FORUM RULES - PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING

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Thomas

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First and foremost please keep in mind that this is a moderated forum. There are plenty of places on the Internet where you can pretty much do and say whatever you want. This is not one of them.

The metaphor that we like to use is that of a dinner party. Bernhard Castiglioni, the founder of DrummerWorld, is throwing a party and you are welcome to join, as long as you are a polite guest. The forum Moderators are the doormen. We work for Bernhard and we enforce the house rules. There is nothing personal about what we do. If you are a good guest then you will have the opportunity to converse with not only many other people with similar interests and varying degrees of skill, experience, and knowledge, but also more than a dozen top professional drummers who stop by on a regular basis. If, on the other hand, you show us that you cannot follow the rules or behave in a polite fashion, then you will be shown to the door. There are no temporary bans, and there is no further discussion.

And now, on to the rules:

1) Absolute Respect and Zero Tolerance

There is no trolling, flaming, or insulting of others allowed. Do not make comments that are sexist, racist, pejorative, obscene, inflammatory, spiteful, abusive, threatening, or in any way insulting or disrespectful to any individual or group of people. Do not allow disagreements to become personal. Attacking or insulting another forum member rather than disagreeing with their point of view will not be tolerated. If you do disagree with someone else's opinion, show your intelligence by arguing your position calmly and respectfully. Please do not start a new thread or join an ongoing conversation to discuss how much you don't like someone or something. If you have a chip on your shoulder or an ax to grind, this is not the place for you.

If you are a regularly contributing member here, try to help those who are new. If you feel that it would help, politely suggest that someone read the topic descriptions, use the search function, or review the rules. Mocking or otherwise disrespecting a "newbie" is much less welcome than an innocent mistake by someone who might not know better.

2) Common Internet Etiquette

Do not post in all capital letters, do not use large fonts and annoying colors. Do not post the same thing in multiple topics. Do not "bump"a thread to bring it back to the top of the page. Do not create multiple accounts. Do not quote posts that are in obvious violation of the rules and therefore likely to be deleted. Do not post multiple times about the same point or issue. Do not post personal information or contact information, regardless of how easy it may be to find elsewhere.

Please use a subject for a new thread that explains the point of the thread. "Hey, check this out" or "What do you think" or "????" does not offer any information and isn't likely to get the response that you wish, and vague or misleading titles will be modified. If you are not familiar with the existing threads, please use the search function before starting a new one. Reply to a thread only if you have something to add to the discussion. Read the topic descriptions and post in the appropriate area, and post in the "Off Topic Lounge" if your post really doesn't belong anywhere else.

If you see a post that breaks the rules, please click on the "Report Post" icon within that post; this will report the post to the Moderators. Spammers will be immediately banned (we define spam as advertising a product not related to drumming and/or any unsolicited advertising).

3) Appropriate Language

This forum is visited by all kinds of people: pro drummers who have been in the business for decades, 10-year-old kids, moms and dads looking for help purchasing their child's first kit, teachers, amateurs, hobbyists, and hard working drummers who post here only when they aren't practicing or gigging. Communicate your thoughts in a way that is helpful and respectful without embarrassing anyone, including yourself. Don't use insulting or crude slang words, even if it is language that you use commonly with your peers. Do not substitute asterisks or other symbols for letters in words when it is obvious what you are actually saying. Try to keep language and subject matter as clean as possible. If you cannot express yourself without mentioning body parts, excretory functions, or reproductive behavior, we ask that you practice your conversational skills elsewhere before utilizing them here.

Do not post words or images that are sexually or violently graphic in nature, do not discuss drug use or any illegal activities, and do not post links to such images or discussions. If you choose a user name, avatar, or signature that violates any of these rules it will be deleted, and if we deem it appropriate you will be banned with no warning other than what you are reading here.

If it seems that you have made an honest mistake in judgment, your post will be edited or deleted and a Personal Message (PM) from a Moderator will be sent to you. Please do not respond by defending your words or arguing.

4) You Are a Guest

This forum is a small part of the main DrummerWorld website, and together the two are provided free-of-charge to the great drumming community. Bernhard Castiglioni, Gruntersdad, Bermuda and Andy maintain the main website, and the Moderators have complete say over what transpires on the forum. If a post or thread is moved, edited, locked, or deleted, we are doing our job using discretion and our best judgment. Please do not argue with us or question our actions or decisions, and do not discuss deleted posts, banned members, or the moderation of the forum in your posts.

If a member is banned, it is most likely that either they egregiously violated the rules, they continued to break the rules after being warned, or they sent us an an argumentative or offensive PM. In any case it is likely that there was more going on behind the scenes than you were aware of. Our decisions on these matters are never personal, and taking sides in such disputes is silly and pointless. Please remember that no forum member is indispensable, and your post count or the number of your friends does not give you a pass to break the rules.

5) Rules That Are Particular To DrummerWorld

Using the Classifieds thread
We realize that many drummers wish to do business with each other when it comes to buying, selling, or trading equipment. While we ban spammers immediately, we provide the Classifieds thread as a service to our regular members. If a post appears to be from a business venture or is the first post made by someone who has just joined our community, it is likely that we will see this as an abuse of our goodwill and the post in question will be deleted.

Using the Drummers Sub-Forum
The purpose of the Drummers section is to discuss well-known drummers such as the drummers profiled on the DrummerWorld website. It is not to discuss your drum teacher, or the drummer who plays at the pub down the street, or this guy you know who is really good. If the drummer that you wish to discuss is profiled on DrummerWorld, there is a good chance that they already have a thread about them started, so please use the search function before posting here. Be respectful in your posts. It is not unusual for drummers to read their pages on DrummerWorld and then come to the forum to read or join the discussion about themselves. So what's the point of joining a conversation just to say how much you dislike someone?

Using the Off Topic Lounge
The original purpose of the Off Topic forum was to discuss subjects that were musical in nature but not necessarily drum-related. We have allowed a bit of leeway with this definition, but we have discovered through trial and error what fits here and what doesn't. Please do not discuss extremely trivial matters. Do not post jokes or poetry. Do not discuss politics or religion. Do not post links to "hilarious" videos of stupid people doing stupid things. If you, in your best judgment, create a post or thread that is deleted from this or any other forum topic, understand that we have the final say regarding what is appropriate and what is not. Unfortunately more posts are deleted from this topic than all others combined, and more members are banned based on their actions in this sub-forum. For these reasons, please do not abuse this area of the forum, and save us all the hassle involved in settling disputes that could easily have been avoided in the first place.

A Note About Deleted Posts
Realize that you will be held responsible for your own words. If your post is deleted for inappropriate language, please do not PM the Moderators telling us that we should have just edited your post. It is not unusual for us to have hundreds of visitors online at any given time, and editing everyone's posts is simply impractical, to say the least. If you spend 45 minutes writing a post and can't be bothered avoiding language that is not allowed here, you will have no one to blame but yourself when that post disappears.

Sometimes posts are deleted simply because, in our estimation, there is no place for them here. Again, we have the final say over the content of this forum.

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As may be inferred from the subject line of this post, by using this forum it will be assumed that you have read and agree to the rules enumerated herein. It is our sincere hope that you will enjoy your stay here and use this forum to further your education and to help others along the perpetual path to percussive perfection, but we completely understand if these rules are not to your liking and we wish you the best of luck in your search for a home on the Internet where you will feel more comfortable. Keep in mind, however, that there is a very good reason why so many pro drummers use this forum, and why so many clinicians, educators, and industry leaders recommend us on a regular basis. The DrummerWorld forum is the best of its kind and we are very proud of what we have created. Stick around, contribute in the way that only you can, and most importantly have fun.

A note from Bernhard:
This was written more than 10 years ago - but still works. But don't panic: If you are a normal fair person, you will never have problems with these rules...thanks a lot.
 
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