The Happy Forum Guidelines & Rules

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Chief Blur Buster
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The Happy Forum Guidelines & Rules

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 15 Jan 2014, 19:32

Blur Busters Forum Happy Forum Guidelines
For those who wishes not to agree to abide to these very reasonable rules... please do not register for these forums. Or if you're already registered and missed these rules, you may request deletion of your account. Thank you...
This forums covers everything under our motto, Everything Better Than 60Hz™

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The "Be Nice" Motto
That Includes Being Nice To New Users

Blur Busters Forums launched December 2013. This forum has quickly become one of the most intelligent discussion forums about high end gaming displays on the Internet. Few rules have been established thus far. Yet, people are remarkably well-behaved around here despite the lack of forum rules. These are mostly guidelines, rather than hard-and-fast rules.

Better safe than sorry; as we aren't a darknet forum, nor political. Just geek talk, computer talk! So we are creating very reasonable, lightweight forum-specific guidelines and rules! We hate setting too many rules, but obviously, a few reasonable rules are needed to prevent the place from becoming unpleasant. Keep things ship shape, make things tick-tock better, makes this place a happier place. We like this being the ultimate geek hangout for "better than 60Hz" technology, attracting technically minded people and their admirers. The forum moderators here are volunteers (aka unpaid), so take it easy on them;

Be Nice: This Forum Is Welcoming
- Behave nice and courteous
- We prefer to err on the side of creativity.
- We welcome intelligent reviewers from other sites.
- We welcome intelligent game bloggers.
- We welcome game developers.
- We welcome display engineers.
- We welcome scientists and researchers.
- We make newbies feel welcome.
- We welcome relevant company reps, display companies, game companies, to help users as a responsible "tech support" role.
- We are OK with reasonable amount of welcomed link posting (Example: sharknice and his link to eliteownage.com)
- One link in signature is okay.
- Posting reasonably occasional links to your gaming blog is fine at Blur Busters. We do not consider it spam, as long as it is content that our users want, and is not an obvious attempt to sell (e.g. like your own online shopping site).

Be Nice: Some Obvious Common Sense "Be Nice" Resonable Rules
- No spamming (of the viagara fame, nigeria fame, etc).
- No classified ads, no buy/sell/trade ads.
- No fighting, no flaming, no name calling, no hate speech.
- No politics, no expressions of political affiliations. This is gadgets and geek talk, not politics.
- No direct affiliate links than ours. Affiliate codes are automatically removed/replaced.
- No trouble making, no wanton flame baiting, no major controversy that sparks impolite argument/escalation.
- No shaming/scolding of other forum members, including to newbies asking common/silly questions.
- No NFSW content. Don't worry, mainstream videogames are not NSFW :D
- Be easy on sarcasm / memes / etc to others. Many memes can carry a lot of baggage from social media..
- No clickbaits. That includes using Bitly to hide an URL that doesn't make the other person feel good.
- Do not post dangerous computer advice (e.g. erasing, reformatting) without appropriate sufficiently strong warnings.
- No generally making this forum unpleasant. Be nice and courteous.
- We err on the side of keeping you a forum member. We want bans to be rare, but we may edit & tone-down rude/unpleasant posts.
- Keep it easy on question rate / question speed. Asking or repeating many dozens of questions will overload volunteers.
- Images and avatars should comply with all above rules (e.g. no ads, no politics, etc).
- Manufacturer reps are welcome (company logo is okay for avatar, inquire to squad[at]blurbusters.com for rep higlights).
- Disclosure of AI content is mandatory. If you use any AI content (GPT, Bing Chat, DALL-E, Midjourney, etc) in your forum post, such as sharing an artificial esports image or a refresh rate discovery, you must disclose the AI content of your post. However, do not use AI to create your forum post from scratch.

Some rules may lead to bans (e.g. major violations of "no politics" forum rules), and some rules only get warnings. This is not Twitter or Facebook; these forums is focussed on fun geeking, not politicking or holy wars on topics.

Be Nice to new users. Be polite and helpful
- Please help newbies politely.
- If you see duplicate thread or repeat question, be helpful anyway. Even if it's just a polite link.

- If you see a post you know the answer to, go ahead and reply! Save Chief Blur Buster (me) time. :)
- Don't overload Chief Blur Buster (me). Where possible, please POST your questions publicly, not by private messages.
- The famous replies by Chief Blur Busters, while often quick, is not guaranteed quick (this Forum isn't the chief's main job). I can be generous with fast replies in bursts, but sometimes I get busy, and sometimes I disappear for days at a time, doing other full time work.

Be Nice: No Abuse of PMs
- Where possible, please send only one new PM per day to Chief Blur Buster. (Unless it's a reply to a brand new PM, or an emergency such as a forum malfunction).
- The forum is too big/busy for Chief Blur Buster to always reply to all threads. Replies to threads are not guaranteed on this volunteer-run forum. Other moderators or other forum members will pitch in.

Be Nice: Posts are subject to edits (usually minor) that enhance the forum.
- Confusing/incomplete topic titles is often helpfully edited to improve clarity. [usually within brackets]
- If heavy advertising/pimping of usefully relevant sites is noticed, we may ask you to become a paid sponsor of Blur Busters Forums. Or send me a PM.
- If multiple people say you are spamming (but not unamiously), we may ask you to tone things down and/or we may edit your posts to tone down pimping.
- NFSW content may be bleeped out. We love some of them, but the parents (of some otherwise intelligent, mature 17-year old members) might throw a fit at me, you know? So, just focus on the other fun Blur Busters stuff.
- Widely disliked spam/violations may be deleted/closed. (e.g. repeatedly pimping cross posted duplicate links daily)
- Other edits may occur, on a case-to-case basis. We try to avoid edits where possible, but we like to do edits that makes this forum a nicer & happier place.
- Vigorous debate is totally welcome! But be courteous/polite. We like "Understandable observations, but did you consider this variable..." rather than rudely as "What misguided observations, you are totally wrong, because". Please see above.
- Links to Amazon/Stores: You're welcomed to post mainstream-store links such as manufacturer stores, Amazon links, and NewEgg links. All links posted by all forum members are automatically converted to a Blur Busters affiliate link, that sustains the costs/operations of Blur Busters. (Thank you for supporting Blur Busters!)

Be Nice To Original Posters

- Please, do not "thread-crap".
- If your disagreement is fierce enough that multiple people complains to the moderator team, your post may be moved to a separate thread.
- Just like dueling science papers, please consider posting very major rebuttals in separate threads.
- Decision on what defines "thread capping" is the moderator's team decision. Please respect the moderator decision.

Be Nice Around Here And You'll Be Okay

-- Some of these rules have never been broken at Blur Busters before, because forum members around here are generally far more cordial than the average forum. We try to greatly err on the side of caution, but as the forum expands, it is quite possible that some forum members may try to make things unpleasant around here. If that happens, just send me (or another moderator) a PM.

-- Generally, we do our best to always avoid perma-bans where possible, except in very extenuating circumstances, where a single forum member makes life unpleasant for multiple people at Blur Busters, and ignored warnings. Or has done obvious widely-unwanted spamming (Kitchen renovations/chinese herb/viagara spambots) that warrants an immediate ban on first post.

-- Temporary bans may occur at any time (e.g. if a forum member repeatedly hurts multiple peoples' feelings) to try to "settle things down". Do not take offense if you got temporary banned, you're welcome back if you calm down & re-read the above. Okay? You might be asked to re-read the above, and answer some simple fun skill-testing questions about forum rules. :)

-- From time to time, I sometimes look for experienced forum moderators. Sometimes we also look for blog/article writers/testers/reviewers. Preference is given to those people who have extreme interest in Blur Busters knowledge. I like people who already has the ability to answer the famous "Blur Busters" flavor of questions, such as understanding how strobe backlights work. Want a bit of Blur Busters fame? Send me a PM/email of your moderator CV and blogger/review site experience.

-- Feel Free To Help Out. This forum is moderated by volunteers. If you already know a good answer to a thread, you're encouraged to reply without waiting for others to reply first.

-- Universal forum language is English, the language of international commerce. Please post in English, use Google Translate if necessary.

-- - Privacy Policy: Oh, and the legal beagles remind me that you should know about the Blur Busters Privacy Policy, also linked from the bottom of all Blur Busters pages.

Mind you, these rules will dynamically change over time, as necessary
...to keep Blur Busters Forums a fun and happy geek hangout!

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Thank you so much,
Chief Blur Buster
For those who wishes not to agree to abide to these very reasonable rules... please do not register for these forums. Or if you're already registered and missed these rules, you may request deletion of your account. Thank you...
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

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Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

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Chief Blur Buster
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Posts: 11850
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Re: The Happy Forum Guidelines & Rules

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 24 Sep 2019, 15:28

We are observing a major increase in one-post bots that are regurgitating content (copying and pasting an old post), and then coming back to edit it with a spam hyperlink, usually in the signature.

If you see any of those plagarizer-bots, click the exclamation mark triangle to report those spam posts.
We'll unceremoniously address them. ;)

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Use this button for posts that have rule violations too -- such as toxic posts.

An improved spam filter will also be coming...

User avatar
Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11850
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: The Happy Forum Guidelines & Rules

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 08 Dec 2020, 23:36

Spam filters has been improved significantly. A Moderator Approve queue is still present for New Users (for now).

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Chief Blur Buster
Site Admin
Posts: 11850
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 15:44
Location: Toronto / Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: The Happy Forum Guidelines & Rules

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 17 May 2022, 20:08

Adding reminder about respecting independent researchers:
Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. TIP: Do You See A Rude or Toxic Forum Post? If you see any forum posts that violates forum rules or a post that disrespects indie DIY researchers, testers and tweakers, please immediately click the exclamation mark "Report Post" on the problem poster. The toxic/discouraging post will be reported to the volunteer moderator team and we will unceremoniously delete toxic posts expeditiously. The button at the top of post looks like an exclamation mark:
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  Use exclamation mark button at top of bad posts. This is not Facebook or Twitter, with paid moderator teams.  Forum relies on indie forum reporting to prioritize inspecting of bad posts.

  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. We are now in over 20 peer reviewed scientific papers now, so we defend indie tweakers and testers here, even if ~90% placebo and ~10% real. We are the inventors of indie tests for the final 10% that mythbusts the refresh rate race, since higher Hz amplifies weak links that are invisible at 60 Hz or 144 Hz. Forum members must respect Blur Busters' role as an incubator of indie testers. Even if a tweak did not work for you, it may have actually worked on some other systems, with scientific papers and blind tests to show for it -- you have the equivalent of flunking school if you do not respect this.
  Thank you for supporting Blur Busters and our Forum Rules!

--End Forum Rules--

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