Forum Rules Updates

[Ryan Dognaux]

It's good for Chief Delphi to have a rule like this to pull out when necessary. It is, at heart, a robotics forum. The political and religious threads that get started are just a bi-product of this. This rule isn't restricting, in my opinion, because this is a FIRST forum and that's what we're here to talk about. This forum represents major sponsors of FIRST, FIRST teams, and the individuals on those teams. Having a rule that supports maintaining Chief Delphi as a welcoming forum to FIRSTers everywhere gets my vote.

[Beth Sweet]

Guys, Brandon is not unreasonable, nor are the other moderators. If I had to take a guess, this is their safety net for if something needs to be closed, that they'll have something to back themselves up. Pretty much, I doubt they'll close anything that isn't problematic, half the mods comment in those "amusing but not robotics" threads themselves.

[meaubry]

All,
I suggested this small wording change for a number of reasons. Most of which were already discussed in this thread.
The history of CD is long, most know the story already so I don't need to go over it again. The one thing that we envisioned so many years ago was that we wanted to provide a place for ROBOTICS to be discussed within the FIRST community.
From day one, it was apparent that people wanted to share ideas and sometimes there were differences of opinion among the community. Understanding that this is human nature, we encouraged the Right to share opinions as long as the discussions remained civil and no one purposefully went-out of their way to be hurtful OR harmful.
As the community grew and grew, we entertained suggestions for more and various type forum topics. We provided places for groups to congregate in an even closer knit community to discuss stuff related to or about those specific topics.
The Chit Chat fori grew out of this - it holds a wide variety of topics within it - including Games and Fantasy First. But sometimes the topics begin to sway away from anything Robotics related and into the world of politics and religion. These 2 items are the most difficult to deal with as a moderator and as the community of CD users.
So, I felt it was time to be able to re-focus the CD site back to where we as a community have a common thread - Robotics.
It will also assist the moderators in closing threads that are NOT robotics related without having to wonder "if they should have or not".
I trust the moderators know when a post or thread is not even remotely related to anything having to do with our robotics focused community and they will do a good job.
On the flipside - the number of complaints about non robotic related posts should be reduced and if all goes well, the number of people that are turned off by the non-robotics related threads will stick around and participate on this wonderful resource we have shared with all of FIRST.

Thanks, for listening.
Mike Aubry

[Matt Krass]

I definitely support this, anyone who knows me knows I can be very vocal about some of the controversial debates that come up on these forums. I'm glad to see the ChiefDelphi team reacting quickly and decisively and simply solving the problem without a lot of fuss. Some of the discussions lately have been not only violent, but pointless and rapidly degenerating, I'm happy the moderators are on top of the job and I don't see a problem with this ruling change. CD Moderators are smart people, not robots (Excuse the irony), they know when a thread should be closed and when it's safe to leave it open. I don't imagine our normal chit-chat discussions will suffer, but this should help curb the radical political and religion flamewars started by members.

I say more power to the moderators, they're doing great!

[Mike]

As far as I'm concerned, this type of clause isn't necessary at all. Brandon, Delphi, IFI, 47 and co. are providing you a service by having these forums. Therefore they can delete, change, edit to whatever they please, for no reason whatsoever.

Anyone who disagrees can be shown the proverbial exit door.

[TimCraig]

Originally Posted by Mike

Therefore they can delete, change, edit to whatever they please, for no reason whatsoever.

Anyone who disagrees can be shown the proverbial exit door.

If they want to delete a post of mine, that's fine. However, I have a problem with someone editing what I've said and leaving it under my signature. I also wan't very happy when I had a post of my pulled from a thread where I'd resonded to someone and using it to start a new thread where it looked like I'd gone out of my way to broach a touchy subject.

[Matt Attallah]

Wow.

All this for me for posting up legit stuff that was IN the correct fourm. It was always assumed that threads would be locked and/or removed if it got nasty. Yes, I DID NOT get a written/verbal aggrement for the things that I posted- but I didn't see any harm in it due to the fact that I was NOT making any money off it-and I did give credit to where it came from.

Wow is all I have to say. I've made CD.com change.

Wow.

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

Wow.

All this for me for posting up legit stuff that was IN the correct fourm. It was always assumed that threads would be locked and/or removed if it got nasty. Yes, I DID NOT get a written/verbal aggrement for the things that I posted- but I didn't see any harm in it due to the fact that I was NOT making any money off it-and I did give credit to where it came from.

Wow is all I have to say. I've made CD.com change.

Wow.

That's not something to be proud of...at all.

You seem to be completely missing the point of why the threads were a problem.

[Matt Attallah]

The threads where a problem because people like you think they HAVE to view every page and than complain about it when they don't like what has been said/viewed.

I DIDN'T shove this stuff down your throats. YOU CHOSE to click on the link.

What's the problem that I seem to be missing?

[Mike Martus]

Ok guys enough!
Matt this change had been talked about in one form or another for several months. The leadership of the site gets many complaints some legit and some not. We look into all complaints and take mental notes to predict future problems. Your recent post was just one instance that needed to be considered.

We (the leadership) after careful thought felt a small change was in order to like many have said, to point out that moderators will close threads if needed.

Please do not panic over the words non-robotic. The wording clarifies a safety valve when needed. We encourage the sharing of information and conversations regarding FIRST and robotics associated topics. Some spill over to other topics is expected and tolerated. The small change only brings to the forefront the rules already in place. We could wordsmith the rules to death but that would not be energy well spent. The rules we have at this moment are solid and fair but will always be under review.

Our moderators are very dedicated FIRST'ers and make the operation of the forums possible. Without them the forums would would be in chaos and not as friendly as they are.

When you see new posters, welcome them into the Community of FIRST. Shared with them your expertise and make them feel safe in this friendly atmosphere of FIRST.

[Matt Attallah]

All right.

I've mulled this over, and honestly - I DO NOT see my error. I posted in the correct fourm. I didn't go all about screaming it with my head cut off. Just some people seemed to get 'disturbed' on a posting that was going on in the REAL WORLD. I can see if I was making it up, but what's wrong with posting something up in the real world? You DON'T HAVE TO REPLY do you?

Wanna talk more - pm me or drop me an e-mail. redwingvksm@gmail.com

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

I didn't go all about screaming it with my head cut off.

You may not have gone to that extent, but the way you respond to people's posts come off as being rude. Such as:

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

Didn't think so. Keep your posts to YOURSELF.

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

I DIDN'T shove this stuff down your throats. YOU CHOSE to click on the link.

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

You DON'T HAVE TO REPLY do you?

What's with all this caps stuff? Does that mean you're trying to emphasize a word or that you're just 'yelling' ? People might want to respond to someone who is genuinely just wanting to have a discussion, but no one likes to be batted down.

In my opinion, had you approached the topic with a cooler head and a lesser sense of "this is the almighty truth", then things would have gone over better. But you came out swinging saying that this is it, the facts - and the truth is that your sources could not be cited as entirely credible.

And perhaps those threads being closed and the response from the CD community is just telling you that maybe this isn't the best time to bring up certain topics. That seemed to be the case anyway.

[slickguy2007]

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

All right.
Just some people seemed to get 'disturbed' on a posting that was going on in the REAL WORLD.

I think, in part, you just answered why the moderators can't allow this to continue. The CD community is a diverse one with many different opinions. When you bring controversial issues onto the forums, you (although unintentionally I am sure) may cause heated debates that are not in the spirit of FIRST. Discussions turn into heated battles and then moderators have to step in. The moderators are real people with real lives and I am sure they don't want to have to spend all of their time having to intervene and ending bitter conflicts. Nobody wants to see the CD forums turn into something its not meant to be.

Believe me when I say that I am not shooting you down because that is the last thing I am doing. Nobody is telling you that you shouldn't have or express your political views, but rather that you should express your opinions over PM or through another (non-CD)place more suitable for political discussions.

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by Matt Attallah

I DIDN'T shove this stuff down your throats. YOU CHOSE to click on the link.

To me, it is very simple. I choose not to let people shove things down my throat by using a little feature that works wonderfully everytime when it's needed: the Ignor list.

There is a link in everyone's profile that says "Add XXX to Your Ignore List". Just a simple click of the mouse, and problem solved . No fighting, no arguing, no debating, no time wasted on anything I don't need to see. It's like turning off the TV when there's nothing interesting on it.

See ya later~

[Rohith Surampudi]

Ok well i started my post at around 6:30 then had to go to class before i could finish, the posts since then seem to cover it, but if you have an urge to discuss politics please do so on these sites,

http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/
http://www.whistlestopper.com/
http://www.itsallpolitics.com/
http://www.politicalhotwire.com/
http://www.politicalforum.com/
http://www.politicalforums.com/

and take a look at this post by the Ever Awesome Brandon
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...58&postcount=7