Forum Rules

by: DemFromCT

Thu Nov 16, 2006 at 19:23:37 PM EST

1. The forum is for friendly discussion and argument or thoughtful analysis. Be friendly. Follow the same standard of courtesy you would when talking to your neighbours, friends or co-workers.

2. This is a nonpartisan site. Political arguments should be restricted to how it affects flu policy.

3. We have a significant - and growing - number of international participants. Please try to be inclusive in your discussions.

4. Be nice to newbies. Questions that are answered somewhere else are best addressed by referring them to the appropriate pages - politely.

5. Not every poster can figure out HTML blog posting. Help each other out. Try this for pointers.

6. Please add news stories (with links) to the news threads. Rumors and speculations should be put elsewhere and labeled as such.

7. Links are best displayed using either the < a href="URL goes here">link goes here< /a >  markup (remove the spaces) or the tinyurl www.tinyurl.com service. Long links cause the page to expand (‘side scroll’) and the mods will have to waste time fixing them, so pay attention when posting links.

8. News stories should not be reproduced in full. It is a violation of copyright and fair use rules, particularly when not accompanied by analysis. Post just a portion, and provide a link. No link, no credibility.

9. Observe and follow Fair Use doctrine.

10. Personal attacks are unwelcome and will be addressed by the moderators when appropriate.

11. Participants may be banned on rare occasion for rules violation and general disruptiveness. Warnings may or may not be given prior to banning. Moderators have final say, and reasons for banning may be revealed from time to time if it is in the interest of the forum to do so. This decision is part of the role of the mods and is not subject to community vote.

12. We strongly discourage extensive discussions of Religion, Guns, or Politics. They tend to be divisive and are usually not sufficiently related to the main objective, constructive discussion about influenza and its consequences. If you have a strong need to discuss these issues, please avail yourself of the vast choices available on many other blogs.

Note that this principle is not limited to the above. It applies to any topic that proves divisive to the community. See Meta-topics for discussion threads on ‘free speech’, ‘the role of the mods’ and related points.

13. Flu Wiki is non-commercial and does not support commercial sites. Links are welcome only when they convey news, and are subject to moderators’ judgment.

14. Please use one username. Using multiple names to converse with yourself is grounds for banning. The term for that is sockpuppet, and is frowned upon in polite internet society.

1. Moderators are volunteers. They have day jobs and they are human. Be nice to them.

2. Moderators help the forum run smoothly. They also help everyone stay on topic.

3. Mods close threads for many reasons, including (but not restricted to) threads that are old, too long, have exhausted their discussion value, or where inappropriate behaviours are not corrected.

4. If you ask a question and a mod provides a link, it means he/she is trying to help you by suggesting related reading. We don’t always have time to write a long explanation. It usually is not meant to imply ‘you should have looked’.

5. Mods may also contribute to discussions. Each moderator is only responsible for his/her point of view. There is no collective editorial policy or viewpoint, and there are no hierarchies. That is, no one’s opinion is worth more or less than anyone else’s.

About rumors:

Please keep rumors confined to a clearly marked rumors thread.

Rumors can start from anywhere. They can start from an event that is misunderstood; someone can "start" a rumor to intentionally mislead others or someone can pass on information that they "heard", and perhaps elaborate on , but sincerely believe is true. News media and web sites can propagate rumors, again sometimes intentionally and sometimes not intentionally, but because they did not adequately research and cross-check the facts. With widespread access to internet, rumors can spread in unprecedented time. Some rumors turn out to be false, others stubbornly hold out, and still others turn out to be true. If we can document sources, and adequately cross-check our facts, we might be better able to determine whether rumors are really rumors.