The bolded text is concerned with the posting of school work My thread was just deleted because it contained a story that I had written for homework. This is the infraction notice: No where in the rules does it say "You cannot post schoolwork". It says to identify it as school work but don't expect people to offer assistance. So I don't understand why my thread was deleted. My story was already a finished product when I posted it. I was not looking for help to write it. It had been handed into my prof a month before. Any critique given to me for the story would have in no way helped my mark academically. I simply posted it to get feedback as a creative writer. I am all for following rules, but they need to be there for me to follow. If the forum regulations have changed, I suggest the rules are reworded to be more explicit. Because as it stands now, I don't believe I deserve this infraction. edit: No longer seeking to lift infraction. Just for rules to be made clearer for new members.
The rules are clear enough, and they HAVE been recently reviewed and updated. If you feel you are unfairly infracted, take it up with the moderators via private message, not in open forum. The moderators are fair, and are inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. Taking it public to try to get mob opinion working for you is guaranteed to piss them off, though. Inciting a flame war is not likely to earn you an infraction. It's far more likely to get you banned.
I'm not trying to start a flame war. There's a reason I posted it, but there's no point in explaining myself here if we can't have a proper discussion. I took your suggestion and pm'ed a mod. If a mod wants to close this, feel free. I won't object.
[/QUOTE] I'm not sure what rhduke said that gave the impression he might be starting a 'flame war' - whatever the heck that is when it's at home. I think he has a valid point. The original 'rule' is not specific enough to exclude 'old' school work; nor does it say that even current school work can't be submitted - only that IF it's submitted it needs to be marked as such, and that the assistance you/we give will be limited. I'm interested to discover how this issue is resolved. I'm not sure I agree that threatening him with a potential ban, simply for raising the issue, is the proper response here.
The mod probably didn't realise it was OLD school work. I haven't seen the original thread though so I don't know. Cog wasn't threatening anyone with a ban - he is saying that by rhduke bringing this out into the public forum, it's basically calling other members to show whom they support or dealing with something publicly when it should've been dealt with privately. It's calling the mod's judgement to be questioned not just by the person concerned (rhduke), who has every right to do so, but also for the whole forum to question that same mod's decision (and that is wrong, because in the end, a mod is a mod and we're unaffected members and it's frankly none of our business how the mod wants to conduct his job). What rhduke has done here isn't necessarily "wrong" so much as it is lacking in courtesy and diplomacy. And all of this serves to potentially start a flame war against the mod or the forum as a whole on its operation. Should a flame war start because of rhduke's complaint here, he could get banned. Not that he would, only that he COULD, because of the flame war potential. I agree that rhduke isn't trying to start a flame war since he hasn't named the mod, but there're really not that many mods on here so it's not hard to guess who it could've been - hence the very real risk of flaming.
Oh, dear. Well, I can understand the danger, and nobody wants the forum to get bogged down in he did/he didn't. However, I also think the rules are open to misinterpretation, as written, IF rhduke labeled his post as schoolwork, as he says, (either out of date or current) and the thread got pulled because of it. Other people might easily make the same mistake. The rule maybe should read: "If you post school work or contest entries, you will receive limited help OR your thread may be pulled by the moderator. Don't expect us to do your work for you." This seems a more accurate rewording of the 'rule', and still allows some individual leeway in both directions.
Yeah, have to agree - the rule doesn't say anything about not being allowed to post schoolwork, period. And I do think that rules questions are proper subjects for forum discussion, since they affect more than one person, although not as individual complaints, perhaps.
@Cogito: that was the case when you were a mod. Since you resigned, no other mods behaved in the way you described. The OP asked a valid question and he should be encouraged to appeal the infraction, as it looks to be an accidental misunderstanding.
It should be worth noting here that all infractions can be appealed against, in fact, I'm often more than happy to do so if I have made a mistake, and I'm sure that I am not just speaking for myself here.
I didn't realize this thread was still going... I sent a pm to Daniel a while ago because it was suggested that I did (not the mod that gave me the infraction) but haven't heard back yet. I can't lie, I was angry that it got deleted, but I tried hard not to convey my anger in my post. It's been a while now and I've since detached myself from the issue. You don't have to lift the infraction, but I just hope new members don't make the same mistake in the future. If there's an issue I still want to address, it's that the rules regarding school work are made clearer for new members.
I understand your reaction, I would feel the same. Perhaps it's worth noting for next time, Daniel is very busy and it can take him a long time to answer. But the mods are very approachable and I would not hesitate to contact any of them myself and appeal the infraction. This was clearly a misunderstanding and it can be easily resolved in a couple of messages
