A friendly reminder to our members concerning posting

[The Old Man]

TIWWA Members,

The vast majority of members are very considerate in the way they take part in discussions on the forums, and the way in which they format their posts. The TIWWA forum staff are very appreciative of this, as it makes our lives much easier and enables us to spend most of our time online at TIWWA enjoying the posts, discussion and chat instead of moderating. TIWWA members frequently tell us that they are very really happy with the balance of freedom and moderation that exists at TIWWA, its one of the reasons that the community has survived so long and it makes us all warm and fuzzy inside!

Unfortunately, we have recently started to receive some complaints and reported posts, and after looking at and discussing the nature of these complaints, I would like to issue a friendly reminder to all of our members to remind them about the need to consider their posting style and the formatting of posts and content at TIWWA; to make posts as easy to read as can reasonably be expected. We will of course, be addressing some of the concerns with some members directly, but it does no harm to ask our members to consider their posting style in general. By posting style, I am referring to the way in which members 'speak' to each other within discussion threads, as well as the appearance of their posts.

We are tolerant and emphatic of members who are do not speak English as their first language, who may not have read and fully understood the Board Guidelines, but the same rules and guidelines apply to everybody. Similarly, we are aware and understanding of the rapid growth of technology, and that some members may be posting at TIWWA using a variety of internet enabled devices besides their trusty internet browser on their PC or Mac, such as iPhones, Blackberries, 'smart-phones' and e-readers and tablet PC's which may have an effect on the layout of the user's posts. Therefore we haven't jumped immediately on anyone who has regularly been posting large spaces and gaps of 'white space' or blank lines within their posts, but we have reached a stage where ill formed posts are causing complaints. It would be appreciated that if when posting you notice numerous blank lines and white space appearing in your posts that you did not intend, that you please use the Edit function to easily remove the blank space, so that the finished content does not become annoying and require a large amount of unnecessary page scrolling.

One example would be posting a 10 item list, which includes dozens of blank lines between and becomes to all intents and purposes, ridiculous.

Sometime this can happen if you copied and pasted from another website, no problem, but please just take a minute to edit afterwards to remove any white space or bad formatting so that a staff member doesn't have to.

The second point that I wish to address is that some posters are rapidly encroaching on the point of becoming so-called 'flame-baiters', and this quite simply put, will not be tolerated. We do acknowledge that Millennium has been off the air for a relatively long time, and that for many long term members, most of the in-depth discussion on Millennium has been discussed to the nth degree. Therefore, we understand that the community are now getting involved in more off-topic areas of discussion and chat, which is fine, we have to accept this. The specific Millennium forums are always there for anyone looking to start a new discussion on an aspect of the show, particularly with those new to the series. However, what we won't tolerate is members flaimbaiting other members with their responses, belittling other's enjoyment of a topic or series, whether it be within a Millennium based topic or otherwise.

Finally, you may have already noticed that some extra information is visible next to your posts or in your profiles, showing a Warning Level, similar to this image:

The image above shows no warning level.

Please do not panic, unless it specifically says so, you have not received a warning!

Previously, only our staff could see these details next to your posts, but I have re-enabled the option for our members to see their warning status levels and reasons for receiving any warnings, as we may be issuing some warnings to persistent offenders who refuse to consider the needs of fellow posters, whether it be with their posting style, or their direct spam posts that offer nothing of value to a discussion. The Board Guidelines are still present, and if you are unsure or feel that you may the kind of member that I have mentioned, please feel free to refresh your understanding of them.

Similarly, if you have a problem with or take exception to a post at TIWWA, or see content which you feel is unacceptable, please use the Report button to report the content to our Staff, but please be sure to explain properly why you think it is unwarranted. We would prefer you do this so that all members of Staff have the opportunity to moderate where necessary, rather than the same one or two staff members receiving all of the requests directly by PM. Reported content appears in a special Report Center, where staff can discussion where necessary the objections made or an available online staff member can take prompt action to pin, merge, open or close topics so that you don't have to wait for the specific staff members to next come on-line to read your PM or take action.

Thank you for your continued support in helping us maintain This is who we are as a pleasant, fun and interesting place to visit as part of your online experience.

Regards,

Graham