General Warning

[color=red]There has been a pretty large upswing in the nationalistic, flame-baiting BS in various threads, be they related to certain Eurocanards, certain neighboring adversaries, or certain other nations with large populations. A mess of offending posts have already been deleted all over the place. So, without reposting this in every single thread, this is a general warning to all posters. Points will be given for snide, insulting, purposely off-topic (as in nationalistic commentary not pertaining to the topics at hand), offensive, etc postings. If they pertain to one of the above issues, due to the constant number of warnings and thread cleanups you’ll get two points right off for being purposely disruptive, meaning an instant one-month posting hiatus. Seriously, with the constant thread cleanups and warnings, etc, what else am I to think except that you are doing it on purpose at this point?

And remember, I can’t speak for the other moderators, but I am not online 24 hours of the day. I do actually have a non-digital existance, as I am sure the rest of you do as well, and I am also on the non-European side of the Atlantic, meaning that I am usually on when a good deal of our posters are offline. So I won’t catch everything the very minute it is posted. I do however check my PMs first thing wen I sign on to the forum, and scroll through potentially hot topics to make sure everything is flowing smoothly.

That being said, if I am cleaning up a thread and there is an offensive post and an equally offensive response, YOU ARE BOTH GUILTY and will be dealt with accordingly. Fair is fair, peoples. Everyone must be held to the same standards. I don’t care what country you are or are not from, what status you do or do not have, how long you have or have not been a forum member, what job you do or do not have, or how old you are or are not. Everyone agreed to abide by the forum rules, and there is no reason to expect everyone not to get the exact same treatment.

Now, a few general reminders

1. We set a 20-page limit to threads here, due to technical issues that I can’t currently remember. They’re not really important anyway, all I needed to hear was “close threads at 20 pages”. Anyway. If you see a thread closed without a diatribe on offending postage or whatnot, that’s probably why it got closed (another really good hint is that it is 20 pages long). You are always free to open a new thread and continue the discussion, don’t think that the topic has been frowned upon. This is why we have a bunch of XXX topic thread # whatevers, it’s perfectly fine.

2. If you do want to get into some of the political issues, you can always start a thread on the General Discussion board. If you bear in mind that the same forum rules apply there as well, and keep it respectful, there is no reason why some of those issues can’t be debated. Yes, some political issues do directly impact the topics here and are certainly fair game, but I think you all know the types of topics I am referring to.

3. Make sure photos are properly handled when posted. If they are not your own photos or do not bear a visible and distinct copyright (like Airliners.net photos, for example), then they must be linked and not attached. This keeps everyone free and clear of any copyright violation issues.

Questions, comments, I am always available via PM, aforementioned availability limitations in mind of course. I will also leave this thread open for a few days for wuestions, comments, or issues to be posted. However, keep them respectable. The same rules apply to this thread as well.[/color]