Rules

[brian]

Just some basic rules:

1. Don't get personal

Sometimes disagreements and conflict of opinion happens. If you find this happening to you, try to be cool and not rip into the other person.

If you think someone is trying to purposefully stir things and cause trouble, let the site staff deal with it for you.

2. Keep it legal

TechWatch is search engine friendly, with the aiming of driving in traffic form search engines. This means everything you post will be public-viewable unless clearly stated otherwise.

We have to make an effort to keep illegal content off the servers - it's part of our webhosting agreement - but in the event that someone does post illegal content do note that US and UK law allows individuals who post such content to be prosecuted.

So let's try and avoid unpleasantness for all, thanks.

3. Try to have fun

Forums are places to chill out, talk, discuss, and share information. If you find yourself making posts in anger, you're probably better off not doing so.

Instead, contact the site staff with any problem's you have - whether technical or about the forum members/posts - and we'll be happy to try and address your concerns.

4. No spamming

TechWatch is repeatedly spammed, but most of this gets caught by anti-spam scripts before it's posted.

However, anyone who is caught spamming get's their info posted to Security Watch, so other forum admins can ban them.


Anything else you think that should be covered, feel free to tell me.

[nigel whitt]

How do I post a question

[paulsav]

when people post good questions i have found you get people answering with stuff like "i dont know mate but im sure someone will answer it soon" WHY????? the guy whos asked the question doesnt want to see who else doesnt know the answer. People browsing the forum have to wade though all those posts to find what they want. I think anyone found answering questions without any answer to it should be warned then kicked out of the forum and maybe the content will be KEPT at a high standard

[brian]

Thanks for the feedback, paulsav - I think a point is that there are so many specialise tech areas involved on the forums, so a reply that encourages patience is possible better than no reply at all, leaving the new member feeling ignored.

One really big problem, actually, is that so many of the questions are repeated. I know people such as lincscat and others have done a great job of trying to put up FAQs on common issues, but sometimes people get too wrapped up in asking for an answer that they forget to look to those already given.

Will see if I can set up some common trouble-shooting FAQs though.

[andycam@talktalk.net]

can anyone help get a code for my philips radio serial number is rn481fx9207527 many thanks in advance

[Shaddax]

I have posted several replies recently that are not getting posted.

One (about hard drive installation) had to be "posted" 3 times before it appeared, another one is an answer to where someone can get some software (legally). I have posted this twice - still no appearance, 1st time was over 24 hours ago, 2nd time was around 5 hours ago.

Question is of course - will THIS posting make it?

[brian]

The issue with that is there's a couple of scripts running that stop newbies joining up to post links.

Any attempt to post links and email addresses - common methods of forum spammers and scammers - means the posts have to be manually approved by a moderator befin they'll post to the forums.

Of course, that means that false positives will always happen - but that's why the posts can still be approved, rather than being simply deleted.

I appreciate this will still cause problems sometimes, but there are already over 300 removed threads from the site, especially from Nigerian scammers claiming to sell Playstations/Nokia/iPods and similar for $100 etc.

The use of the anti-spam scripts is a great way to prevent TechWatch boards getting bunged up with these scams, which I figure would make for a more problematic experience for everyone.

[muttly]

hi there can anyone help,i have a eurovox max,been working fine untill today the box has gone off but i have two dots on the display,checked all connections

[hendo]

any luck with your eurovox i have same problem any help would be appreciated

[Dewar]

Dear Brian,

I am a new member and I notice that there is a report sign next to my posts, have I done something wrong, could you please clarify this for me .

Thank you,

Dewar