Forum Rules Clarifications And Addendums UPDATED

[EMTbravo 312]

EMTBravo Network Forum Rules Clarifications And Addendums

POSTED: 2/27/05

UPDATED:2/28/05 (Added Addedum)

Recently, there has been a surge of members on this site violating both the rules and policy of this forum. It is becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming to handle. This message will clarify some of the site rules and policy, as well as add some new guidelines.

Participation, including posting, on this forum constitutes an agreement to follow the rules. Each member confirmed this when they registered for the site. These rules include Private Messages as well.

The purpose of this forum is to give the Westchester and regional area fire and EMS personnel a place to communicate and share news, information, events, incidents, ideas, views, and most importantly, knowledge. This information is to be shared in a respectful, positive, intelligent, and constructive format.

If you believe a member has violated the rules or you feel the post needs to be removed for whatever reason, please contact the moderator of that forum via Private Message or EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com. Please include a link to the post and a short description of the problem. Please note that just because you request a post removed does not neccarily mean it will be removed. The final decision is up to the moderator and administrator, so please make your case.

With that said, here are some clarifications and additions to the rules and guidelines. These rules and guidelines are subject to change at any time.

GOLDEN RULE: Respect of other members. Please have respect for your fellow forum members. Please refrain from attacking, insulting, flaming, etc other members. If you do not agree with their views, post your rebuttal in a respectful, constructive, and objective fashion. If you believe their information is not correct, or know additional information, please correct or update the incorrect information in a respectful fashion.

Paid Vs. Volunteer Discussion: This forum WILL NOT TOLERATE bickering or pointless, negative arguing between the two sides whatsover. Regardless of what you may think, we are all here to deliver a service to the public that is of critical nature. As previously stated, this board is a place to share information, knowledge, and views in a positive, constructive, and intelligent manner. This forum believes that nothing is accomplished by a Paid/Volly war, the only solution to this problem is comprimise, understanding, and working together. The purpose of this board is not to facilitate Paid Vs. Volunteer discussions. If you'd like to trash one side or the other, please take your pointless discussion to another forum. If you'd like to talk about how to make our system better, and how to serve the public better within the rules of this board, then please feel free to stay here and discuss. Once again, THIS BOARD WILL NOT BE A RING FOR (POINTLESS) PAID VS. VOLUNTEER DISCUSSION OR PROPAGANDA!!

1. Incident alert. The exact prescribed template MUST be followed at ALL times. Only certain allowed incident types, as posted, are permitted. Location and exact details of the incident must be as factual as possible, and come from a confirmed source. Spelling and grammar must be correct. The incident posted must be a serious, confirmed incident. If members continue to not abide by the above, then posting in the Incident alert Forum will have to be restricted to authorized members only. All posted IA's are at the discretion of the moderators to remain posted. Due to the abuse of the rules lately, IA posts will be removed for the slightest deviation from the above statement.

2. Incident Workshop. All extra information and discussion relating to Incident alerts MUST be posted in the Incident Workshop forum. The IW forum IS NOT a place to criticize or armchair quarterback any incident. Only positive, constructive, and objective posts are allowed. Any post that even attempts to attack a person or department will be removed.

3. Stirring the pot. Recently, there have been several members who have made comments for the sole reason of trying to "stir the pot". Any comment that is made and is deemed to try and incite a conflict will be removed. If a member is repeatedly seen doing this, their posting privileges will be restricted.

4. Advertising. Posts made specifically for the purpose of advertising a product, service, or website that do not contribute to the forum will be removed at the discretion of the moderators.

5. Language. Vulgar language is not allowed on the forum.

6. Posting of articles. If you are posting an article you did not write, or obtained from another source, please use the Quote feature. In addition, if you are quoting another member, please use the quote feature.

7. Removal Of Posts: The administration has the right to remove any post, for any reason, at any time, with or without notification. If you wish to greive why your post was removed, feel free to contact the adminstrator. However, please make sure that you are familiar with the rules of this board before you do so.

8. Members have the right to request that specific posts that they made be removed.

If a member leaves the community, their posts remain a part of the forum.

9. Duplicate Posts. Posting of the same topic in multiple forums is not allowed.

10. General Posting. Please select the most appropriate forum for your topic, and please check to make sure that topic does not already exist. For example, when posting a discussion about radio communications, that does not belong in the Lounge forum, that belongs in the Fire And EMS Communications forum.

If specific members continually show disregard for the administrators, moderators, and other members of this forum, and continue to disregard the rules of this forum, we reserve the right to remove that member, and edit or delete their posts. The last thing we want to do is remove a members account. However, if a certain member continuosly violates the rules and damages the forum enviroment, that member becomes a strain on time and resources, and detracts from the quality we strive to maintain for this forum.

If anyone has questions, comments, suggestion or needs clarification of anything posted here or on the rules page, please contact your local moderator or EMTBravo via PM or EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com

Finally, if you like or dislike something on this forum, or enjoy this forum in general, please feel free to let the webmaster know. We live off feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

-EMTBravo Network Webteam

[EMTbravo 312]

To add to the above, to address certain recent posts:

Deparmental-specific attacks or personal attacks or negative criticsism IS NOT TOLERATED on this board, as stated above.

"Armchair quarterbacking", critiquing of an incident (specific or general) or IC, or criticism of a specific department and their operations is not permitted. If you notice something that you feel needs to be adressed, please keep your post objective and constructive.

"Writing Up" a specific department will not be permitted...however, you may remove the department name and speific details that can be used to identify a department.

Please note it is the MODERATORS/ADMINSITRATORS ultimate decision to permit cetrtain types of discussions when presented appropriately and intelligently. We will allow certain discussions on a case by case basis where a good,constructive and intelligent discussion can be had (Note: The naming of spefic departments and specific situations will NOT be allowed. It's easy for this board to become a trash-fest, and that's not going to happen here.

Also note the moderators and adminstrator cannot view every single post at all times, therefore posts will be dealt with as soon as possible, as they are brought to our attention or seen during our browsing of the board.

Reports published or televised in the media are open for department specific discussion within reason and rules of this board.

Posts that cause a thread to go off topic, or hjijacking a thread for your own personal,exclusive discussion, especially when it is not related to the topic at hand, is not permitted. When people post a topic for discussion, it is disrespectful to turn that thread into your own specific conversation on a unrelated topic with somebody else. If you want to do that, please take it to the Private Message system. That's what it is there for. Any posts which causes a thread to be hijacked or cause a thread to go off topic will be deleted.

Open flaming, teasing, negative comments, or proking of another member in any thread is not tolerated. However, good natured humor will be tolerated

ANYONE who tries to skate around or test the limits of the rules may not be warned and be subject to having their posting privledges restricted.