[Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Leevers »

Thankyou! :)
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Craig »

I ask everyone to refamilarise yourselves with this, thankyou.

Steven wrote:The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

We all want to improve our skills, we want to know how to best care for our bonsai, where to go to get quality stock, what the best techniques for our conditions are and of course, we want to chat about our art of bonsai with like minded people.

AusBonsai members are friendly and helpful to each other - we stand on each others shoulders to reach higher, achieve more and grow better bonsai.

Our art is our recreation. It's what we do for fun - it's not about getting all serious and upset, there's enough of that in the stuff we do for money.

Since 7th November 2008, the forums have been, and continue to be a success - friendships have been made, digs organised, events attended, page after page of shared knowledge created, and so much more.

As in life, it aint' always blue sky...

Occasionally, a post or topic with inappropriate content will appear. It may stay online longer than it should while we get to it. Whilst this is happening we appreciate your patience. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know via the reporting mechanisms explained later.

Occasionally there will be members who are different and post questionable content. Why?

Maybe they are drunk, tired and/or emotional?
Maybe they're stressed and are not being themselves?
Maybe they feel anonymous and believe they won't be caught out?
Perhaps they're blunt, direct or simply rub you up the wrong way?
Perhaps there is an issue that's 'emotionally loaded' for them?
They might enjoy stirring others up?
...or it could just be the way they are all the time!

It's for these situations that rules are needed. It's for these situations that moderators are needed.

Please understand that our moderators are not pyschic or even online 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, so there is the possibility that inappropriate content will be viewable longer that we would all hope.

Unfortunate ... but to be expected .. it's part of the territory of online forums.

Following are some tips to handle posts that upset you.

• Beware of seeing what you want to see. A common mistake people make is to read a post with the emotion they are currently feeling, not the emotion of the writer.
• Seek to understand before seeking to be understood.
• Could there be the slightest, weeniest, smallest possibility that you may have made an error? Unbelievable as it may sound, some of us do make mistakes!
• Have the courage to step away. Go do something different before getting all fired up on the keyboard.

The rules of AusBonsai

By creating a login on AusBonsai, you agreed to abide by these rules. Breaching these rules can result in post or topic deletion and continued breaches can result in your login being either temporarily suspended or permanently banned.

The Rules in Summary;
• No abuse, insults or personal attacks
• No foul language
• No trolling
• No inappropriate or illegal material
• No business advertising (without Admin approval)
• No cross posting
• No forum spamming
• No religious, racial or political debates
• No defamatory comments
• No duplicate logins
• No posts that may bring the art of bonsai into disrepute

General Netiquette;
• If you have an issue with someone, discuss it via PM and don't air your dirty laundry in the public forums.
• If you feel someone is deliberately causing trouble here, please tell me and I will deal with them. Do not take matters into your own hands.
• If you think that someone may take your post out of context, please amend it. Use the 'preview' button and reread your posts before submitting.
• Avoid Sarcasm and dry humour. It does not work with the written word. Putting a smiley after a nasty piece of text doesn't fix it.
• Disagree? - discuss the subject, not the person. If your goal is to win them over to your point of view, provide evidence why your point of view is worthwhile adopting. Be constructive and forward moving.
• Make topic titles interesting, clear and informative - they make or break whether your post gets read.
• A large audience will see your post, and your words may come back to haunt you. This audience may potentially include past, present and future employers, staff at your place of study, friends, family, etc. And unlike the spoken word, your written posts will exist here for a long time.
• If you are responding to someone else's comments, try to include a quote or summary of their post, to provide context to other readers. Quoting more than 10 lines is a bit much.
• If you want to take a topic offline and write a personal response, please use the "Private Message" facility – a PM button is available on each post, or by clicking on the members name.
• Do not start or perpetuate flame wars. If someone insults or attacks you, do not respond in kind - because "they started it" is an incredibly lame argument
• DON'T USE OTHERS BEHAVIOUR AS AN EXCUSE FOR YOUR BEHAVIOUR. Just because you see someone else breaking the rules does not give you the right to break them and use others actions as your justification.

Unacceptable Content;
Racism, Sexism, Ageism and Religious Intolerance and Vilification

AusBonsai is open to people from any race, gender, physical or mental condition, sexual preference/orientation, IQ, age or religion, and as such intolerance or vilification of other people's beliefs, culture, IQ, gender, physical or mental conditions, sexual preference/orientation or age is unacceptable.

Foul Language (Swearing)
AusBonsai is a web site open to all ages, and we aim to have it stay that way. As such, the use of foul language is considered to be unacceptable.

For the sake of the younger visitors to our site, please refrain from swearing. In order to prevent casual swearing, AusBonsai filters the most inappropriate swear words.

Smarty Pants Swearing
Please also note that swearing which is contextually understandable, e.g. removing a letter, replacing letters with @,* or other characters, or changing the spelling slightly, will also be moderated.

Moderation of Foul Language
The following points outline the basic moderation policy regarding foul language on AusBonsai, and applies to posts, usernames, quips, and any other content on AusBonsai:

• Content containing "heavy weight" swear words, specifically the F & C words, are completely inappropriate on AusBonsai. All content containing such words - hidden or not - will be removed.
• Content containing lesser swear words will not normally be moderated, provided the words are used sparingly (e.g. once in a post), and the content is otherwise on topic and useful. Use of such words in reoccurring content (usernames etc) is always inappropriate.
• Content with swear words that are used in the context of a personal attack/insult will be removed, not necessarily because of the foul language, but for being a personal attack. This also goes for all those non-swear words insults like "fool", "idiot", etc.

Inappropriate Content
Inappropriate Content is considered to be any topic that would be unacceptable in a talk to a Year 8 class. This includes (but is not limited to) any of the following:

• Sex and sexual acts;
• Violence and acts of cruelty to other humans or animals;
• Pictures of gore, violence, pornography or innappropriate nudity;
• Illegal behaviour;

Private Conversations
The posting of private correspondence (PM's, emails, etc) or transcripts of private conversations (phone calls, face-to-face discussions) are not permitted, for two reasons:

1. There is no way to verify the validity of the text; and
2. There may be copyright implications arising from the publication of such private communication, in a public forum, without permission of both parties.

Public announcements (such as ISP mass mail outs, etc) are considered already in public view, and are thus considered fair game for re-posting. In cases where such an announcement is made on a website, posting the URL is preferred to posting the complete text.

Offensive Websites
As already mentioned, AusBonsai is open to people of all races, religion and ages, so links to websites containing offensive or unacceptable material, such as foul language, inappropriate images (images of a violent or pornographic nature), racial vilification (hate sites), warez links, etc., are completely unacceptable.

Complaints about a business
When this occurs, the poster is usually quite fired up and emotional. Often the customer is now out to cause as much damage as possible to the business with the mission that they are "fully justified" (their words) and "simply stating facts" (their words) about the business.

This may be the case .. or not. There are many sides to any story. The point is that AusBonsai is not the appropriate place to resolve the issue. Go to the Department of Fair Trading in your state and do it there.

Choose not to, and end up in hot water. As soon as you flame a business, you'll usually get supporters of the business come out in defense and question your behaviour and motives. People interested in the discussion will seek more information from you. It soon descends into an argument containing many and varied versions of the truth and everybody goes home unhappy.

It never ends well for anybody.

The business is damaged, the poster now has a stigma in the forum (and now can't deal with many nursery's because they know what will happen if they cross this customer - their business will get dragged through the mud.)

And of course, there's also the situation when the poster does not really have a complaint, but is simply a competitor or naive associate of a business who thinks the way to get more business is to degrade the competition.

Complaints about an individual
Here's an idea - talk to them directly, or send them a PM. There is absolutely no need to post a message looking for support of your dislike/disapproval of somebody. Please seek an alternate outlet, not the forums.

Why? All you need to do is imagine your response if you log-on one day and see your name as the topic of a post, followed by 8 posts by strangers dissing your behaviour. Like 9 out of 10 people, you would write to us to have it removed.

Posts for Personal or Financial Gain
Please use the buy, swap & sell section to list your bonsai related wares, not the forums. This also means not posting links to sites that are selling your things.

Commercial Advertising
• No commercial advertising what so ever, without approval from an AusBonsai Administrator.
• Do not post prices, price lists, sale brochures, bargains, "stock clearance" etc.

You'll find your local council has laws saying that it's illegal for you to stick posters and advertising on council property - "Bill posters will be prosecuted". Most businesses accept this and don't put their posters and stickers all over signs, traffic lights, bridges, tunnels, etc.

Same here - please do not plaster your adverts/promos in or around the site.

Inappropriate posting of business advertising will be removed.

Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is when people are employed (or given equipment "in kind") to promote a company and its products and not revealing their connection to the company and/or products. They also register multiple logins, or enlist associates to engage in a "Question & Answer" session, where the associate asks questions about a brand to setup the other to provide knowledgeable advice (and therefore marketing)
There is also the reverse, where people getting financial reward from a competing product ask leading questions of a competitors products to make it look bad in the hope that it will make their product more appealing. These people go out of their way to directly highlight flaws, or, on occasion, even invent flaws and myths.

It's not illegal, is usually see-through, and can result in angry feelings by those who believed the mystery posters were "ordinary customers". It is particularly disappointing when these people take time out to degrade competitors and/or competing products via single line posts such as "You wouldn't catch me buying that." type of comment.

These activites are directly against the forum rules and count as spam.

The common name for such a member (who indirectly promotes their own or an associates product) is a Pimp.

If you suspect a member of being a pimp, please let the moderators know, as targeting them is against the rules and makes you subject to moderation (which was not your intent!)

Please refrain from making accusations against companies or individuals within the forums.

Note that occasional positive comments from known members have never been a problem.

Posting Errors and Crossposting
Posting the same Topic in more than one forum Category is not appropriate. If you can't decide which forum to post it a particular Topic in, just choose the one that most closely matches and see how you go. If you don't think you are getting the right answers, ask a moderator to move the Topic to a more appropriate location at some later point.

Please note that posting new Topics in multiple forums saying "Come look at Topic <insert link here>" is not permitted, and is also considered crossposting.

Duplicates
Sometimes minor glitches can result in a member's post appearing more than once in a topic. Duplicate posts are sometimes removed, but if a member notices that they have posted a duplicate, they should feel free to edit one of them to indicate that a double post occurred or if the editing time limit has passed, ask a moderator to remove one.

Off-topic
Ideally, all posts in a given topic should have at least something to do with the topic. Having said that, some topics do have a natural discussion flow to them, which may move the discussion in different directions - while still maintaining a relationship to the topic.

Posting way off topic may result in your post being removed, particularly if your post stands out as being off topic compared to the other posts in the topic, or if your post stands to interfere with a line of otherwise on-topic conversation within the topic.

Off-topic Topics
It is also possible for a topic to be considered off-topic for the forum in which it has been posted.

In such cases the topic will normally be moved to a more appropriate forum. If you feel a post is too far off topic or a topic is posted in the wrong section, please let a Moderator know.

The Moderators
Moderators have tasks of monitoring the content of the forums. They aim to read all topics and posts and make assessments on what is and isn't appropriate. Did you know that Moderators are real people? They suffer from late nights, emotional issues (good & bad), and can often speed read topics. What this means is that they aren't some automated perfect computer program that makes the right call every time.

Moderators don't delete anything. Topics or posts requiring moderation are moved to a hidden 'recycle bin' on the board.

Moderation is a very "grey" area. For example, a group of 16 year olds who have started their own topic may be having a friendly banter amongst each other, whereas to others to reads like a full on argument.

Alerting the Moderators of inappropriate content
Above each post is an exclamation mark [!] Simply click this and follow the prompts to report that post to the Moderators.

With buckets of new posts entering the system every day, it makes it easy for the moderators to zoom in on inappropriate posts as reported by the forum users. Allow the moderators time to respond. If you're all stirred up about a post, this doesn't mean that a moderator is sitting around awaiting your report so it can be investigated.

Moderation Explanations
Please do not start a new topic asking why a topic was moved, deleted or closed, or why a post was hidden. If you want to know why, PM a moderator, please do not ask the community.

Post Removal Policy
Posts can and will be removed if they breach any of the forum rules. Nothing is deleted.
If you believe there was an error, please contact the moderators. The moderators are only human, and are open to suggestion.

Topic Removal Policy
Typically, topics are removed when they breach the forum rules, by falling into one of the following categories:

• Pointless - the topic contributes no value to the forum;
• Crosspost - the topic was posted to more than one forum;
• Flame baiting - the goal of the topic is to flame or start a fight;
• Duplicate - there is already a topic on the same or very similar topic;
• Off topic - not just for the forum it was posted in, but off topic for AusBonsai;
• Spam - the topic was advertising for a business or was thinly disguised market research;

Topics which do not fall exactly into one of the above categories, but are deemed inappropriate due to their content or nature, will also be removed from view.

Topic Closure Policy
Topics will be closed or locked under any of the following circumstances:

• Off topic - the topic is going off topic, but mostly contains useful information;
• Flame war - the topic is turning into a flame war;
• Purpose fulfilled - the purpose of the topic has been fulfilled - the author's question was answered, the topic has become irrelevant, or is descending into an argument/bickering about the meaning of the words people have written (i.e. topic has been lost).

Topics which do not fall exactly into one of the above categories, but are deemed to have reached the end of their useful life, may also be closed. In cases where the reason for closure is not immediately obvious, a moderator will normally post a final message explaining the closure.

• Duplicate Logins Policy
We strongly discourage users from creating additional logins for any reason.

We use the term "Duplicate Logins " to refer to additional logins created or operated by an existing AusBonsai member. AusBonsai Moderators have the ability to find these logins, through the use of various tools. In general we will ban any additional accounts we find.

Attempts to circumvent this will not looked upon favourably. For each duplicate login we find, all posts from that login may be removed.
If a member chooses to continue to create duplicate logins, and abuse our hospitality, be warned that we will not hesitate to report your breaches to your ISP's abuse department. As almost all ISP "Acceptable Usage Policies" include clauses regarding member behaviour on websites, such a report can result in a warning from your ISP and potentially the termination of your ISP account.

Zero Tolerance Policy
AusBonsai has a policy of Zero Tolerance for certain member behaviour.

Repeated breaches of any rule by an individual can also attract a Zero Tolerance response.

In cases where such breaches occur, the following actions will be taken (at the moderators discretion):

• The post or topic will be deleted, regardless of whether or not the rest of the post or topic is "valid"; and
• The member's login may be banned for a period of time, ranging from 1 week to a permanent ban.
• There will be no emailed notification of suspensions.

Why was I suspended?
Occasionally members don't understand why they get suspended. No amount of explanation by moderators or other members of the community seems to provide an adequate explanation to these people. After suspension they then want to engage in an email debate demanding immediate access, occasionally with legal threats.

If this is you, you might need to consider whether this website is for you? You were invited to join on the optimistic hope that you would add to the community, build new friendships, share your knowledge and generally have fun.

The fact is, that if the moderators, through consensus and feedback from the community determine that a members is ruining the experience of other members or generally degrading the forums, our invitation to you to participate will be withdrawn. Otherwise know as 'suspension'.
Just like you can get kicked out of a nightclub for ruining the pleasure of other patrons, you can also be refused access to this site, and repeated attempts to create logins will also be locked out. Please don't behave like the drunk outside the nightclub demanding entry. Walk away, cool down, and come back with a fresh attitude, and you are more than welcome. Creating new logins while under suspension is a surefire way to ensure permanent banning from the site.

Problems with Moderation?
Q. I've had a post or thread removed, should I post about it?
A. Do not create a thread or post complaining about the moderation action. Complaint Topics or posts will be deleted.

Creating multiple Topics or posts complaining about moderation, or creating topics or posts to abuse or insult moderators, will result in immediate penalties being applied.

Q. If I shouldn't post about the moderation problem, what should I do?
A. The correct first step if you wish to discuss a moderation action, is to politely contact us with your viewpoint.

Moderators are human and are eager to develop good relationships with all forum members.

Moderators understand firstly that they can make mistakes, and secondly that members make mistakes.

They also understand that there can be miscommunication. Approached politely, and with a constructive attitude most issues have been quickly resolved.

Legal Threats Policy
AusBonsai, its Administrators and Moderators hold the majority of Members & Businesses on this site in high regard.

On rare occasions, members & businesses turn on AusBonsai and make legal threats.

AusBonsai is more than willing to consider and respond to reasoned, polite requests from members & businesses regarding the removal of posts and threads that break the forum rules, or that are obviously and verifiably inappropriate, defamatory or bring the art of bonsai into disrepute.

However, where AusBonsai is of the reasonable view that a request/demand is vexatious, it reserves the right to take any or all of the following actions:

• Publication of a news story on the front page of AusBonsai, or a prominently placed announcement thread, or news summarising the legal threats, who has made them and why;
• Banning the IP of the business and all emails under it's domain from this site;
• Banning of any and all future discussions about the person / business / organisation on AusBonsai.

In short, lets talk about any issue you have but please remember that it's probably not our fault.

The Final Word
It's only a forum. Seriously - don't take it too seriously! :-)

..and check this page regularly, as we reserve the right to update the rules as new situations are discovered.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Steven »

It is very unfortunate that recently we had to impose a 1 month ban on a very senior AusBonsai member. The member is arguably one of the top bonsai artists in Australia and has been a very significant contributor and supporter of AusBonsai ever since it was launched in 2008. I have always admired this member for the high quality of their trees and the way they freely shared their knowledge.

It was a tough decision to make however their online behavior lately had become increasingly antagonistic. They have not once but several times, broken one of our rules and when the error of their ways was pointed out they insulted the Moderator. This was unacceptable and will not be tolerated!

I think this is a good opportunity for everyone to refresh themselves with the "Spirit and Intent of AusBonsai so we can continue to enjoy each others online company and share our bonsai adventures.

Sincerely,
Steven
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Remember to be polite and abide by the Spirit and Intent of AusBonsai
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by izzykay »

lame
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by kcpoole »

izzykay wrote:lame
What's Lame?
the fact that a member was taking liberties with the site rules and other members or that they were banned.

Unfortunately a one word ambiguous post does not say much :lost:

I totally agree with Jarrod23 that no matter who you are in a community, everyone should remember and play by the same rules. Doing so will benefint everyone.

Ken
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Handy Mick »

Hi all,
I like in the forum rules under "inappropriate content".
Has anyone got a kid in year 8 or know what they are like? I have three and trust me there is nothing that go' on here that will shock a 14-15 year old.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by izzykay »

kcpoole wrote:
izzykay wrote:lame
What's Lame?
the fact that a member was taking liberties with the site rules and other members or that they were banned.

Unfortunately a one word ambiguous post does not say much :lost:

I totally agree with Jarrod23 that no matter who you are in a community, everyone should remember and play by the same rules. Doing so will benefint everyone.

Ken
:cool: Good on ya.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by krittas »

Steven wrote:It is very unfortunate that recently we had to impose a 1 month ban on a very senior AusBonsai member. The member is arguably one of the top bonsai artists in Australia and has been a very significant contributor and supporter of AusBonsai ever since it was launched in 2008. I have always admired this member for the high quality of their trees and the way they freely shared their knowledge.

It was a tough decision to make however their online behavior lately had become increasingly antagonistic. They have not once but several times, broken one of our rules and when the error of their ways was pointed out they insulted the Moderator. This was unacceptable and will not be tolerated!

I think this is a good opportunity for everyone to refresh themselves with the "Spirit and Intent of AusBonsai so we can continue to enjoy each others online company and share our bonsai adventures.

Sincerely,
Steven
oops totally missed all this...
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Gareth »

got no idea what is going on here, but the question on everyones mind who doesnt know is who it is. Its going to come out in the wash anyway i guess, but i for one would like to know and i think it would be better in the long run for members to outline who it was and why this particular behaviour wont be tolerated, rather than what is clearly happening, with everyone getting up in each others faces saying what is and isnt fair/right.

The only way people will learn is by example, and i believe, that if someone has done the wrong thing, and their behaviour is deemed unacceptable, then everyone should know exactly who they are and what they did wrong, otherwise its going to end up in a flurry of he said she said. Moderators have doen a good job in banning them for one month if they have done something wrong, but at the same time it means little if people dont know what line this person was walking and why it was unnacceptable, or who it was.

Just my thoughts
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Sno »

Years ago I went through a bushfire, the local brigade gave my girlfriend repeat assurances that when the fire came they would be there. Well it came and they didn't . So be it ,it was a very dangerous situation and I don't expect any body to get in harms way. I joined my local fire brigade after this event because you shouldn't make judgements untill you stand in their shoes. Please don't missunderstand me, i know it's like comparing chalk and cheese and this forum is definitely not life threatening .
This forum is free! ,the moderaters as far as I know don't get paid . As far as I know Steven doesn't get paid ! I tip me hat to you guys :clap: . Any decisions you guys make should get 100 percent support.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Andrew Legg »

Gareth wrote:got no idea what is going on here, but the question on everyones mind who doesnt know is who it is. Its going to come out in the wash anyway i guess, but i for one would like to know and i think it would be better in the long run for members to outline who it was and why this particular behaviour wont be tolerated, rather than what is clearly happening, with everyone getting up in each others faces saying what is and isnt fair/right.

The only way people will learn is by example, and i believe, that if someone has done the wrong thing, and their behaviour is deemed unacceptable, then everyone should know exactly who they are and what they did wrong, otherwise its going to end up in a flurry of he said she said. Moderators have doen a good job in banning them for one month if they have done something wrong, but at the same time it means little if people dont know what line this person was walking and why it was unnacceptable, or who it was.

Just my thoughts
Gareth,

On the contrary, I think it is irrelevant who it was and why they were banned. I think the point here is that we need to be cognisant of the rules and do our best to abide by them. It's one of the things that makes Ausbonsai a nice place to be. The rules are there in black and white. We should all read them from time to time, and try to stick to them. I see no reason to put a member in stocks and fling tomatoes at him/her. That's not the point or the spirit of Steven's mail (I think :lost: ).

The point very simply is, "People, please play by the rules!", and the notice of the banning is simply there to remind us of the consequences.

If it were my choice, I'd suggest we all just drop it, take 5 minutes to refresh on the rules, and move on in the spirit of Ausbonsai! :tu:

Cheers,

Andrew
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Gareth »

all im saying, is that there will be talk, behind closed doors. People will soon figure it out and there will be a lot of rumours and speculation as to what went on, who was involved etc etc.

I am suggesting what i am suggesting not only to warn people off future behavior like this, but also to at least let the offender save some face, and not have rumours and speculations spread about them that may be untrue.

I know another member here, that was not banned, but come into strife at one point, through no fault of his own, that was not able to defend themselves, and many stories and untruths were spread about them. Consequently, he (who was a VERY big contributor to this forum) is no longer active and i daresay does not feel very welcome anymore.

Everyone who has been around for a year or more will generally be able to piece together who i am talking about. Perhaps if the whole story was known to everyone at the start things might be different.

Everyone makes mistakes, and although that is no excuse for unaccetable behaviour, bringing it all out in the open, the person admitting they were wrong and everyone knowing what happened (to a certain extent) and everyone moving on can sometimes be better than keeping it quiet.

Again, just my two cents, take it or leave it as you will.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Bougy Fan »

Gareth the member in question was given an opportunity to publicy apologise and avoid a ban yet he declined. We have a policy of not causing embarrasement to any member who has displinary action taken against them by naming them. In the past there have been other high profile members banned for similar infractions and most members wouldn't have been aware of it.

As stated this is Stevens forum and his rules are clearly listed. Every member who is here is INVITED - it is not a god given right to access or post on this forum. It's simple - abide by the rules and your invitation remains current.
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by anttal63 »

What goes around comes around !!! Well done Mods... :clap:
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Re: [Forum rules] The spirit and intent of AusBonsai

Post by Bretts »

The rules are there in black and white.I think the point here is that we need to be cognisant of the rules and do our best to abide by them.
Yes but the problem arises when the amount you are allowed to bend the rules depends on your popularity/ratings on the site. There is absolutely no consistency which leaves everyone guessing.
I have been banned from Ausbonsai before. Basically I am not allowed to disagree with anyone. So now that leaves me just posting pictures of my trees and forced to keep my techniques to myself, in case somebody disagrees with me :lost:
I would love to explain more but that would probably be classed as airing dirty laundry onsite and get me banned again. Yet it seems to me that is what these recent posts are about?
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