Preamble:

We shall not try to make other members of OurBoards feel bad.

We shall not try to be upset about other members.

If we are upset we shall try to reply one notch calmer than

the offending post.

1. What is stated for posts to The Lounge should be taken as valid for

every board of OurBoards: "Think before you post".

2. Always be polite. You do not really know the person and they don't

know you either. Take into account that you only have the written

language at your disposal; no body gestures, no vocal inflections

or whatever. The emoticons are helpful but often limited too.

3. If you want to answer a certain post, consider the old saying:

"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

At times it is better to speak about yourself and not about the other,

like in the following situation:

"I hate to use the word c**t" is much less disturbing than

"You used that c-word again"

4. Avoid any badmouthing about other boards while you are posting to a

certain board. We do not want to have competition between the various

boards of OurBoards. They are all specialised. But all are family.

5. Should the case happen that you are insulted by a certain post,

check first to see whether this might be an misunderstanding. Words on

a computer screen can be ambiguous, especially when working across

language barriers. We should all try to give people the benefit of

the doubt.

You might want to send a personal reply before you react in public.

To foster these personal replies all members of OurBoards are kindly

requested to provide an e-mail connection within their profiles.

You don't have to use your ISP-provided main e-mail addy but can use the

free OB-Mail offer always present on top of the page.

If you can't reach the poster, e.g. because he does not yet offer an

e-mail address or any other reasons, you should consider a link to a

message you posted to her/him on the Debates Board.

But once you react, please try to not escalate the apparent conflict.

Move your argument to the Debates Board if it becomes heated and remember

there are other members who may not be interested.

6. Endorse those that invest the time and energies to post. The efforts

undertaken by the posters can be quite substantial. We do like to have

(many) viewers/readers of our posts and we do like to have an audience

to speak to. Therefore nothing is more frustrating than silent,

anonymous lurkers. But if these lurkers speak out - at least from time

to time - then this is fantastic. It also helps us to know what you'd

like to see more or less of.

7. You have to find out by looking at the various boards what kind of

supportive behavior is most appropriate to the board at hand. Some

boards post long series of pics. Here a short comment at the beginning

and/or at the end of the series is totally sufficient. But on other

boards (often without those longer series) discussion is normally more

intense. Here you should invest more time to comment too.

8. What is being said here about commenting to other people's post are

meant as suggestions only. We are aware that some of our members are

physically not able to write much or at all. And it would be wrong

to ignore that levels of communicative skills are very often gender-

specific. We all know the jokes about the males not talking enough

about how much they would love her etc. We also acknowledge the fact

that posting to OurBoards is already an act of courtesy to the other

members of OurBoards.

9. From the beginning of the Internet writing in capitals was meant to

be shouting. So please refrain from using the Caps Lock key.

10. When you ask questions on any board of OurBoards.com please be so

kind as to acknowledge any serious answers you get.

11. Finally, apply common sense.