Rules & Policies for Moderators

RULES & POLICIES FOR MAILFRIENDS COMMUNITY MODERATORS

Considering the
real-time nature of the mailfriends-community, it is impossible for us to review
messages or confirm the validity of every piece of information posted. Please
remember that we not able to constantly monitor the contents and are not
responsible for any messages posted. Because of this mailfriends is moderated by
the community itself and we ask you to help us as much as you can.

The
purpose of having moderators is to try and help provide an environment that
promotes friendship and tolerance by facilitating real conversations between
members. The moderation process is designed to benefit the genuine members who
want to have conversations and reasoned debates.

1. Being a
moderator:
Being a moderator you should keep your standards high, you are the
person who sets the tone for the channel. Avoid fighting or conflicts. be an
example for other users. Should you detect suspicious behaviour by someone,
please do not engage (as hard as that might be) into conversation (either
publicly on the community or privately via private message or email) with them.
Engaging them only acknowledges that you are being affected by their behaviour.
Often they are simply looking for an audience and a reaction or someone that
will get into a "fight" with them. Do not give them the satisfaction. It is far
more productive and smarter to investigate further and take the appropriate
action such as locking the topic or deleting the posts. In difficult cases you
can contact us.

Being a Moderator gives you extra privileges such as
banning / locking / deleting, these cannot be used for any personal purposes and
to do so will result in immediate removal of your moderator status. You will
most likely see topics that you feel very strongly about and people will post
things that you completely disagree with, however you cannot use your privileges
unless the other person has specifically broken the rules.

2.
Team-work:
It’s up to you to moderate your channels appropriately. It is
hoped that you and your co-mods are able at all times to work together as a team
as well as working with the moderators of other channels. Any problems/issues
that arise should be discussed first between you and other mods on channel or
with your counterparts in the moderators channel and if you are unable to come
to a joint decision or if you have problems of any sort then you can contact the
modboard who will try to resolve the issue with you. At all times the mod-rules
MUST be followed

3. Required Frequency of moderation:
Moderators are
required to log in and moderate their channels frequently (at least every other
day) as situations can flare up fast. Situations will arise when you may be
unable to do this and in that instant you should contact your co-mods of channel
and modboard so that a suitable replacement can be found in your absence. This
will be a temporary measure and we would expect you to let us know of any
situations that may keep you away for a long period of time. Any mods failing to
log-in for a period of 2 weeks will be replaced unless we have been notified.
Inactive mods that DO NOT log in or fail to moderate will be removed in ALL
circumstances. We understand that there may not be much moderating to do on some
channels but at least taking part in discussions will show you are active on
your channel.

4. Participation in your channel:

> All moderators should
> be active in their channels. Its not all about locking/moving/deleting/warning
> etc. - its also the contribution to your channel/s. So post replies, show people
> you are interested in the channel you are moderating. Respond to their questions
> if you are in a position to or point them to someone who you think will be in a
> position to answer the question and willing to do so.
> It being important for the moderators to be accessible by the membership for questions and complaints...No moderator will make his/her profile invisible. The only exception to this rule will be when the Moderator Board has been notified of an absence and you want to go invisible for the duration of your vacation.

5. The following is
banned on Mailfriends and is not allowed postings/topics and as such should be
deleted:
To post any material which is :
- knowingly false and/or
defamatory,
- inaccurate
- abusive
- vulgar
- hateful
-
harassing
- obscene
- profanity
- sexually oriented
-
threatening
- invasive of a person's privacy
- or otherwise in violation
of any law.
- Posting of any copyrighted material, unless the copyright is
owned by you or by mailfriends.com
- Posting of Advertisments for websites,
services or products

Types of postings that should be deleted:
-
Postings including only excessive smilies!
- Double, triple, etc.
-
Postings with too many word-wrap (we suggest no more than 4 as a guide)
-
Writing only in uppercase letters
- All kind of mass posting!

6.
Locking / Moving topics:
Primary you should use this feature to stop fighting
or to show others what is not allowed. Please always write a last post saying
why you have locked it before locking the topic. Do not lock topics that breach
rule 5 these should be deleted.

Sometimes topics get very long. If you
think its necessary to lock a topic because it is real long then do it. if you
don't think so then don't do it Note: long topic: > 100 posts.

If you
think the topic does not fit to your channel you should move it to the right
channel and inform the author of the topic.

7. Banning a user.
We
offer you the option to ban a user from the channel you moderate. This user
won't have access to your channel for the selected amount of days. Use this
function ONLY after you have warned the user that he is breaking the
community-rules (and still haven't changed his behavior). Furthermore you should
ban users who are obviously spamming your channel and disturbing the discussion
but you must notify them of your reasons in a private message (PM).

8.
Breaking the rules:
Try to follow the rules at all times but we accept that
no one is perfect! Everyone makes mistakes. We are not so fussy So if you make a
mistake just try to prevent it the next time. If you break the rules often we
must remove you from being a mod.

If you think a moderator is not present
in his/her channel anymore or the moderator is not following the rules please
report it to the Modboard and further action will be taken. But don't forget to
moderate your own channel and not always look on other channels trying to find
mistakes of others.

9. Moderator suggestions/applications/resignations
etc.:
If you want to apply for any channel, if you need help for your channel
or if you want to quit being a moderator please send a Private Message (PM) to
the modboard.

10. Community language
Mailfriends.com is a site that is
written completely in English. We are sure that there are a lot of spelling and
grammar mistakes but we do our best to avoid them. The language all topics must
be written in is English. It is real hard to check out every post that is
written in another language for bad content. Please be so good and delete
topics/posts written in other languages. Sure if someone uses some international
words in his/her post then it’s okay and should not be deleted. E.g. someone
writes a whole topic in English and uses the word “amore”. Hope everything
is clear.

11. Moderator Channel:
Mailfriends has a mod-channel, which
is only accessible for MF-moderators. As a mod you must visit it often ideally
at least once every day you login. Sometimes there are really important
announcements and topics for moderators. Problematic users should be discussed
here and not posted publicly in the channels! Don't post any internal stuff on
public places like e.g. Troubleshooting channel. It can cause false impressions
or confusion to the members of mailfriends.
Important: Never give out ANY
information from the moderator channel to someone else who is not a moderator.
This includes good friends of yours. The conversations in the moderator channel
are for moderators only! If we find anybody who gives out sensitive information,
which shouldn't have been given out he/she will be removed from being a
moderator.

12. Modboard
The Modboard is here to help you with any
moderator issues. Any problems that may arise to do with the moderation of the
channels, ie. moderators not being able to come to a decision between each
other, replacement of moderators, reporting a moderator for ineffective
moderation or any other issues that you feel may need intervention. All matters
will be treated confidentially by the Modboard team. You can contact them via
the modboard profile.

Important: Never give out any information discussed
between moderators and Modboard to someone else who is not a moderator/Modboard
member. This includes good friends of yours. These discussions should be kept
between moderators/Modboard only! If we find anybody who gives out sensitive
information, which shouldn't have been given out - he/she will be removed from
being a moderator/Modboard member

RULES & POLICIES FOR
COUNTRY-CHANNEL MODERATORS

The policies are the same as written above,
however the following points should also be considered.

Language
The
language of every country channel is the common tongue of the country itself,
English is also acceptable because it is an international language and
mailfriends is written completely in English. We also accept English because we
are sure there are a lot of "foreigners" who are interested in other countries
too.

In case of a Topic created by a foreigner and written in English it
is desired to have english answers only in order to give the creator of the
topic the chance to understand the views of anyone else. A language mix should
be avoided.

Please keep in mind that topics in a Country Channel should
be connected to the specific country in some way. MF offers a wide collection of
channels for mostly everything. Please make use of this offer.

END
NOTE
As a moderator you are required to be familiar with these rules and you
will be informed of any changes to these
rules.