What's up people. Here's a first draft of the proposed AG Code of Conduct. Let's get some feedback...
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Africas Gateway - Code of Conduct
Respect:
AG is a hip hop forum that has been around for a while. It has developed a certain style of communication that is a bit more rugged than most forums. Members are expected to be able handle a certain amount of trash talking. However, certain standards of respect should still be maintained. Racism and threats of violence will not be tolerated.
Self Promotion:
Everyone is on AG to hear about Hip Hop related topics so some self-promotion is allowed. Spamming or flooding forums with self-promotional items is not allowed. If you're promoting an album, for example, start one topic in the correct forum.
Username Restrictions:
- Each person may only have ONE username/ account.
- Usernames may NOT contain any personal information (real names, locations, etc.).
- Usernames may NOT be similar to a moderator's username.
No Personally Identifiable Information:
Do not give out personally identifiable information about yourself in the message board such as entire real names, last names, address, parent's names, phone number, email address, age, place of employment, or school. Do not give out other people's personal information either.
Member Signatures:
a limit has been set on the size of people's signatures. Please endeavour to keep your signature as short as possible, and please refrain from posting huge images within your signature. This is to a**ist members with slower connections - please be considerate.
SPAM:
Please don't SPAM through the AG Forum. 'SPAMming' includes sending identical and irrelevant submissions to many different Forum areas. Usually such postings have nothing to do with the particular topic of the group or are of no real interest to those on AG.
AG reserves the right to ban a user at any time, without notice, from any or all Forum areas for spamming.
Etiquette:
Please don't post messages in ALL CAPS, all italics or all bold - it makes you look like a retard.
New Members:
- First 20 posts must be approved by a moderator before they are made visible
- New members can only start new threads after 20 posts
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'Progressive Discipline'
Forum Members who are in violation of the Code of Conduct Rules will be subject to the following Progressive Discipline steps:
Step 1.
Warning from Moderator via private message. In order to give more control and responsibility to forum Members, any Member in violation will first be asked to edit his/her own post(s), if necessary.
Step 2.
Warning from Moderator, to be visibly posted on the thread in question.
Step 3.
Vote by quorum of site 'Core Group' (Moderators and other site leaders) for short-term banning of one week.
Step 4.
Un-banning after period of one week; return of full privileges to member; probationary period of one month.
Step 5.
If the member complies with all Code of Conduct Rules for duration of the probationary period, any future Progressive Discipline will begin at Step 1.
Step 6.
If the member violates any Code of Conduct Rules within the probationary period, as determined by a vote by a quorum of site leadership, they will be banned for one month from the forum.
Step 7.
Persistent offenders will be permanently banned. This should be a very rare occurrence.
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Responsibilities for Moderators
1. To maintain relatively 'civil' discourse among forum members (within reason by AG standards). Talking shit is part of AG, but sometimes it does get out of hand (flaming / death threats etc).
2. To guide heated discussions back to acceptable parameters, as defined by the Code of Conduct Rules.
3. To administer progressive discipline to forum members who break the Code of Conduct Rules.
4. To run their own posts past other Moderators when there is a chance the language might confuse or offend.
5. To respect their roles by adhering closely to the Code of Conduct Rules.
6. To refrain from abusing control of the site to unilaterally ban, edit, delete, censor, etc.
7. Note: Moderators will be subject to the same Progressive Discipline steps as any Member, and will also be monitored by other Moderators.
