Overclock.net Professionalism Initiative
Overclock.net is dedicated to being a professional, drama-free, friendly, and helpful online community, which includes the forums, chat, blogs, and all other overclock.net features. The purpose of this project is to provide ways to maintain a professional atmosphere, to clarify sections of the Forum Rules and Terms of Service to further the idea of professionalism, and to provide a unified resource on the topic.
Treatment of members and the staff
At all times, everyone who uses the site is expected to treat other users of the site with courtesy and respect. This applies to members and Directors alike. At no time will rude behavior be accepted, and unacceptable behavior will be met with warnings, infractions, or bans, depending on the severity and frequency of the behavior.
Communication between members and the staff
Members should feel free to communicate with the staff whenever the need arises. Contacting the appropriate member of the staff in the appropriate manner will help to ensure a timely, appropriate reply.
All communication with the staff should be courteous and respectful, and such communications will be returned in kind. At no time will a member be penalized for asking questions of the staff or expressing concerns so long as it is done professionally. The staff will do their best to answer questions and address concerns in a timely, thorough manner.
The most appropriate ways to contact the staff in given situations are as follows:
- Report Bad Post feature - Every post contains the
icon. Any time a member notices a post that violates the forum rules, they should click on this icon and enter a brief description of why they reported the post. This generates a report that is available to the entire staff, and those reports are generally addressed very quickly. Please use this tool instead of PMing directors about problematic posts as that will produce that most rapid response. This is an invaluable tool for fighting spam and other inappropriate posts, and the input of members on this issue is very much appreciated. - Questions about a specific forum - The Directors assigned to a forum are displayed in the lower right corner of each forum. The same information is available at the bottom of the main page of the site under View Forum Leaders. Members who have questions about a specific forum should contact a Directors assigned to that forum, e.g. questions regarding the For Sale forum should be directed to The Duke. Note that these questions should be limited to questions about the forum itself, not the technical content the forum covers. Please create a thread in the forum to seek advice, suggestions, or help on topics covered under that forum.
- Questions about policies and other forum business - Such questions may be posed to any Director or admin. If a given Director is not able to answer a question or does not feel comfortable providing an answer, it will be forwarded to another Director for response. As was stated above, any questions asked courteously and respectfully will be responded to in kind.
- Problems or concerns with the Moderator staff - If a member has a problem with a Forum Moderator, it should be addressed to The Duke or Lemans81
.Problems with a Forum Manager should be addressed to the General Manager or admin. It is not appropriate to discuss problems with one Forum Director with another FD. Members of the staff are held to the same or higher standards of professionalism than the members, and all member concerns will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. - Editorial Staff - WIP
- Game Server Staff - WIP
- Contacting admin - Members may contact admin directly at any time, though be aware that there are only so many hours in the day for him to handle his workload both on and off the site, which has the potential to cause delays in getting a response. Issues that do not require his personal attention would be better handled by Directors solely because there is a larger pool of people who could provide timely assistance.
Private Message system
The private message (PM) systems provides a convenient way for members to communicate with each other and with the staff. Members should not seek help via PMs but rather in the open forums where the answers could benefit other members. PMs are governed by the TOS. Activities such as spamming, recruiting, or harassing are not permitted, and such PMs should be reported to the staff.
Reputation
The reputation system is intended to acknowledge members who have contributed to the forum, essentially a tally of "thank yous" for good work. In general, rep should be given to any member who provides help to you in a thread or who posts an exceptional post anywhere on the site. Rep should not be given for information shared in a PM, for posts that are not helpful, or for any frivolous reason. You may not ask for or offer to give reps for help; it is understood that members will give reps when they are deserved. For more details, read the Reputation Defined thread.
Profanity
Profanity has no place in a professional environment and is not tolerated on the site. The use of acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols is treated the same as using the actual words. The use of profanity will result in warnings and infractions.
Signatures
The TOS calls for signatures to not exceed 8 lines nor use text larger than size 3. For the sake of consistency, the length of signatures will be evaluated at the Fix View version of the site (1024x768). Each and every line of a signature counts toward the 8 line maximum including spaces, quote tags, etc. Size 3 text should be used only sparingly, and in most cases, size 1 and 2 text are most appropriate.
Reps should not be discussed in signatures. There is too fine of a line between begging for reps and legitimately reminding members about the rep system, so the line is drawn at not mentioning reps at all in signatures.
The TOS also prohibits the use of external links in signature. "External" refers to sites other than Overclock.net. This policy is consistent with other larger forums. Links to other sites are not permitted. Exception: As a temporary accommodation until we have better ways to share info that are directly related to our pursuits here, external links in signatures to sites like CPU-Z, Futuremark ORB, HWBot, Folding@Home stats or information, BOINC stats or infomation, etc, are acceptable. Steam Profile links are also acceptable. If you would like to link to something outside of the sites named here that is directly related to overclocking or our distributed computing projects, please contact a moderator in advance for permission.
Other formatting info
Do not include white text, or text that matches the background color of the site, in your posts. The reasoning for this is a simple request that we make because Google's search spiders view this type of same-color text as keyword spam, which is not something we want to be associated with.
Font Sizes
All Threads/Posts and any other typed communication form on Overclock.net needs to be at a Font size that allows for viewers to EASILY and COMFORTABLY read said Threads/Posts and any other communicative element on Overclock.net.
Thread titles
The TOS calls for thread titles to be descriptive. This is both to benefit the original poster as well as others who are looking for info on similar topics. To keep things looking professional, thread titles should follow certain guidelines. Below are some tips for composing appropriate thread titles -
- Titles should be both descriptive AND informative - "Help!!!!!!!!" is not a good thread title, and "Help with mobo" is not much better. Something like "Need help with Asus P5B-E overclocking features" conveys an appropriate level of detail.
- Titles should be concise- Thread Titles should not be overly long to the point where it becomes a sentence or breaks site formatting. Thread titles found to be overly long will be edited at the discretion of Overclock.net moderators.
- Use consistent capitalization - Capitalization should be used for the first word and proper names only or every word but not a mixture of both, e.g. "Need help with Asus mobo" or "Need Help with Asus Mobo" but not "Need help With asus Mobo".
- Abbreviations and capitalization - Use proper abbreviations and appropriate abbreviation capitalization, e.g. RAM, GHz, CPU, etc. not Ram, ghz, cpu, etc.
- Use reasonable and appropriate punctuation - Exclamation points should be use sparingly; if they're used judiciously, they effectively show emphasis, but overuse makes them pointless. Multiple punctuation marks are usually out of place, e.g. there's no need for "?!?!?!?!?!" ever. Ellipses, "...", often hurt the descriptiveness of titles by saying "Need help with..." rather than "Need help with whatever". Finally, "Need help with CPU?" should not have a question mark; it's a statement and not a question.
- Follow specific forum guidelines - Forums such as Online Deals and For Sale have specific thread titles format. Please follow those exactly. For example, use Deal: and For Sale: in the appropriate forums instead of variations of those prefixes for the sake of consistency. Threads that do not follow forum specific guidelines may be deleted.
- How to:, Info:, Opinion:, and FAQ: prefixes - These prefixes should not be used outside of the FAQ section as they imply that the thread has been reviewed by the staff and have been found to meet the site's FAQ guidelines. Please do not use these prefixes in other forums without prior approval.
Spelling, grammar, capitalization
In order to effectively communicate, a minimum standard of spelling, grammar, and capitalization must be upheld. Threads that are so poorly written that it is difficult or impossible to decipher will receive warnings or infractions. Warnings/infractions will NOT be given for a random typo or a misused comma. The purpose of this is to ensure all posts easily communicate their point; we're not trying to force everyone to be polished writers. Posts that are well written tend to get better results, though, so it is to everyone's benefit to put some time an effort into this. For more info, read this thread.
Responding to spam
Please do not respond to spam threads or posts as that only serves to draw more attention to the spam. Instead, use the report bad post feature that is described above to alert the staff to the spam.
Sticky threads
To keep the appearance of individual forums clean, sticky threads will be used sparingly and at the discretion of the Directors assigned to each forum. Forums that have numerous quality resources will have a comprehensive list of resource threads. These threads will be titled <Forum Name> Essential Threads will be stickied. All essential threads must be kept up to date, and outdated threads will be removed from the essential threads stickies. Members are encouraged to frequently check the essential threads stickies in their forums of interest.
Drama, bashing, etc.
In order to maintain a professional, friendly atmosphere, at no time will drama, bashing, or other such activities be acceptable. Posts and threads falling under this category should be reported, and the posters will receive warnings or infractions. Keep things constructive and polite, and things will run very smoothly. "White" text is not allowed.
Discussion about the Overclock.net Professionalism Initiative
Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this initiative in this thread. This is a work in progress, and it will be amended and edited as needed.
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