Rules The Main Board Posting Guidelines - Read Before Posting - Updated 17-2-14

[grizzlym]

Welcome to the Main Board

The objective of the AFL board is to have a board where posters can discuss football in a sensible manner. If you are not interested in posting in a sensible manner, don’t post here. You might be carded, and/or have your access removed. The Main Board Guidelines are also to be interpreted in conjunction with the sitewide rules, found here: http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/help/terms.

There are specific guidelines that all posters ought to be familiar with.

Make it Clear
Thread titles should give a clear indication of the topic. Apart from not wasting users’ time it make searching titles more accurate.

No dribbling
Posts that add nothing like: ‘hahha’,’lol’, 'Culture', 'I agree', 'Gold' etc are not wanted and will be dealt with. That list isn;t exhaustive and we'll make the final determination of what 'nothing' is.

Play nice
No name-calling or abuse of posters is tolerated and this also applies to the nicknames given to clubs. You know, 'Norf', Carltank , Bummers, GW$ and that sort of stuff along with the term flog. The terms rape and offended are also not wanted when discussing topics to describe something so do not use them.

Stay on topic.
Play the ball, not the man. Don't attack the team of a poster that posts something you don't like or agree with. This is one of the biggest reasons why topics are derailed. If a thread has started to go off-topic, don't add to the problem. Using the excuse 'It was already off-topic' when you receive an infraction won't work.

Trolling
Quite simply: don’t do it. Trolling other teams or posters is not sensible football discussion and having the sentence "This is not a troll but..." doesn't exempt it from being a troll.

Quoting from team boards on the main board
Do not quote a post from a team board and post it here. Ever. Team boards are primarily intended as sanctuaries for supporters of those teams, and it is not appropriate to quote comments from them out of context on here. Just don't do it.

Bumping
Do not bump old threads unless you have new information directly relevant to the topic. That does not mean bumping to show someone was wrong with the benefit of hindsight.

Who you going to call?
If you see a post that breaches the rules report it, don't quote it and respond. If you think a thread doesn't belong on the AFL board, report it. Don't post in the thread saying it should be on x board. Report it and we’ll deal with it.

Spam and links.
We welcome all contributions on Big Footy. We do not welcome, however, spam of any sort. And that includes links that promote another site. You know the sort of posts, 'I;ve written my preview here' or 'good read at this site' etc. If we regard the link as promoting another site, we will regard it as spam and card it. More info here.

Playing the man
Play the post not the man. Do not abuse or make it personal. address the post not the post. Do not, under any circumstances, start a thread about another poster.

Swear Filter.
Let it do its work. Don't self-censor stuff. Or try to get around it either by using pictures or other tricks

Other Stuff.

• Don't quote an entire post if you are responding to a part of it. Edit out the irrelevant parts.
• We don't need grammar teachers, so leave out comments about spelling, sentence construction
• No comments about mods or moderation, whether it's this board or another. Take it up with admin.
• Do not post Rugby threads of any sort on the main board. This is for footy. Not rugby or comparisons between the codes.

Injury Trolling

• Don't do it. You'll get an instant card.

There are other boards on Big Footy – Use Them.

• The AFL board is not for the general umpire and rules discussion. That is what the umpires board is for.
• Posts related to the Media and its many different outlets and personalities are to be posted on the Footy Fourth Estate board. This includes complaints about the AFL site.
• Don't make Dream Team, Supercoach etc comments on the AFL board. There are other boards for that.
• Got an idea on how to do things better than AD and AA? Go here

Video Streams

• International viewers can get live video of games from http://www.afl.livesport.tv/.
• If a game is not shown on Free-To-Air TV, local viewers can see games on Foxtel or via XBox or T-Box (though you'd need to be desperate given the limitations of T-Box).
• Please do not post in Gameday threads asking for links to streams - these types of posts clog threads. If you do this your account will be suspended for a day.

Penalties

• We are all armed. And there may be penalties resulting from actions. You'll find the general Big Footy guidelines here, along with a overview of the card system.
• Board Bans. Posters may be banned from the main board if they frequently stink the joint up. They will be informed. There is no time limit on a board ban, it is up to the discretion of the mod team.
• Thread bans. Yep, this is a new one. we now have the power to limit a poster's access to a specific thread. The general length of that ban is a week. This will happen if a poster regularly stinks a thread up.

Prefixes.

• If a thread has been particularly heated and has been cleaned up often, we might apply a 'play nice' prefix. Please take note because we will have reduced tolerance.

Any questions, get in touch with one of us.

The main board mods.

You'll find a current list of who that is at the bottom left of the main board.

In addition, all supers - Messenger, Caesar and Ant_ - can and do mod this board.

 

[grizzlym]

Please take note of the new rumour board

Yep, the main board is now purely for football discussion. If there is a rumour and you have a link to a reputable publication (and we mods will make the judgment on what is reputable) then you can post it on the main board. Otherwise you need to post it on the new 'rumour' sub-board. Get lazy about it too often and you will be carded.

Take note of the additional guidelines applicable to that board too.

New rules are in force now, so take note, but we'll give a short teething period.

So no unsubstantiated rumours on the main board anymore as they now have a new home.

 

[grizzlym]

*********** Starting new threads - A sure way to get carded************

This forum has sub-forums - MRP, Umpiring & Rules and the 'Kim Duthie Memorial board' aka Scandals and Rumours. Use them. We urge you to. Because we're sick of moving threads into them, particularly ones that relate to rules, umpiring and the tribunal.

Otherwise we might just start handing out shiny one-day reds 'cause it's getting annoying.

 

[Malifice]

Note on COLA references is here.


AOD/Supplement References

Dont do it.

From here on in, it's a straight up yellow card for any posts that I find on the MB that refer to the topic.

I've spent the best part of a day cleaning up over a dozen threads that went off topic with trolls about AOD and the Essendon drug scandal.

We have a whole sub forum for these matters to be discussed if that floats your boat.

Essendon supporters, please report any AOD/ Supplement/ Drugs trolling as soon as you see it, and myself and the fellow Mods will deal with it (harshly). Try not to take the bait and feed the trolls.

Play on.

 

[The_Wookie]

Actually you'll find that where possible we will go after any poster that consistently derails a thread where its reported to us, or where we see it in our own meanderings through the forum. It doesnt matter if its this, or Melbournes alleged tanking, Carltons salary cap convictions, Norths alleged financial woes, or St Kildas issues. Essendon folk are moderated the same way as everyone else. In this specific incidence however, the drug taking remarks have reached an epidemic level and we are simply not prepared to deal with that any longer. If a similar level of abuse regarding other issues arises, we will meet that head on too.

It should be noted that the Moderating team is always looking for ways to improve the flow of conversation in threads and posts, and while we wont get everything, we'll get a fair chunkof it. Use the report function and most of the time you wont be disappointed.

 

[Malifice]

Just so everyone is crystal.

Trolling (any trolling) gets you infracted.

We're just removing the benefit of the doubt for shitfights involving Dank and co. The assumption is you post it on the MB and youre trolling.

Please take those discussions to the board we built specially for it.

I wanna spend more time with my mistress and less time acting like an internet cop!

 

[The_Wookie]

Can I ask, if there is a poster doing this continually, is it okay to PM a mod? There's one particular poster who I've constantly reported and yet I've never seen him get a yellow.

If you ever have questions regarding moderation, its always ok to PM a mod. Unless the question is stupid.

 

[The_Wookie]

Presumably next time a North related thread is infested with trolling about money, supporters etc we can rely on the mods to hand out infractions if we report the posts?

North, Port and the Dogs with money, St Kilda and Collingwood with scandals, WC with illicit drugs. All of this rubbish should have been stamped out long ago. If this thread is to announce a line in the sand with the view to stamping out off-topic trolling permanently then I'm all for it. You can excuse my cynicism but I suspect this is just preferential treatment for one group of supporters.

Its one of the issues I specifically addressed much earlier in the thread that we would clean up.

In case your wondering, yes we have new and highly active mods to supplement the more experienced hands of the old mods and admins. Some of us have more time than others.

Lets be clear -

We've noted a tendency - particularly in gameday threads - to refer to incidents in the clubs past or current investigations that have little to no actual impact on the game or current issues beyond a troll attempt. This includes

• Carltons salary cap issues in 2001-2002
• North melbournes financial issues
• Essendons drug investigations
• Carltons tanking allegations of 2007
• St Kilda's 'School girl' incidents
• Port adelaides crowds or finances
• West coast and drugs
• Collingwood and alleged crime links

From time to time a legitimate thread will arise that discusses these issues. Where the topic is discussed in a reasonable context thats fair enough. Posting about the issue itself is not a troll, its the context used.

My definition of trolling is defined as pointless posting - whether comments or imagery - that seeks to derail or inflame a thread. This may also include the use of terminology better suited to the bay 13 board.

As always, you see something offensive, report it. It makes our job easier. it makes your forum clearer.

 

[grizzlym]

Guidelines updated.

Take note, please.

 

[grizzlym]

Ok. As the drug saga rolls, apparently, closer to resolution, we need to articulate some guidelines relating to the mainboard.

The board to discuss that saga, in all its intricacies, is the dedicated sub board. Not the main board.

We have noticed a creeping of the term 'Jab' and other trolling-like names derived from this saga appearing on the mainboard. Don't do it.

We will view such names as trolling and deal with them accordingly. Deletes, cards, all the fun stuff.

Off-topic references to drugs go the same way too. In short, if you seek to rile-up Essendon posters with drug cheapshots, expect attention from us.

 

[Forward Press]

COLA References

Yes, Buddy has moved to Sydney. Yes, it is still very much a topic of discussion now, next season and the season after that, and with that comes discussion of COLA and other forms of assistance from the AFL and otherwise.

However, we are getting a bit sick of the continual COLA trolling/derailing taking place in any vaguely Sydney-related thread. Here are the options for main board posters from this point on:

- Avoid using COLA Bay-style trolling to derail a thread - expect an infraction if you do so.
- If a thread is Buddy/Sydney related - be very careful in trying to bring it into the discussion. Is it directly related to the topic at hand? Is it a constructive contribution that benefits the thread? If in doubt, don't do it.
- If you really, really want to discuss COLA - we have Footy Industry for you, in particular this thread - http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/cost-of-living-allowance-cola-discussion.978731/.

If you have any queries, PM a main board mod. The list is in the top right hand corner of the thread list. Thanks for your co-operation.

Regards,

The main board mod team