Forum Rules
Notes:

• See also LouHI's Miscellaneous Board Policies and Information.
  
• These rules are going to be redrafted soon. Please send any ideas for additions or changes to steve@historyandissues.org.
  

Following are the board rules that apply to participation in the forums:

1. This is an open, nonpartisan, democratic (small 'd') discussion board for discussing the Louisville area's rich local history as well as current political/community issues. 'Open' does not mean "anything goes"—it means that you control the ongoing discussion (i.e., starting most topics) rather than the administrator or the moderators, and most actual moderation is done via your ratings of others' posts.
   
2. Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Citizens are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting. Not following this rule can result in either a moderator moving your post to the relevant forum, or other citizens rating down your post, or both.
   
3. Events added to the Events Calendar from topics must be of general community interest, posted to the forum mostly related to what the event is about, and if they are commercial in nature, they must stress the community aspects of the event, not the commercial aspects. The "smell test" of what events are allowed is this: If you were running a community discussion board, what do you think belongs on it?
   
4. The behavior of citizens on this board shall only be constrained by the "Things Not to Do On This Board" list below.
   
5. Peer Post Rating. As the goal for this discussion board is to become mostly self-moderated and thus essentially democratic, citizens are encouraged to rate others' posts, positively or negatively, based on the content and format. With an upcoming version of the board, citizens will be able to set up their profile to ignore posts that don't meet their ratings standards. See the Peer Post Rating Guide in the reply post below for more details.
   
6. Citizens are welcome to use The LouHI Sandbox for general "test purposes". These may include checking signatures, testing a link or image, etc. (subject to rules on obscene material, copyright violations, spam, etc.). The Sandbox will be pruned periodically.
   
7. The administrator and the moderators reserve the right to delete any post at any time. However, the administrator and the moderators will do their best to refrain from actions where peer ratings will do a better job.
   
8. Citizens are asked to report any especially problematic posts to the administrator or to any moderator.
   
9. The above forum rules (where applicable) also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings and/or the revocation of private messaging.
   
10. The administrator and the moderators don't want to ban any citizens, as this can tend to detract from an open, democratic discussion. However, there will be realistic circumstances where banning a citizen becomes the only choice. The operators of this site have the right to defend their web properties, and specifically, the purpose and character of this board.
    
11. All of the above rules are subject to change at any time at the discretion of the administrator in consultation with the citizens. Please provide suggestions for enhancements to these rules in the LouHI Discussion Board Administration forum.

Things Not to Do On This Board
Note: Rules that apply to topics/posts also apply, where applicable, to signatures and profile information.

• Posting topics that have nothing to do with a forum's description. Misplaced topics may be moved by the administrator or the moderators at their discretion.
  
• Posting the same topic or reply multiple times.
  
• Using excessive numbers of emoticons, unusually large, small or colored text, SHOUTED text, or excessive punctuation marks in topic subjects or posts.
  
• Giving a topic a poorly descriptive subject. The subject should always be clear and leave little to chance.
  
• Posting in languages other than English, unless performing a translation of material to or from English. (This doesn't apply to The Sandbox.)
  
• Being disrespectful of other citizens. Note: any disrespect that rises to the level of personally threatening (legal action, violence, etc.) or severely violating the privacy (e.g., posting a residential address or direct phone number) of another citizen will see that post deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Telling any other contributor, in any way, shape or form, that they cannot say something. Telling others to "shut up" (or expressing similar phrases/euphemisms) will lead to the post being deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Including images that make the topic page load slowly (due to their size or a sluggish hosting server) or expand beyond its normal margins. The admin or moderators will remove such images from posts.
  
• Engaging in circular or recycled argumentation. If in a topic, arguments are being made ad nauseum or appear to be going in unproductive circles, the admin or moderators will be highly likely to lock it. Individuals who try to work around these locks will see their posts deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Posting pornographic or obscene material. These posts will be deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Violating the copyright of other citizens, sites, media, etc. Note: links to or requests for information on warez, crackz, etc. or reproducing/overquoting copyrighted material without permission will be deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Breaking or advocating the breaking of local, state or federal law in the jurisdiction of the citizen who is posting, or in the jurisdiction of WebCommons (Louisville, KY), or in the jurisdiction of the hosting server (Rowlett, TX). These posts will be deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Spamming, or the posting of irrelevant commercial advertisements. These posts will be deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Questioning the existence of this board or the administrative actions of the administrator or the moderators. These posts will be deleted (and multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned).
  
• Undoing or working around administrative edits to posts; multiple offenses will lead to the user being banned.
  
• Replying to posts subject to deletion (such as a spam). These posts may well be deleted or edited by the administrator or the moderators at their discretion.
  
• Actively disrupting the flow of discussion or wreaking technical havoc, like flooding or other efforts to cause damage to or performance issues for the board. These offenders will be immediately banned, and their ISP will also be contacted.
  
• Any particular offense referred to above, committed in an especially egregious manner, would normally have to be repeated before the offender is banned. The administrator and moderators have the leeway to ban any citizen after just one offense, although this would certainly be considered on a case-by-case basis, and hopefully this would be done rarely.
  

Steve Magruder — LouHI Administrator and web programmer


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Peer Post Rating Guide

Why have a peer ratings system? Simple. The Louisville History & Issues peer ratings system was established to promote insightful, informational contributions for the betterment of the community, while lessening the damage from bad players. What makes this system work best is when you, the board citizen, actively rates the posts of others, either positively or negatively.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• You must be a registered citizen for at least seven (7) days before you can rate posts. This is enforced by the board software.
  
• Everyone's ratings "vote" is equal, and that even includes the ratings conducted by the administrator and moderators. However, the administrator as well as the moderators (especially within the forums they moderate) are obliged to rate every post they have the time to rate.
  
• There are currently no limits on how many ratings you may conduct overall, with the exception of only being able to rate the posts of another specific citizen no more than five (5) times in a day. This limit is in place to mitigate grudge ratings.
  
• Posts in the LouHI Discussion Board Administration forum or in The Sandbox are not ratable.

In the bottom right corner of each post that is subject to rating, you will see the link Rate this post. Click on that link to rate the post. You will be given the following rating options to select from (note: the " / " in options means "or"):

• +1 Insightful / Thought-provoking
  
• +1 Informative
  
• +1 Funny
  
• +1 Interesting / Inquisitive
  
• +1 Industrious / Creative
  
• +1 Recommended / Underrated
  
  
• -1 Not recommended / Overrated
  
• -1 Disregards Forum Rules
  
• -1 Off Topic
  
• -1 Slander / Venomous Language
  
  
• No rating
  

Note: When building post, topic or citizen ranks, ratings points for topic starter posts will be weighted 50% greater than for reply posts.

Ratings points (with any weights applied) accumulate for each post to create a rank as high as five green stars (5 points; "Inspired") or as low as five red stars (-5 points; "Abysmal"). These points also accumulate for each topic to create a similar rank; however, it takes 4 times as many points accumulated to achieve the same rank as for a post (e.g., it would take 20 points to be labeled "Inspired").

At some point in the near future, the software for this rating system will be updated to allow citizens to ignore posts (and perhaps even topics) that fall below a particular rank threshold.

The ranks of citizens are also established via the peer ratings of the posts they create. Ranks of citizens will rise in stature as more positive ratings points are accumulated. However, it is possible that in some cases, citizens will have negative ranks based on an accumulation of negative ratings. If the number of points for a citizen falls below zero, and as long as their rank remains negative, they will not be allowed to rate posts. In the future, any citizens with negative ranks may lose additional privileges on this board.

Please provide problem reports or suggestions for enhancements in the LouHI Discussion Board Administration forum.