Forum Rules & Guidelines

[Flatscan]

Welcome to the ModWiggler forums!

We have a few rules to try to keep things fair and civilized here. Please familiarize yourself with them.
The rules here apply across the entire forum. Some subsections may have additional rules that apply there. These will appear in a sticky post in the section.
These rules may change as needed to prevent abuse.

Rules:
A) Post contents:
1. Be Civil. Try to respect the persons behind differences of opinion and experience.
Give others the benefit of the doubt. Don't assume the worst interpretation.
2. No personal attacks. We attack the argument or the evidence, never the person.
3. No threats of violence, real or virtual.
4. No bigotry or discrimination based upon immutable characteristics. No racial or sexual slurs. No implying any group is unwelcome. No attacking race, religion, political identity, gender or sexual identity.
5. No politics. This can be a hard one as it's a blurry line, but when in doubt, just don't. This includes no invoking political identity to justify or criticize.
Note: Describing your own experiences and how they may impact your business or hobby - relative to impact upon the topic at hand - is always allowed within that narrowly defined context. Editorializing it is not.
6. No attacking the moderators in public posts. If you have an issue with moderator actions, see the Moderator section below.
7. Rude language is allowed, but context and intensity is important. The NSFW sections is more forgiving on this rule.

B) Media:
1. No gore, pornography, or other highly objectionable material. All are subject to moderators’ interpretations.
2. No copyrighted material
3. No pirated or otherwise illegal material, or links to it.

C) Where, when, and what to post:
1. No crossposting/multiposting.
Please do a search first. Chances are HIGH that your topic has already been kicked off by another.
2. No off topic posting. Just create a new thread. Linking to the thread that inspired you would be courteous.
3. No post count farming; a.k.a. “Numbers Running”. In general, posts should be substantive.
4. No editing posts to change the contents. No deleting of posts by way of editing.
Edit posts only to correct mistakes or add status updates.
5. Selling and trading must be done in The Market subforum, and is subject to the rules listed there (minimum 100 posts to sell)
6. Do not open more than one account. Doing so risks all your accounts being banned.

D) Signatures:
1. Signature content must follow all the rules for posts, in addition to the following:
2. Signatures should not contain commercial advertisements. This includes Ebay listings. Personal projects are fine, but don't make it ad space.
3. Signatures, including any embedded media, should be no larger than the author profile on your post.

E) “Expressions of Interest” or pre-orders:
1. 'Gauging-of-Interest' threads are welcome. We encourage you to discuss ideas, possibilities and features of future modules, synths, and other audio gear.
2. 'Gauging-of-Interest' threads may not be modified later into a 'taking orders now' or pre-order thread.
3. Soliciting 'Expressions of Interest' or pre-orders must occur offsite. If there is no stock, asking for funds is not allowed on Mod Wiggler.
4. A 'Project Announcement' thread is okay, however it may not be used to collect funds.
5. A 'Project Announcement' can directly link to somewhere like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, retail partner or a manufacturer’s own website so that pre-orders can happen there. No Email address can be linked in the thread to collect funds and no invitations made to organise orders through the forum's private messaging.
6. In short: use caution, if a project seems odd or fishy; trust your intuition, and all business must be conducted away from the this forum. The admin/moderator staff do not wish to wade into dispute resolution.

F) DIY Group Buys:
1. DIY Group Buys are okay but must be done in the DIY section.
2. A Kit (partial or Complete) is not suitable for a DIY group buy thread.
3. A group buy can be for a Component, Panel, or PCB.
4. Group buys for a PCB must show it is completed, tested, and include circuit diagram with explanation of operation. It must also comply with the forum's Copyright, Intellectual Property & Misuse rules.
5. The organizer/collector-of-funds must be in good-standing and have been active on the forum for 18 months.

Guidelines:
Disagreements:
If you have a problem with another user, try to sort it out with them, or just avoid and ignore them.
If you have been scammed by a user buying or selling and have proof, you can post a warning in the Dubious Transactions thread. No opinions or speculation, just the facts. Let others make up their own minds about the situation.

Moderation & Penalties:
For most infractions, moderators will issue a Warning via PM. These warning will stay on your account for other moderators to see, and will be taken into consideration judging if a user has an unacceptable pattern of behaviour.
Continued infractions after receiving a warning will result in a short term ban (1 to 7 days).
If a user continues to break the rules after the first ban, a second ban may be from 30 days to permanent, depending on the severity of their actions.
For major infractions, i.e. where there is obvious intent to cause harm, the user will receive an immediate ban along with a message explaining the issue. This ban will be from 7 days to permanent depending on the user's history and nature of the infraction.

Appealing Moderation:
If you have a disagreement with a moderator over actions taken, politely ask them for clarification in a private message. Do not hijack the current thread.
If you can not reach an understanding with that moderator, or feel uncomfortable speaking directly to them, the situation may be escalated by contacting Flatscan via PM or email: admin at modwiggler dot com

Miscellaneous:
You can request your post be deleted or edited by clicking the Flag This Post button and explain the change to the mod team.
Any other technical issues or other questions can be brought up in the Site Stuff section (preferable, so others can see the resolution), or by contacting the support team.

The support team can be reached by emailing: support at modwiggler dot com

[Flatscan]

A clarification has been added to the No Politics Rule (A5)