These rules are disclosed to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on RNARS Forum. They shall be adhered to by everyone to ensure that our board runs smoothly and provides a fun and productive experience for all of our community members and visitors.
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Usernames
All usernames must be one of the following;
- For Members with a callsign the username must be your callsign - nothing else
For SWLs the username must be SWL_ followed by your RNARS membership number
Members are entitled to only ONE active and principal account, unless given specific authority to hold more. eg a Special event callsign, for administrative purposes etc. These are rarely required. Anyone registering multiple accounts may be subject to sanction and removal of additional accounts. If the administrators cannot determine which is the principal account in such circumstances, or contact cannot be made with the member within a reasonable time frame, ALL accounts may be deleted. The member will then have to re-register as per the above, and will likely have lost posts associated with any deleted account, even if the username is re-registered subsequently.
If unable to access your principal account, for any reason. Please do not re-register and create a non-compliant username, as it will be automatically deleted as per the username policy above. You are advised to get in touch with the committee by emailing CQ at rnars dot uk.
Accounts for affiliated clubs or societies
Affiliated clubs are entitled and welcome to have an official account on the forum. The recommendation is to have the username match the Callsign of the HQ shack or callsign predominantly associated with the club. eg GB3RN. We advise not self registering such accounts and emailing us first to agree an appropriate format for the username. The club or society should email CQ at RNARS dot uk with the particulars required. The authority and endorsement of the affiliated club's committee will be needed, along with the nominated account holder. (Who must be a member of the affiliated club). Once set up the account will be considered under the control of that club or society, and acting on their behalf when posting as such. Holding such an account is considered separate from an individual or personal one. Handover/Takeover of an affiliated account is usually not a problem and is simply a matter of informing administrators of a change of principal holder by the outgoing holder. Should this not be possible for any reason, the chair of the affiliated club should get in touch and provide evidence of committee decisions taken for a new nominee to hold the account. # - For Members with a callsign the username must be your callsign - nothing else
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Conduct
Post with respect toward others. This site is aimed at a general audience, please be considerate of this.
Please do not link to any material that does not respect copyright. No support will be provided to such sites.
Please do not post any business and/or spam links in this forum.
Threatening and/or abusive behaviour will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Any Mediation will be conducted by the board moderators only
The Moderators decision is FINAL.
Report any posts you feel contradict our policies by using the "post report" feature and the Moderators will handle them as needed. Please do not reply to these posts yourself. # -
Organisation
Please keep discussions on topic for where they are posted
Please do not post irrelevant discussions on general pages
Moderators will DELETE posts found in the wrong place, Moderators will not move them for you
General administration and maintenance
The aim of the board is to allow membership dialogue and a central hub where messages can be passed. To support this aim please do feel free to post in the relevant area constructive feedback and requests. We're open to suggestions and support. And we'd also welcome help in managing things too once you become more experienced with the functionality and rules.
That being said we do need to keep the overall size and content manageable, and appropriate. So the admins and moderators do undertake and reserve the right to take relevant measures for safe and successful operation. This can and likely include:
- Removal of rude, obnoxious, inappropriate posts, comments and discussions.
- Closing down, or calling time on debates or discussion which has got or is becoming out of hand.
- Providing feedback to members should it be required.
- Regular pruning of posts, files as time or circumstances dictate. Some specific areas have set automatic pruning rules in place.
- Administering sanctions if ever required.
- Removal of inactive, legacy or inappropriate accounts. (If an account has not been used for 9 months or more it will likely be placed on the list for possible removal
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Signatures and Avatars
Avatars should be no larger than 120x120 pixels and cannot contain animation.
Signatures may contain up to five lines of normal sized text OR a single image that is no more than 60px high, 468px wide in size and two lines of small sized text. The font size of signatures should be normal or small only.
Any content deemed offensive will result in your signature being wiped by the moderators. # -
Breach of Rules
1. Any breach of these rules will result in one of the following measures;
a. Suspension of account for a period no shorter than 1 week
b. Deletion of account
c. Referral to the RNARS Committee under Conduct Unbecoming of a Member
2. Forum Administrators will be responsible for applying the rules but may reference the RNARS Committee if they feel unable to sufficiently deal with any issues at hand
3. Mediation is ONLY to be conducted by Forum Administrators # -
Duplicate Accounts
Duplicate accounts are generally not required or permitted. Each member should only register one account under their primary callsign.
Your primary callsign acts your main identity on the forum, and you can reference activities you may undertake under variations of your main callsign without any issue. For example operating /P or changing regional identifier. Such minor changes shouldn't need you to create an additional account.
If your callsign is changing permanently then your account username can be changed without the need to re-register. Please reach out for assistance if required.
If you have attempted to register using an incorrect format username, you can re-register using the correct format if you have realised your mistake. In most cases the incorrect account will be deleted without further action, but it can do no harm to let an admin know.
If you have locked out or are unable to access your account, please get in touch with an admin or the committee for assistance in resetting your access. Please do not register a new account.
In some instances, or to aid administration a member can request an additional account to manage a special event for example. Generally this would be in support of RNARS activities and permission should be requested from admins or the committee to ensure it is correctly set up and approved. In many cases such a request would not be unreasonably be refused. Permission helps us track and we know not to remove it.
Special note should be made that any accounts made for such purposes will exist on the system until deemed it is no longer required or enough time has passed since the event has passed. Pruning to keep the forum efficient and avoid bloat is essential and such accounts may be removed to help manage this in due course. Normally after a year or so since the event for which it was used, but this may be agreed or notified as required.
Actions taken in the event of duplicate accounts being identified. The administrators reserve the right to remove or delete all accounts set up by a member. Having done so without any permission is a breach of the rules of the forum, and this sanction is ultimately the discretion of the admin.
However in practical terms, usually a resolution will be attempted where the member chooses which account is to be their primary account, and the other one will be removed. If possible time may be made to see if any preservation of messages is possible, but a member needs to be aware it may not always be possible and some loss of past posts will result from the deletion of an account, even if the main one remains.
Club or special accounts for administration. This rule also doesn't affect an RNARS member having their own account, and also administering an official account of an affiliated club or group with which they also represent. Such an account naturally belongs to that group, and is considered to be operated by that member on that groups behalf. It wouldn't be considered a duplicate account. But members wanting to set up such an account should remember to reach out to the admins or a committee member first and ensure they can provide their respective committee's endorsement. The committee of an affiliated society account would be answerable for it's conduct.
There are also some administrative accounts which may need to exist from time to time to aid the effective administration of the society or forum. These do not fall within these rules. If a member is given an account for such a purpose, any rules to which they must adhere will be explained to them. #