited 6 times in total.
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AKKOLADE
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Post by AKKOLADE »

Additional rules:

Gimmick Accounts

Gimmick accounts are allowed under the following circumstances:
  • All gimmick posts must be made in the forums operating under college rules.
    Something of value must be contributed for discussion
    The account's owner must not actively attempt to hide his or her identity
Introductions

In your first post on the boards, it'd be appreciated if you would introduce yourself by name and your school affiliation. This way everyone can better identify your familiarity with the topic and know who they're speaking with.

"High school" vs. "college" split

This is just a re-emphasis, but it should be noted that outside of posts that contain illegal material or pure stupidity, the college area is fair game for nearly anything, with moderator's discretion and such. However, with the exception of AHAN Jr., the forums will be devoted to discussion of the collegiate game. General discussion will occur in the high school areas. Before reading the college forums, consider if posting or even reading those forums is the best idea for you.
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Post by Matt Weiner »

Please note that, as per Fred's directive, the division of the boards into high school rules and college rules is now formally reflected on the front page. There should be no confusion as to what is allowed where.
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Post by pakman044 »

Editing Update - 1/9/2007

Please note that as per the directive promulgated by Fred, editing will be reenabled on a trial basis. See that post for more information.

Patrick King
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Re: Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 11/21

Post by AKKOLADE »

As a point of clarification - disagree with a mod or admin is not a disciplinary offense. There is no "mod sass" rule or anything along those lines on these forums.

If you do break the previously defined rules while posting here and involved in a discussion with mods/admins, the same punishments will apply.
Fred Morlan
University of Kentucky CoP, 2017
International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, CEO, co-owner
former PACE member, president, etc.
former hsqbrank manager, former NAQT writer & subject editor, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator
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Matt Weiner
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Re: Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 2/26/08

Post by Matt Weiner »

Hey, just so this is codified somewhere:

We don't care about 4 chan. Seriously, we don't want to hear about it, ever. If you want to talk about in-jokes from that website, catchphrases from that website, or anything about that website, then go to that website and stop coming here. This will be enforced by editing and, for people who continually do not get it, temporary bans.
Matt Weiner
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
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AKKOLADE
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Re: Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 2/26/08

Post by AKKOLADE »

I would think this was obvious, but since it apparently isn't: don't mention any form of file sharing you undertake on these forums, don't share files that are not legally freely released, don't share advice on how to trade files and don't try to make some silly argument about how trading your filez is perfectly legal and the RIAA man is just holding you down and if you could just see, like, really see the world around you man, you'd totally be able to escape the chains that are keeping your brain from really flying and from you truly being free just like Neo in the Matrix..

This applies to other illegal activities.
Fred Morlan
University of Kentucky CoP, 2017
International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, CEO, co-owner
former PACE member, president, etc.
former hsqbrank manager, former NAQT writer & subject editor, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator
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Re: Rules & board use tips thread - Updated 8/6/08

Post by AKKOLADE »

Clarification on an issue: only mods and admins can enforce rules. If you see a post that is in violation of a rule, file a report. Backseat modding is a tempbannable offense if you don't listen to us enough.
Fred Morlan
University of Kentucky CoP, 2017
International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, CEO, co-owner
former PACE member, president, etc.
former hsqbrank manager, former NAQT writer & subject editor, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator
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