Thinking about New Rules
 

:aimeeyork I just read the updated rules. They seem to me to be a bit more direct, that is good, some people don't understand diplomacy or subtlety.
I think the real purpose of Yorkie Talk is to create an on line community that educates, shares ideas and experiences about Yorkies. We can help each other. No one understands Yorkies as well, as another Yorkie lover.
One thing that jumps out to me is that new people are not always given advice with kindness. Over and over I see the same people blast new posters. Not just one or two times, they do it to most new comers, and they do it too often, for it to be accidental. It may be because they lack social skills, are bitter because they made a lot of mistakes, they are looking for someone to blame (like breeders in general) because their Yorkie has health problems, don't know how to express themselves in a nice way, or even a lack of writing skill. Maybe it is up to the rest of us, to keep the help and conversation going with the new poster. I know I have made some awful mistakes in the past. Once I knew more, I made better choices, hopefully the new poster will too.
I think I needed the reminder to choose my words a little more carefully. True there are trolls, pot stirrers, and stupid people but, name calling is simply not nice. Name calling certainly does not encourage a helpful exchange of ideas.
I think I am right all the time. I sometimes forget there are very few absolutes. I want to talk you into believing the way I do, and if I can't convince you, well you must be wrong, right ? um Opps! guilty of it.

I am thinking the new rules are pretty simple, they remind us of the golden rule, you know the one, do onto others....

As a new member of the forum (who has only posted a few times), I was so happy to read what you wrote. It was very well said. :thumbup:

I agree

I'll add to that...myself and my dd are members here, have learned soooo much and are everyday readers. We recently had a very upsetting experience involving our pups. After the drama died down, my first instinct was to find out what YT thought and knew about this. I said to DD - you've got to post this on YT and find out if anyone else has had this happen. Her response was - "I'm not gonna do that - they will tear me up!"

How sad. . . .AND. . . wasteful of the knowledge just waiting to be shared.

You could always PM a member or two to get a feeling about what you may want to post....

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I agree

:thumbup: All the above

I have found myself having to come back and apologize a few times after failing to proofread my own posts before hitting submit. I completely agree we all need to think how we would feel if our posts were responded to in the same way we are responding to them.

Like!

You said it Teresa.... I totally agree ! :thumbup:

Thank goodness for the level headed members who dont have some warped sense of need to take a post to a whole nother level and start ripping into the new members just because they dont agree with them. I just dont know what it is about some people who do that. They also like to take your words and twist them into something it wasn't. Just irks me to no end! :mad:

I saw the thread, read the rules.....

maybe it's just me, but I would much prefer a ..."these were the rules....these highlighted sections are changes to the rules". How am I supposed to remember what the original rules were and take note of the distinctly new rules if they aren't made distinct in some manner. The gist of it seems the same as always.

As a newcomer myself, I welcome your thoughtful comments. Fear of being blasted by criticism is very real. :thumbup:

The main changes that can affect personal interactions are noted in red below. We did revamp the rules in their entirety (clarified, shortened, deleted, added words) which is mainly why I suggested reading them *all* again as a refresher. That said, the biggest changes were here:

C. Personal Interaction & Consequences

1. Please be civil and do not personally attack members, their opinions, their knowledge, or how they care for their dog. It is NOT acceptable to call any member a troll, a pot stirrer, or a bully. If you disagree with a member's post - you must reply respectfully; if unable to do so, you should not post. YT will not allow rude, snide, or disrespectful remarks towards fellow members. If you have only criticism and nothing constructive to add to a thread - then DO NOT POST. If you have ongoing conflict with a member, you may place them on your ignore list. It is not allowed to publicly declare whether a member is placed on 'ignore' - any posts stating such will be deleted and could result in consequences.

2. New members will be treated with respect, patience, and extra understanding. All yorkie owners at YT were “new” at some point; new members come to YT hoping to learn about their dogs and they want some support, patience and kindness while learning and sharing. If you are a member who cannot offer patience and understanding to new members or during sensitive topics, then you should not post on applicable threads. If you break this rule - your posts will be deleted, your access to the applicable section(s) may be removed for up to 30 days or indefinitely, and/or you will be suspended.

3. If your personal interactions are deemed problematic, attacking, badgering, snarky/snide or anything similar, (via forums, PMs, chat etc.), your account may be suspended for 1-4 weeks. If you try to circumvent this by creating another account, both accounts will be PERMANENTLY BANNED. For more serious offenses, you may be banned from YT immediately, rather than suspended. If a member causes ongoing problematic issues in a certain section of YT, we may disable the member's access to that section for 1-4 weeks; if it continues, access will be removed indefinitely.

4. For any subsequent offenses, you will be suspended for a longer duration of time as appropriate to the offense. If offenses continue, you will be PERMANENTLY BANNED from YT. We do not allow discussions of suspensions or bans of any specific member, or discussions regarding former members of YT. Please note, the duration and type of all consequences are at the discretion of the Admin and Moderators and are dependent upon each member’s individual situation and history.

5. If someone attacks you via a PM, report it to us - DO NOT RETALIATE, or you may risk suspension. Do not delete the PM and do not respond. Immediately report the message; we will verify the message was indeed sent by that person and appropriate action will be taken.

6. Private messages are not for creating arguments, attacking, badgering, or for trying to influence people against another member. Nor are they to be used for spamming of any kind, or for advertising other forums or commercial items. If you receive a PM that is spam, a solicitation of any kind, or a message offering something for sale - PLEASE, report it to Admin immediately. Inappropriate use of PMs will result in a suspension or ban.

It's very important for all of us to hear this, so thank you for posting this. :)

I identify with your DD. Also, I agree with you -- sad and wasteful of knowledge that could be shared.

:thumbup::thumbup: Agreed and Thank you for saying!

Oh Thank You Ann! We have needed these for SO LONG. YT used to be so nice with nice helpful people, but then it changed into something I did not recognize. It would be so great to have it back to being a NICE place to talk about our Yorkies. :)

Thank you, Ann :)

That makes the changes much clearer.



I think many of us have done that. Sometimes what we intend to mean & how it comes across to others can be a bit different. The one phrase I remember my Mum saying to me over & over again during my teen years when I got in trouble for how I talked to her was , "It's not what you say, it's how you say it!"

Many of us would benefit from taking a moment to read what we typed before we hit the Submit Reply button....myself included.

I get that this post is to be positive and I like the new rule change but doesn't this post bash some people who you don't agree with how they post or type things?

I don't follow your train of thinking....

What post? Or do you mean this thread? And if so, how does it?

I meant thread ahhhh its been a long day. I feel like people are being kinda called out with out using names but that's just my opinion and I admit I am very sensitive today.

I think its calling out to the types of posting style that we no longer wish to tolerate here on YT.

I don't even know if my sentence is making sense... lol ... oye its been a long week.

I sure hope some things change on some threads. I hate when you start seeing the attack forming and soon you know OP will reply and it's on. I sure hope we can get past this current trend. Even if a poster is a suspected troll, if the posts stay even-handed and informative or even stern (where a dog might be being neglected or mistreated or something), without the drama and angst, the troll will fade away but perhaps the genuine OP will stay. I sure hope we can turn things around as postings and members online seems to be down in numbers.

It has been a long week I thought I was grabbing Aleve this morning but I grabbed sleep aid instead woowee was it a long sleepy day.

I understand the reason for establishing 'rules of ettiquette' and 'accepted behavior' in a forum. It just saddens me that numbers of people behave such that we must.