We welcome everyone to this forum, from newbies to tech warriors. No complicated rules here.
General RulesTone and culture of KBoards. KBoards is our home. To make it an overall enjoyable place to be, we have to set expectations about the behavior of everyone who enters our home.
The tone of conversation in our forum is important to us. If you are a new member, browse around the boards for a while to get a feel for our culture. Look at the flow of our conversations to get a sense for what we consider to be acceptable in posts and topics.
If you're new and immediately start posting with provoking or inciting comments, don't be surprised if you're banned. In the past, we've spent time trying to coach new members who get started on the wrong foot here. It rarely works, and we've now grown to the point where it's not possible for us to do that. So, seriously: figure this part out on your own if you wish to join this forum.
If the above guidelines irk you, and you're ready to get on your soapbox about free speech on the web... this is probably not the place for you.
If, on the other hand, you enjoy respectful and engaging dialogue, and have a sense of courtesy to others... welcome! Enjoy!
Specific Rules- No bad words please. (Don't test our filters.)
- No flaming, no insults, no name calling. Your post will be deleted.
- No belligerence. If, in the opinion of our moderators, you display aggressive, relentless, or belligerent behavior, you are subject to being banned. If you want to have a future here, be kind.
- No yelling. (Don't do ALL CAPS..!)
- No excessive punctuation (e.g. strings of exclamation marks or question marks), to include use of special characters in subjects to make the topic stand out in the topic listing.
- KBoards Content -- Sexually explicit pornographic images are not allowed. Explicit images of violence are not allowed. In addition, "adult content" is not allowed, which includes erotic images, erotic text, and links to erotic content. Please use your judgment, and respect that the moderator team and the board owner have final say. (
FAQ)
- Sometimes newcomers ask questions that have been asked and answered before. That's okay. Help them out, and politely show them where the answer can be found. The forums are a big place and though we try to make information accessible, it takes a little while to get used to where everything is. If a newbie question really bothers you, just skip by that post and move on. Someone else will probably help.
- No trolling. This includes posts that seem designed to incite angry responses, or posts that seem designed to dissuade Kindle enthusiasts. This is a Kindle forum! If you prefer other readers, you are still welcome here; but don't try to turn this into an anti-Kindle forum.
--Sorry, no discussion of politics or religion. We've found that these discussions, about beliefs that are held deeply, tend to go off the rails very quickly, so our culture here is to not have those discussions.
- Members may not charge other members for friendship. This rule has always been here. Really, Dan. This includes charging any member for signature space.
- Posts related to Kindle books. Authors, we do allow you to post about your Kindle book, but only in the Book Bazaar board. See detailed author rules below. Do not post links that use non-KBoards Amazon affiliate links. We will delete your posts, or update your Amazon links to the KBoards affiliate link.
- Use of affiliate tags. We reserve the right to add links, or update links, in your KBoards posts with links that contain KBoards affiliate codes. We may delete or modify posts that contain outside affiliate links. Posting of outside affiliate links is against forum rules and may result in banning.
- Links to your website. We don't allow posts that are designed to get people to go to other sites to make their Amazon book or Kindle purchases. You may have a discrete link to your site in your signature, subject to the signature guidelines below.
- Accessory Makers: Posts promoting your Kindle covers, lights, or other accessories are allowed through our promotions program - contact us for details via
email. Posts that are not cleared through our promotions program may be locked and/or deleted. We reserve the right to remove or replace external sales and affiliate links. Overbearing, off-topic, or repeated posts about commercial products will be deleted. If you want regular presentation of your commercial product, email us at
[email protected] about our programs for advertising, giveaways, or other promotions.
- DRM (Digital Rights Management): We do not allow threads or posts that include instructions, or links to instructions, on ways to hack, crack, or otherwise get around DRM protections. The term 'DRM' refers to access control technologies used by publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital content. Kindle books, e-books in general, purchased music, and other published digital content typically contain DRM controls. It is acceptable to post about DRM in general, e.g. to discuss DRM-related issues and benefits.
- PID tools: Utilities that derive personal identifiers (PID) for your Kindle reader are considered by Amazon to be in violation of their terms of service. We do not allow posts that provide how-to instructions, source code, or links for obtaining these scripts.
- Chat: Follow the above rules when in the 'public' rooms in our chatroom. This includes the Lobby, the Book Klub room, and the Tech Support room. You can set up your own subroom for your own chat topics or for spirited discussion that may be offensive to others. Just clearly label those subrooms when you name them, so that members have fair warning before venturing in.
- Usage: Text and photos that you post in KBoards may be used by KBoards in other media settings; for example, in our Kindle blog or in guides or other publications that KBoards may assemble from time to time.
- Signatures: Generally, you may have text and/or graphics in your signature, including hyperlinked text and graphics. Excessive use of images in signatures is discouraged, and graphics may be removed or resized at the sole discretion of the moderators. Do not post embedded videos in signatures. Graphics or words that are offensive, distracting, or otherwise detract from the forum may be removed at the sole discretion of our moderator team.
A signature, in length and height, can be no larger than the area X'd off below. It is 89 default font characters wide, and 10 default font characters high. That's about 800 x 140 pixels. This is enough for 8 book covers (which, when made through our
Link-Maker, are 125 pixels high, you can have more covers if they are smaller) plus two lines of plain text. Keep your signature to that size or smaller; otherwise it may be changed or removed.
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- Empty posts: Members who make repeated short-phrase posts may be viewed as posting simply to bump their post count or to make their forum signatures more prominent. Those posts may be deleted and repeat offendors may be banned, at the sole discretion of the moderator team.
- Web tracking bugs: Members who use web tracking images in their posts, signature, or avatars will be banned.
- Departure Announcements: If you choose to leave KBoards, we allow you to make a post announcing your departure from the community. We have heard from members who have made such announcements that they continue to receive thread and PM notifications even after announcing their departure, and have been asked how to prevent that. For members who announce their intention to leave KBoards, we will honor the request to separate from our community by disabling the member account. This will stop our automated board notifications from going out. It also disables other board features (PM notifications, and access to chat room, author pages, Yellow Pages, signature tools, book pages, KB bookmarks, keeping track of last posts read, etc.) You will still be able to browse the boards as an unregistered guest. We hope this addresses your wishes to leave our community.
To help us in managing this, we will consolidate "I'm leaving KB" announcements into a single thread in the Forum Comments area. If you change your mind in the future, just contact us through the email in the site footer, with a request for us to re-enable your account.
Of course, members who wish to stop posting here may simply do so at any time. And people who are taking short breaks for one reason or another may post about that; that's different. Our site has no rules that prevent people from taking a break from the boards when they wish... and many do so and then return later. Rather, the above is to address the people who choose to announce their departure from the community.
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Authors: We are fortunate to have quite a few authors who have joined KBoards. Here are some guidelines about getting the word out about your books:
- You may post one thread about your book, in the Book Bazaar board. You can use that thread to introduce your book, include a brief review, etc.
- Do not post about your book in other boards, or in the Book Bazaar's Free Books or Bargains Books threads.
- We have a Link Maker (see the top of the screen). Authors are strongly encouraged to use the link maker to include a link with a cover of their book, which takes interested folks directly to Amazon where people can read reviews, sample the book and buy it if they want. We also have an author signature tool at
http://www.kboards.com/authorsig - Do not "bump" your thread with the word "bump" or through similar tactics. You are welcome to keep your thread "lively" by posting information about your book (reviews, author interviews, etc.) - but do not do so more than once per week. Of course, you can always reply to comments from others in the thread. After you've replied, you may not bump the thread for 7 days. The simple rule to remember for your book thread: no back-to-back posts from you that are closer than 7 days apart.
- Do not engage in "quid pro quo" bumps in which you bump threads of other authors in return for them bumping yours.
- No setting up of multiple accounts ("sock puppets"). We have ways of identifying these, even when attempts are made to disguise those accounts through IP-cloaking tools. (Note: if you're using an IP-cloaker or IP-blocker, you're probably high on our watch list.)
- Do not send unsolicited private messages (PMs) or emails to any members to promote your books or other wares.
- Do not re-post Amazon reviews here. If you do have reviews of your book at other sites, you may include a link (don't repost the whole review) to that site.
- You may list your book, and a small graphic if desired, in your forum signature.
- We do not allow explicit cover images or titles, and will remove posts or signatures containing those subject to our sole discretion. See note above about "family-friendly" content.
- Some authors have had contests or promotions to publicize their book. If you are interested in doing that, please PM a moderator to make sure the promotion is in line with forum guidelines.
- If you are interested in leading a "read with the author" book club, please PM Betsy to discuss.
- We have two threads which are pinned to the top of the
Book Bazaar: "Official Master List of KBoards Authors" and "Official List of KB Authors by Genre." If you would like your name to be added to either or both lists, please
see this post for instructions. Note that posts made directly to either thread will be deleted without response.
- For more author-related tips and guidelines related to these boards, see this post:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,41454.0.htmlThanks for sharing your questions, opinions, expertise, and passions. Have a good time and we'll see you out in the boards.
- Harvey
KBoards Admin
Topic: Forum decorum (Read 480273 times)
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