Board rules

This bulletin board is by and for supporters of the Collingwood Football Club. It is a place for us to meet and share and discuss all things Collingwood. We encourage strong and healthy debate, but there are limits on what can be said or the way in which it is said.

For the purposes of this document, 'moderator' is taken to mean the moderator(s) officially carrying out the moderation of any forum in question. 'Moderation team' is taken to mean the group of moderators who make up the management team of this bulletin board.

    • Forum Rules
      • Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. You are encouraged to voice your opinions, but please be considerate of others and treat them as you would like to be treated - plain and simple really. Posts that are abusive, hateful or intolerant of the differences of others will be removed or edited and the posters may be warned. An exception to this rule is that intolerance of the support of AFL clubs other than Collingwood is actively encouraged.
      • Members should remember that this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated.

        Potentially defamatory posts are not to be made on this board. Defamation is any statement that might damage the reputation of another person. Defamatory material posted on the Bulletin Board threatens the well-being of the Bulletin Board and the publisher (Magpies Net) and will be removed without notice. Members who continually post defamatory material will be warned. Their accounts may also be blocked without notice.

        Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Members are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting and stay on-topic to the threads as much as possible. If you have personal comments to make to another member, use email or PM. Please don't spoil the Bulletin Board for others by creating personal threads or getting off topic. This practice also creates more work for the moderators and members will receive a warning for repeated abuse of the these guidelines.

        Members should resist the urge to make posts that waste board resources while adding nothing to the topic being discussed. An example of this is quoting another post and then adding only "I agree", "+1", "Good post" etc. They do nothing but clutter the board and spoil the enjoyment of others who have had to scroll down through the quoted post only to find an inanity posted at the bottom. Use the 'Like' button instead, that's why it's there.

        Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc. Copies of articles from media sites should carry full attribution - author, publisher, date, link. Copies of posts on other bulletin boards should credit the original author and bulletin board. Articles originating on any site published by Telstra (official AFL and club sites) are not to be reposted on this board - post a link to the article instead.

        Members are also asked to respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems to which the member has not received permission to link may be removed.

        Spamming or blatant advertisements will be deleted immediately and you will be warned. Cross posting (posting the same topic in more than one forum) will also not be tolerated and will result in a warning.

        Members are asked to not act as 'back seat moderators', be it through calling other users to account for alleged infractions, continually pointing out infractions to moderators, or posting gratuitous comments regarding the actions (or lack of action) by the mods team. If members note an issue which they feel contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the moderation team by clicking on the blue square in the upper right corner of the post in question. Please, only report posts if you consider the matter to be urgent or a moderation team member has not acted within 6 hours of a post or incident.

        Avatars and signatures are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to respect, decency and defamation. We understand that your signature is a branch of your creative personality, but there are limits which must be observed. Signatures dramatically increase load time on the page so we ask you to keep your signatures a reasonable size. We do not allow pictures as part of your signature for the same reason. Members are not to make real or implied references to other members in their signatures or avatars without the permission of that member. If your signature and/or avatar is deemed to be inappropriate or excessive, you will be contacted by a moderator about fixing it. If you fail to handle this responsibility, a moderator will fix it for you and you will be warned.

        The above forum rules also apply to private messaging, where applicable. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to public display of the offending message(s), warnings and/or the revocation of private messaging privileges.

        Use your head - Common sense is what we ask of you. If you are unsure whether or not you should post something, it's probably a bad idea. Remember that this forum is open to almost everyone in the world, so don't post anything that you don't want other people to see. Stay smart, meet people, have fun.
    #
    • Usernames
      • Usernames are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to decency and defamation.
      • Usernames based on the names of players, administration or staff of the Collingwood Football Club may be refused at the discretion of the Bulletin Board's moderation team. Any other names deemed to be inappropriate by the moderation team may also be refused.
      • The moderation team will make every effort to give reasons for the refusal of usernames, but are not bound to do so.
          Members who register a username that is deemed not to comply with these requirements or that conflicts with a pre-existing username (either literally or in sense) may be asked to change the name. If the member can't be contacted or refuses to change the name, it may be changed or deleted without further notice to the member by the Bulletin Board moderation team.
      #
    • #
      • Actions by Moderators

        • Moderators will endeavour to contact and explain their actions to a member whose post has been moderated, however, the moderation team has the right to edit or remove any post at any time with, or without, comment or explanation. The determination of what is construed as abuse, defamation, vulgarity, spam, etc. as noted in these points is the responsibility of moderation team members and not users.
        • Complaints about the behaviour of moderators should be made directly to the moderation team using the Bulletin Board email system - click here.
      #
      • Warnings and Bans
        • Members who contravene any of the rules as stated above may be warned. Members will be warned a maximum of twice in a three month period. If the need arises for a third warning within that time-span the member's account will be blocked for a period to be determined at the time of the warning.
        • Arguing with team members after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this additional warning be the third within the defined time-span the account will be blocked as above.
        • Members who feel they have been unfairly warned can contact the moderation team and request the warning be withdrawn. The moderation team can withdraw a warning they feel was unfairly issued. The group decision is final. Contacting individual group members over moderation issues is not permitted and may result in an additional warning.
        • Any attempt to circumvent a ban will result in the ban being made permanent. Circumvention may include re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban or registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention also includes posting as an anonymous user.
        • An exception to the three strike rule applies if a member contacts moderation team members personally (via any method) in a threatening, abusive, indecent or vulgar manner. Such members may be subject to an immediate and permanent ban regardless of their number of prior warnings..
        • Permanent bans are a last resort and considerable thought is given before implementing them. Whilst the moderation team may consider lifting permanent bans from time to time this is a rare occurrence.
        • Supporters of other AFL clubs may be warned just for showing up. Supporters of Essendon and Richmond may receive two warnings and Carlton supporters will be banned on the spot as a time-saving measure. Supporters of South Australian teams will be treated with great disdain as well as being warned - and may not retaliate. What are you doing here anyway?
      #