Posting Guidelines and General Information

The golden rules

The OpenForum and article comments aren't run by rules, per se. Rather, they are moderated by a tight-knit group of moderators who have volunteered to put themselves in the position of making difficult judgment calls. Most of these Guidelines are geared towards just improving the state of the forum and comments through smart tips (using good subject lines is just wise, ya know). Some of these Guidelines are more prohibitive, however, and they function as rules. The rules come in two-forms: the cardinal, and the compulsory.

Cardinal rules

Cardinal Rules are rules meant to provide everyone with a level playing field and reasonable expectations for open and frank engagement. Violations of Cardinal Rules will result in Official Warnings. Accumulation of OWs will result in bans, which may be temporary or permanent, depending on the level of offense. The one exception for this is spamming. This will result in an immediate ban (for obvious reasons).

1. The Forum Usage Agreement must be respected in full. If you need to refresh your memory, you can see the agreement here.
2. Pay attention to moderation directives. Moderators can give directives in a thread (e.g., stop posting off-topic, stop bad behavior, etc). Everyone is expected to abide by such directives. Directives may be general ("stop being so hostile") to specific ("no more talk about chili”), and are intended to keep a thread from completely derailing.
3. No trolling. Don't make posts that are inflammatory just to get people riled up. Attacking other members of our community is not acceptable. Substance is a key to not being labeled a troll, but substance alone cannot prevent you from being considered a troll. Substance with a dash of personal attacks will get you labeled as a troll.
4. Ad hominem and personal attacks are not permitted. Again: criticize the ideas, not the people. An ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy describing the attempt to discredit an argument by merely attacking the credibility of the arguer. Excessive flaming will not be tolerated. Users who verbally assault the character or person of other posters on a regular basis will be banned. Moderator's judgment applies here. "You are wrong" is not a personal attack; "You wrong because you are an idiot" probably is. Persistent name-calling will likely be assessed as a violation of this rule.
5. No racist, pornographic, sexually offensive, sexually explicit, or objectifying material. Simple rule. Moderator's judgment applies here. We'd like for our readers to be able to read Ars at work and share with friends without fear of retribution.
6. Do not post links or requests for warez.
7. Respect the privacy of others. Do not post other's private phone numbers, addresses, pictures, etc., without their express permission.
8. Abuse of editing privileges is not permitted. Editing posts for grammar or information is fantastic, but after an initial grace period of 10 minutes, users may not delete/edit content for the purpose of evading possible moderation (removing flames, trolls, etc.). Also, starting a thread, not liking how it turns out, and then deleting your own posts is irresponsible and unfair, and an actionable offense. It's simply not cool to troll users and then delete it, acting as if nothing has happened.
9. Each forum member may have only one account.
10. Each forum member must maintain e-mail. All users must provide a current, frequently read e-mail address in his/her internal profile. Note that non-moderators do not have access to your internal e-mail address.
11. Do not place foul language in thread subjects.
12. And of course, NO SPAMMING. No commercial-oriented posts, and no flooding with useless content or content designed to engage readers into forum wars or trolling other sites. This includes signatures with links to your personal blog, project, or commercial product as well as usernames that contain URLs in whole or part.
13. No Armchair Moderating. If you’re not the assigned moderator in a particular forum, do not post attempts at moderation, suggestions for moderation actions, or complaints about moderation unless you are explicitly invited to do so by a moderator. All concerns about moderation should be sent to the moderation corps.
14. No spreading misinformation. If you want to argue the merits of homeopathy or the dangers of fluoride in drinking water, do it somewhere else.
15. No disingenuously editing quotes. If you want to respond to a post quote them accurately, don't change the wording to make it seem like they said things they didn't, even sarcastically. Editing to reply to a smaller part of their post is fine, so long as you don't change the context of what they said.
16. No personal attacks against or harassment of Ars Technica writers and staffers is permitted. You may disagree with what we write, you may criticize what we write, but you must do so without engaing in personal attacks or other forms of harassment against Ars staffers.

Compulsory rules

1. Use descriptive subject lines and research your post. This reduces the chances of double-posting, and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Also, scan the subjects of the last several days' posts to make sure you aren't duplicating posts. See this article for guidance on how to participate in discussions related to science and health.
2. Post in the right forum! If it's about games, post it in the gaming forum. Even if it's only humor, an observation, or angst, if it's about something that we have a forum for, post it there.
3. Restrict the use of excessive foul language. Excessive foul language can be moderated, if only because excessive foul language usually indicates that someone is utterly clueless. Buy a thesaurus. We also require that you leave rough or offensive language out of the thread subjects. People read the OpenForum at work, and while foul language is par for the course, let's try and keep it away from the big, yellow, eye-catching folders. :-)
4. No blatantly juvenile toilet humor. Simple rule. Moderator's judgment applies here. Talk about what you do to relieve yourself, although popular (for some odd reason) is not needed here.
5. No signatures. Self-explanatory, we think. We try to keep a clean-looking forum, so take your signatures elsewhere. That goes double for signatures with commercial or blog links.
6. Please respect and abide by the decisions of the moderators. Self-explanatory. If you have issues with moderation, we want to hear about them, but the thread where the moderation took place isn't the place.

Finally, remember that we're not the ratings board here. We're not going to give you a PG for four swears and a gunshot, but R for five swears and splattering brains. Not making any hard and fast rules means that the moderators can use their good judgment in moderation, and we think the results speak for themselves. Bottom line: we almost always give warnings. But we don't care to give them twice to the same person.

Discussion of the nature of 'Open'.

Ars Technica is a PC enthusiast's site, and the OpenForum is an extension of Ars. It's an incredibly fun place to hang out, and it's a truly "open" place because our community members come in with broad interests and backgrounds, yet still find a way to meet on common ground. Users of all levels of expertise intermingle, and enthusiasts with intense passions for technology meet up with others just like them (heck, just visit the case forum to see some extreme examples!).

The OpenForum, as fun and diverse and it may be, wasn't ever intended to facilitate the needs of everyone who wants to talk about anything at any time. It is not intended to be "community television" or a public park. Rather, Ars and its OpenForum are privately owned and operated. We use moderators to keep the content in-line, to a certain extent, with the vision and purpose of Ars Technica as a whole.

We choose the name "OpenForum" because we run the forum with the open minds of true PC enthusiasts. We love to see people learn to open their minds to new ideas, new technologies, and new people. "Open" at Ars means that Mac users can come here and talk about their computers without being shut down or kicked at the drop of a hat. "Open" at Ars means that people can actually talk about many things outside of the realm of the PC and not be kicked for it. "Open" at Ars does not mean that the loudest, most profane individuals are given the chance to steal the floor by sheer audacity. If you hang around for a while, you'll realize that it is a very open, yet responsible place. "Open" has never meant that individuals have a license to abuse the Forum and its audience. Open has never meant that racism and sexism would be tolerated. "Open" has never meant that individuals are free to beat topics into the ground and thrive on "pissing people off;" "shock value" is not something that we value, and it has absolutely nothing to do with true openness.

Put simply, the Ars OpenForum is a community of people with similar interest on certain levels, and the forum is an open atmosphere for intelligent interests. Still, as a community, we have to get along, and for that to happen, there have to some rules.

OpenForum Rankings

The issue of rankings on the OpenForum has been a long, and hotly contested arrangement. That's why we like it.

Here's the 411 on rankings.

Level 1:Smack-Fu Master, in training

• Newbies
• This is the level that all registered users start out from

Level 2: Wise, Aged Ars Veteran

• Vets
• This is the level that all registered users achieve at their 100th post

Level 3: Ars Centurion

• Fides et historia: Junior Members of Long Standing
• Minimum time: one year
• Minimum posts: 200

Level 4: Ars Praetorian

• Recognized for service to the Empire
• Minimum time: two years
• Minimum posts: 400

Level 5: Ars Scholae Palatinae

• The "palace elite," the Scholae Palatinae are truly members of outstanding presence
• Minimum time: three years
• Minimum posts: 600

Level 6: Ars Tribunus Militum

• A legionary officer of great command and great responsibility
• Minimum time: five years
• Minimum posts: 1,500

Level 7: Ars Praefectus

• A legionary camp commander
• Minimum time: six years
• Minimum posts: 3,000

Level 8: Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius

• Elites, five such officers would serve the Legion
• Minimum time: eight years
• Minimum posts: 6000

Level 9: Ars Legatus Legionis

• Commander of a Legion
• Minimum time: ten years
• Minimum posts: 10,000

Level 10: Ars Senator

• This level is granted to users who have been exceptional in their service to the community
• Only granted manually

You'll undoubtedly note that some people have non-standard titles. The Imperator has been known to assign titles at a whim, and for odd reasons. Begging for titles is not recommended, unless you want a bad temporary title ;)

Note: titles are for fun. They are not meant to discredit or diminish anyone. If you hate titles, feel free to ignore them.