The various mailing
lists associated with the Orion’s Arm Universe Project (OAUP) see a lot
of traffic. In order to ease confusion and allow everyone to enjoy
themselves, the following guidelines have been established.
General
Considerations
Handling
Online Message Traffic
Headers
Terminology
Moderator
Warnings
Flames
1. General
Considerations:
a. Ad hominem / slanderous / hateful
attacks on other list members, or criticizing other peoples' religious,
ideological, or political beliefs, or their race, ethnicity or the
like, will not be tolerated by the Moderators of this forum.
b. We ask that you do not join if…
… having familiarized yourself with
what the OAUP is about, you find yourself in disagreement with our
approach, and your intention in joining is simply to criticize the
project.
… participating in a hard science setting with transhumanist themes is
somehow distasteful to you.
c. Be familiar with the information found on the
How To
Contribute page.
2.
Handling Onlist Message Traffic:
a.
Posting Messages / Starting a New Topic:
i. We ask that you
introduce yourself prior to posting new material or ideas. We would
especially be interested in what brought you to OA. Ultimately how much
you share is up to you.
ii. When posting articles we ask that you post a link
to an article rather than the contents. Please mention why the
membership might find the article interesting. “Here is a link to a
working railgun” for example. Do not post a link amended with a vague
note such as "Here's a good website with some ideas for the technology
section" or "for the history section." Be specific as to your
intentions.
iii. Use normal capitalization. Separate your
paragraphs with blank lines. These practices make the content much
easier to read, and hopefully others on the list will return your
kindness.
iv. Break up long bodies of text into paragraphs.
Long blocks of text are very hard to read.
v. Try to get the spelling right (it doesn't have to
be perfect, but just try to tone down on typos and spelling errors).
vi. Sarcasm is lost in text form. Other members
cannot hear the tone of your voice. Feel free to use emoticons, or put
actions in asterisks like *grin*. You can also use caps or italics for
emphasis or use standard net conventions for italics and underlines.
This can lead to “Flames” as described below.
vii. DO NOT SEND AN ENTIRE MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS. This
is considered "shouting". It is annoying to others to be shouted at.
viii. Do not post material that is inappropriate for
OA including:
A.
Extended-Off-Topic (EOT) discussions about anything in particular -
e.g. American foreign policy, what you had for breakfast, soapboxing,
etc. This applies to posting off topic links as well. If you simply
must discuss these topics we suggest posting them
John’s Great
Big Group of Everything (GBGoE) – A friendly forum for… everything.
B. Detailed discussion of subjects in direct conflict
with OA Canon. (Faster Than Light (FTL) travel being a common one).
Repeated attempts to start these types of discussions will result in
administrative action by the Moderators. This does not mean that links
to new scientific articles on these subjects cannot be posted.
C. Detailed discussion on any of your own or other
preferred non-OAUP projects / scenarios.
b.
Replying to Posts:
i. You are not obliged to read,
or reply to, every message.
ii. Read through the entire post / thread before responding to
it. Someone may already have raised the same point, or your concern may
be addressed further down in the post.
iii. Watch for <ADM> headers. Do not respond to threads that have
been closed by the Moderators.
iv. Remove (<SNIP>) out those portions of a post / thread that
are not relevant to what you are replying to. This is especially
important with long posts, or when replying to a thread being heavily
discussed.
v. Be sure to quote what you are responding to, and who said it.
Failure to do so can cause confusion. This is especially true for those
members who receive posts as email, which may or may not arrive in
sequential order.
vi. Keep your replies concise and to the point. This does not mean you
cannot submit a long post if a concept requires it.
vii. Do not post long commentaries going over things that have already
been explained in the setting.
viii Do not continue posting material on a subject the group has
decided is not applicable to the setting.
ix. Do take notice of any questions or critiques others raise
regarding material you have posted. Try to either answer their
question, or else admit you do not have an answer and ask for help. We
have all had to do it at one time or another.
x. Do not reply simply to acknowledge your agreement, or
praise, of a previous post. If you feel the need to post a
compliment, please send it directly to the member whose ideas you are
complimenting rather than to the list as a whole. If you want to
compliment and add additional thoughts to the idea being discussed,
please do so.
xi. Please respect the senior membership. Their dedication to the
project has earned them their positions. One day you may be counted
among their ranks.
3. Headers
a. In
order to aid in communicating the intent of a post, the following
subject prefix headers have been developed:
<OA> Generic discussion about the Orion's Arm universe.
<EG> Encyclopaedia Galactica articles and anything specifically
intended for inclusion in the OAUP.
<ADM> List Administration - and general Moderator announcements.
<OT> Off Topic discussion.
<QUE> A Query / Question about information not found on the site
in the discussion list archives.
<LINK> A non-OAUP website that may be of interest to the
membership.
<HUMOR> Humor.
Note: the use of these headers is
recommended, but certainly not mandatory.
b. Using
the prefix headers:
i.
Include the prefix headers in angle brackets before the subject
description. Examples would be <EG> Widgets or <LINK> Black
Hole Discovered.
ii. When posting in response to a current
thread, but taking it in a new direction or line of thought, change the
header/ subject accordingly. Use the previous subject as a footer. An
example would be <OA> Godtech (was: Widgets)
4.
Terminology
A listing of terms used within the Discussion Groups but not directly
associated with the material on the site:
Unobtainium — Term for technology in Hard SF that requires
material that is unobtainable in the real universe
Vingularity — Pertaining to the singularity as described by
Vernor Vinge.
Handwaving — Term used by scientists when they aren't sure of
the answer and have to fudge things. Sometimes referred to jokingly by
the statement “and then a miracle occurs”.
Handwavium — A term that refers to postulated tech or
physics that is impractical or impossible but included because there is
no other way to explain things. Hard science fiction tries to minimize
handwavium [a play on "handwaving" + unobtainium].
Hard SF — [1] Science Fiction that tries to be loyal to the
known laws of physics, and avoids or minimizes sillytech; [2] Science
Fiction that emphasizes the technological side of things, as opposed to
the humanistic. Orion's Arm belongs to the first rather than the second
category.
Sillytech — Humorous term for technology that is ridiculous in
terms of the known laws of physics. Hard SF tries as much as possible
to avoid (or at least to minimize) sillytech.
5.
Moderator Warnings
At times it may become necessary for the list Moderators to step in to
address a variety of issues. Occasionally individuals will ignore the
standards of conduct outlined by OAUP policy (Netiquette, How To
Contribute, and the Terms, Copyright, and Submissions agreement). At
best this is just list noise, at worst these are hateful attacks that
reduce the enjoyment of other members – perhaps even making some
members feel unwelcome.
Moderator control is exercised in the form of posts using the
<ADM> prefix header. Posts bearing this header should never be
ignored. This may be used for administrative announcements, warnings to
disruptive individuals and the closing of disruptive / inappropriate
threads.
Closing Threads:
1. A
thread deemed inappropriate will be closed with an <ADM> tag and
the words "This Thread is now closed". Inappropriate behavior on the
list will also get an <ADM> tag
2. You will receive a 3-hour grace period
once a thread is closed. Posting to a closed thread after the grace
period will result in being temporarily suspended from the list.
3. The Moderator may or may not contact
the individual concerned off-list, explaining their actions.
4. Posting on a closed thread after this
gets a second <ADM> tag. At this stage, the following will get
one temporarily suspended.
i. Continuing
inappropriate behavior after at least 2 public warnings as indicated
above.
ii. At least 3
more posts in the same vein from the same person after the second
warning, no grace period.
1.
Deliberately trolling will be subject to temporary suspension after the
first warning. A repeat offense gets you permanently banned.
2. Spamming gets you banned without
warning.
Types of Suspension and/or Ban:
1. Temporarily Suspended –
This is not a ban and you may rejoin at any time. Members being
temporarily suspended should consider it a very strong warning. It also
means that the Moderators will be focused on their activity.
2. Permanent Ban – The member is removed from the OAUP and
may not return.
Mistakes can be made and if you feel you have been unjustly punished
please feel free to contact the Moderators or Senior Membership to
plead your case, and/or explain your actions.
We ask you to pay attention to the standards of netiquette, but slips
do happen. These are usually overlooked and the policy is enforced only
when it is deemed such behavior is becoming disruptive.
6. Flames
Inevitably, something you say will be taken out of context, or will be
considered an insult or invitation to argue by someone else. If that
person responds in a negative, emotional, or personally insulting way,
this is called a flame. When you reply in kind, it becomes a flame war.
We suggest taking the following steps in order to avoid being flamed,
and how to handle yourself if you are flamed.
· "HEDGE YOUR
BETS. Rather than saying, "Metal rules! Death to all that oppose
<insert name>!!" try saying "In my humble opinion (often
abbreviated IMHO) metal bands perfectly express my feelings, choices,
and lifestyle. Your mileage may vary" (another net cliché, less
frequently abbreviated YMMV).
· APOLOGIZE.
When misunderstanding is the culprit, and especially if you respect the
person who misunderstood, take the blame on yourself for being unclear,
apologize, say what you meant more clearly (if appropriate) and put it
behind you. As in real life people who are quick to anger are often
equally quick to forgive.
· AVOID FLAME
BAIT, or conduct which gravely offends the norms, mores and folkways of
a particular group. "Now wait a minute!" you say. "Do you mean that
something that's accepted behavior on one list or newsgroup will draw
dozens of stinging, ridiculing comments in another?" I sure do..
