Forum Conduct

[JamesL]

It seems that it is time to remind people of proper forum conduct. ARC is designed to be open to all people to use and enjoy. As such, the conversations here need to remain civilized.

To that end, flaming (personal verbal attacks, slurs, slamming, racism, etc) will not be tolerated. If you see such activity, please use the 'Report' button located at the bottom right of each post.

Do not engage in the same activity with responses. These will also be construed as flaming and dealt with similarly.

Please leave it to the ARC staff to deal with. Also remember that the staff is not on the board 24/7, so it might take time to take down offensive posts, deal with offenders.

While each case will be dealt with individually, we will be in general enforcing the following:

• First time violators will be issued a warning.
  
• Second time violators will have their posting privileges changed to require moderator approval.
  
• Third time violators will be banned from the forum for a year. If you're banned you forfeit any membership benefits you may have at the time.
  

Warning levels will be decreased at the discretion of the ARC staff after a period of "good" behavior.

When in doubt please review the forum rules here.

Please feel free to contact the staff with any questions.

[mFrame]

Recently the topic of product reviews has come up in discussion, prompting us to try to formalize some guidelines for our members to share their experiences with equipment, products, and such.

There are two kinds of reviews here on the club site. One is the formal Equipment Reviews. Sponsors or vendors will sometimes provide the club with a new product for our members to try. They do so for a few reasons, most often to help spread the word of the new item but also to receive feedback and constructive criticism about the item so that they can further refine and improve it. The club maintains an inventory of such equipment available to our Premium Members for loan. Our only condition for borrowing it is to agree to submit a product review to us that we'll publish in the review section. Reviews do not have to be positive, but should be fair and list the pros and cons of the product. In the case of a negative review or experience, we may put you in contact directly with the provider to verify that there wasn't a problem with that particular product, that the instructions on how to use it were followed, or just to give them a chance to understand any issues encountered. Out of fairness to the provider we may hold off publishing the review until all such questions and points are addressed, but we will not withhold justifiable negative reviews.

The other type of product review here is informal. You see these all the time, most often with recommendations for products or comments about positive interactions with other members, sponsors, and non-sponsors. These are fine as well as long as they don't become obvious sales pitches for a particular product or service (feel to write these too, just place them in the Sponsor's forum rather than in general reefkeeping). The site and forums here are a great place to share information with other members. We understand that no product is perfect and it's fine for comments or "reviews" to reflect this. What we strive for is a balanced review of products in the vein of "constructive criticism". Stating what you like and what you don't like about a product can help a vendor improve the product and more importantly can hep other members here make informed decisions when choosing new equipment or products. If you're writing something that is blatantly negative, you should contact the staff first or accept that your content will probably be hidden or locked until it can be substantiated.

The staff and I are always trying to add sponsors to the club so that we can provide additional benefits to our members. We want to promote an environment where sponsors (and members) know they will be treated fairly, so please keep that in mind when reviewing a product. Forums rules regarding flaming apply to comments about everyone (other members, sponsors, and non-sponsors).