Forum Rules

the forum's been quieter lately, but perhaps that's a good moment to refresh on the rules, whilst no one is breaking them or arguing about them


Forum Rules

1. This is a privately managed forum. We reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason. Please be aware that it is not a “free speech zone”; no First Amendment rights apply in this setting. First Amendment rights are only implicated where government action attempts to restrict speech, and we are not the government. When you visit this forum it’s the same as entering the living room of someone’s home. If you don’t agree with the house rules and choose not to follow them, you lose the right to participate here.

2. Although many who post here identify as Buddhists, many are not. There is no requirement or expectation that anyone be Buddhist in order to participate, nor adhere to rigid forms of so-called Buddhist behaviour; apart from compliance with posted rules, there is no overlay of doctrinal "preceptual speech" applied to the interaction.

3. Each member may register one username on this forum. If you register more than one username, your accounts will be deactivated permanently.

4. The forums are free of charge. It's all right to mention your own publications or the type of work you do, but please do not post for the purpose of advertising your own or someone else's commercial business. Links to personal blogs are acceptable so long as the linked material doesn't violate any rules here, especially #18 below.

5. Please be aware that this forum is oriented to civil expression. Profanity, obscenities, swear words and other coarse language are not allowed and will be deleted. This includes words where letters are replaced by symbols such as *. Repeat offenders will lose posting privileges.

6. Be courteous. The following are not allowed: personal insults/name-calling, racism, swearing, gratuitously offensive material, personal attacks, and trolling (making controversial posts purely to stir up an adverse reaction).

7. You are welcome to challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully. Keep in mind that others have the right to disagree with you.

8. Remember that this is a public forum that is viewable and searchable by anyone on the Internet. If you don’t want to disclose your identity, don’t post information about yourself or your life circumstances that would let someone else know who you are.

9. Occasionally, forum moderators may need to become involved in moderating a thread. Should you be concerned about any such action, please raise it with a moderator or administrator by private message. Just as attacks on other members are against the rules, so are attacks on moderators.

10. Usernames that have the appearance of email addresses are not accepted.

11. Please keep your posts relevant to the forum topics. Thread-jacking is disrespectful to other users and will not be allowed. Where a topic has been identified as a “dedicated thread”, this means that off-topic posts will be moved or deleted at the moderators’ discretion, in order to preserve the original poster’s stated purpose and intent for the thread.

12. You grant a permanent license to OBC Connect to display the content of any and all posts you make on the forum.

13. Please use only the smilies on this forum; do not upload other emoticons to your posts.

14. Discussions of political or religious themes are allowed if carried out thoughtfully, with respect for others’ ideas. Talk about your own ideas. Refrain from baseless bashing of other members' ideas.

15. Private messaging is considered private, however, if the system is used to distribute vulgar, obscene, harassing, hateful, spamming or other type of disallowed communications, and if such are reported to the administrators, the sender(s) will lose forum membership permanently.

16. Although the administrators and moderators will attempt to keep objectionable posts off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the creators of OBC Connect nor Forumotion will be held responsible for the content of any message.

17. We reserve the right to accept or decline membership applications, vary forum privileges, and terminate the membership of anyone for any reason.

18. By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are defamatory, libelous, obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise in violation of any laws.

Hello,
What does "reputation" mean? regards, Lesley

Hi Lesley,

I should have a better grasp of "reputation", as an admin here, but I have to confess I haven't fully explored how this works. Generally, I know it to be an indicator of how many times others have indicated that they liked a post that the person in question has posted. They communicate "like" or "dislike" by clicking on the button labeled "+" or "-", within a post.

I will research this and try to give a better answer of how it works.

cheers,
Lise

Hi Lise, thanks for that information. Now I have another question, what decides whether a person has the +/-sign attached to their posts?
Hoping you are well,are you getting the sunny weather we are enjoying in Buckingham? with gassho, Lesley

Hi Lesley,

All posted comments have + and - symbols in the upper right hand corner, allowing any registered member of the Forum (who is logged in) to cast a positive or negative vote for the comment. Each member can only cast one vote for each comment posted, after which, the + and - no longer appear. All other members can still cast votes for that comment and will continue to see the symbols.

Since we cannot cast votes for our own comments, we never see the symbols on our own posts!

Beautiful sunny weather here in Northern California today as well!

Thanks Lesley, for asking that question, I never knew that. And thanks Kozan for explaining, who knows what other details I've been missing:) !

Brigitte

Hi Lesley, and thanks Kozan for providing that very good answer. I've been away for a bit, just got back from a week-long retreat, and am catching up on the forum.

It is kind of fun to rate posts, isn't it? I cast positive votes for good spelling and no potty words

I read on a touch screen, occasionally cast a +/- vote by accident, and I don't know how to undo them. So I hope they aren't taken to heart by anyone.

Hi Karen

Someone private messaged me a while ago saying that they had accidentally (-) one of my posts. They corrected it by neutralizing it with a (+) the next day. The following day they entered a (+) to give the vote that they had originally intended.

So it seems possible to correct but each corrective action takes a day.

Cheers

Hi Howard,

I'm adverse to the idea of rating posts as + or -. I will have to get past this aversion to post. I don't think it encourages people to talk freely.
What do I know about Forums though; maybe it's a common thing?
Maybe I'm old fashioned. It's not up to me whether this is done on this site; I'm a new comer. I thought I'd pipe up and give my opinion on the matter.
Bows, Claire ps. Don't worry, I won't run away, wilt or anything. The plus minus shoe doesn't fit me though.

Hello Everyone,

I'm sorry I broke rule #13. I used an emotican other than a smilie. It was by mistake; I didn't realize it was not allowed. It doesn't matter to me that I can't use other emoticans here. I feel quite neutral about the matter really.
Just thought I'd acknowledge this mistake. Bows, Claire

Hi Claire, no worries, it's not a big deal and we actually don't mind adding emoticons that people want to use (as long as they're not too risque and things like that). I'll look for the one you're talking about and see about loading into the emoticon library. We could use a few new ones. Thanks for mentioning this but please don't worry about it.

Lise

Hey Bellclair


Not to worry, in the 8 months that I've played here I can count on one hand the amount of times anyone has had anything to say about the (+ / -).

It has usually come up when long time contributors who have spent years in studied mindfulness have suddenly seen them and said ooowwww what's this?

I think it's funny that they get listed beside "reputation". The first and last time I paid much attention to reputation was when my older sister publicly submerged my face in a grade school mud puddle after I suggested that she had one.

One person told me they have used the (+) like a bow or a gashho when a posting has helped them, which I thought was a nice approach. It moved it away from judgement, grading or self and just plopped it into a realm of grace. Of course the (-) wasn't mentioned.

Cheers

Dear Lise,
Goody,I am getting to understand this posting process and yes, Howard, using the (+) as a bow to denote helpful posts seems a good idea. One last question about the mechanics of the forum, what to points relate to and why do they sometimes differ from posts?
It's the middle of the night over here and I fear my sleeplessness is due to overindulgence at suppertime,silly me!
With gassho,Lesley

Thank you Howard, I just gave your response a +

Thanks Karen
for the trial (+) run.

It is probably obvious to most that this point system only represents the views of those who might be inclined to vote one way or the other.

I felt a little saddened today when I noticed a number of new (-) negatives beside someone's postings. Sensitive flower that I am, while the (+) might be thought of as a gassho I had thought that the (-) probably represents someones rejection of the posts contents or of the poster themselves.

While feel good postings that may reaffirm our belief systems but do little to encourage self examination can often end up with positive (+) votes, many of the most valuable postings for any truth explorers are the uncomfortable ones that push us to question our assumptions and yes, they are also the ones that inevitably attract the negative (-) votes.

Most of us are here because at some time in our OBC past we questioned the status quo and received the (-). Without receiving that (-) in the past, would I have even considered being part of the OBC connect?

This observation has adjusted my view today to consider that the red /negative flags beside the posting that people before me have highlighted are actually signs that say "this posting is worthy of deeper consideration".

Cheers all

giving this a bump, for the benefit of new and old members

Hello members, new and old - please refresh on the forum rules when you have a chance.

cheers, Lise

bump