|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Socratic Monologue
Rich, could you please clarify what constitutes "BOI-style posts"? I am sincerely unclear about the boundaries, and don't want to run afoul of them. I recently got part of a post deleted that simply corrected the spelling of a user's name and linked to their user profile to ensure correct identification of them, so apparently this is a pretty strict guideline (I am at all not complaining about this; I'm just illustrating how a reasonable person might be caught off guard).
For example, are replies to ads that point out falsehoods in the ad (say, an ad that claims to be for an angolan python that includes a picture of a ball python as representing the animal for sale) "BOI-style"? (This thread seems to explicitly allow these sorts of replies: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=246614)
Is the pointing out of legal issues with an ad (an ad for a leatherback turtle, for example) a BOI-style post?
Is posting "Hey man, nice snake! I love the one you just sold me!" a BOI-style post? Or "Nice animal - good luck with the sale"?
It seems mentioning users by name is possibly a big part of this rule; is posting "did @faunauser breed this animal?", or "did you get this turtle from @convictedsmuggler?" a BOI-style post?
I'm not trying to stir the pot, truly. If you clarify things, though, you might have fewer headaches in the future from users who simply don't know what is permitted and what isn't. |
John,
Necessarily, there is going to be some gray area in the enforcement of this rule change, which will have to be at the discretion of each and every moderator here.
Generally speaking, posting positive or negative things about any person or business will not be permitted. On the other hand, I don't see any need for restrictions concerning comments about an animal or merchandise someone sells, UNLESS such statements reflect on the person or business selling the item. Which, understandable, is going to be tough calls for every one involved. And it could be that I will have to eat my words later about this and rescind even this off the cuff call. How "gray" is the "gray" going to be? 
Things like "nice snake" is fine. But we get into gray area pretty quickly when statements like "that animal is misidentified" are made. Because the claim of misidentification might be a reflection on the person making the ID. I can see where such statements might be helpful, so this could be a judgement call on the moderator reviewing the statements as to whether a line has been crossed concerning how such statements are being made. Quite likely such a statement might have to be judged by subsequent statements made as a result. Messy and not very satisfactory, I know, but "black and white" rules are hard to come by, it seems.
As another example, when someone says something like "Hey, that is a really well built (or piss poor) cage!" How should that be handled? Isn't that reflecting on the person or business who actually built the cage? I think for something of this nature, perhaps it will need to be considered as to whether this is even appropriate in the classifieds sections at all.
I guess a rule of thumb to keep in mind that the classifieds sections are solely FOR the sales of animals and merchandise. Any conversations that go off topic from this primary goal are not going to be encouraged, and those that have an apparent goal to discourage the transactions are going to be pretty actively discouraged. It is not that we are taking one side or another, just that we are trying to enforce changed rules that are intent on removing the BOI nature here that people have gotten used to using.
So what do you do about alleged "bad guys" selling on the site? Well, honestly, nothing beyond choosing not to deal with them yourself. I suppose you could private message someone who appears to be considering such transactions, as that would be a PRIVATE conversation between you and someone else. But push come to shove, anyone considering such transactions have to do their own due diligence, by whatever means they see fit, outside of publicly displayed activities that will violate the rules here.
Yeah, I know it is going to be harsh watching someone make what you feel is a big mistake, but that just has to be the way it is. With the loss of the Board of Inquiry here, so went just about any and every other effort we have tried to make to protect members from making such mistakes. Choices were made by the membership, so this is where we now are.
Honestly, even as we speak I am reconsidering some rules that are still in place and whether they still make any sense being enforced now. For instance, why bother with the REAL NAME requirement any longer? We can't really enforce that much anyway, so why bother? People can register and put anything they want in that profile field, and unless we have a substantial reason to question it, we don't know if it is truthful or not. So again, why bother? Why would the moderators or myself want to be bothered with it any longer?
In any event, if you have any other practical scenarios you believe you may have to deal with, I will try to answer them as best I can.
|