updated 4 September 2005

DV Info Net Rules of the Road
Membership Requirements

The following information is required in order to post and reply on our community message boards located at www.dvinfo.net/conf:

• your real name (in the form of John Smith and not john_smith)
• a valid e-mail address
• your location (city, state... or country if not U.S.A.)

One thing which separates us from other similar online communities is the quality of information posted by our members. It's a reflection of the high caliber of our most frequent posters. These are some of the best, most knowledgeable folks you'll find anywhere. Using our real names enhances this firmly established atmosphere of friendliness, courtesy and professionalism. It insures our accountability, plus, you'll never have to wade through misinformation or garbage posts from anonymous trolls.

I've been posting to Usenet and web message boards under my real name for years now, with no adverse effects (and no huge spam problem, either). Using your given name instead of a pseudonym or "handle" accomplishes a very important thing: it gives you legitimacy. Many people, myself included, have much more respect for someone who is up front about their identity than they do for someone who hides behind a handle. I get very suspicious when I read postings from anonymous persons... it makes me wonder what it is that they have to hide, and what kinds of issues or agendas are they bringing in which makes them too embarrassed to sign their name. You'll find that the best posts and the most truthful, accurate responses are coming from community members who are comfortable with telling us who they really are. I tend to have a very low tolerance for sneaky people trying to hide from reality. Something is seriously wrong with that!

Our Policy Regarding Individual Privacy

Rest assured that as long as I'm in control of the message boards, your personal information such as your name, mailing address, and e-mail info will never be sold, given away or otherwise distributed to anyone... not to our sponsors; not to anybody. DV Info Net uses internal links that keep your e-mail address out of view while still allowing other members to email you. Your e-mail address will NOT be visible to them. The only reason why we all use our real name here is to insure that all of the material posted within is up-front, honest, good natured and well intended. Anonymity would be counter-productive to this mission; therefore it's simply not allowed.

Code Of Conduct

The following content will be removed or edited without delay or explanation (repeat offenders may be warned first and summarily booted if deemed necessary):

• Personal attacks, "flames," platform wars, bickering and pointless arguments.
• Trolling posts fishing for flame bait.
• Controversial subjects: Remarks addressing religion, politics, race, sex, gender, lifestyle and other obviously sensitive topics.
• Profane or vulgar language.
• Meta-discussion posts (such as jokes, "LOL!" etc.) which do not contribute to the conversation.
• Cross-posts. Pick the ONE most appropriate forum for your thread and post it there. All other copies will be removed. If you're not sure where your post belongs, put it in the Open DV Discussion forum, and we'll move it appropriately, leaving behind a re-directing link.
• Spamming, commercial promotion, or advertising of goods and services. Official DV Info Net sponsors may post one-time, pre-approved factual information about selected products of interest to the community within the appropriate forum DV Info. One-time consumer testimonials or legitimate, non-flaming complaints MIGHT not be removed if deemed to be constructive in nature and appropriate to the forum. Repeat threads promoting a business or product will be treated as a cross-post… that is, will be removed.
• Links or written references to other internet sites, information, or products that are incompatible with the values and purposes of DV Info Net, such as the controversial subjects as mentioned above.
• Maladaptive behavior of ANY sort that is clearly inappropriate among intelligent adults.

DV Info Net Philosophy On Community Moderation

Behold a radical new concept: intelligent moderation. To my great surprise, I've seen several message boards hosted by some big names in the video business undertake serious damage due to a lack of moderation. All it takes is one or two clowns to continuously post garbage, unchecked by either a lack of moderators or the presence of moderators who are too timid to do their job. After a very short while, this kind of nonsense drives away other members. That's where this damage occurs... the pollution makes people leave. And when people leave a community, it's no longer a cool place to be. It just dies. I certainly don't want that to happen here, so I'm taking a bold step: I will moderate the content.

"Freedom of Speech" and how it affects this community. I'm a firm believer in our right to freedom of speech. You're free to post, reply and participate as you see fit, but your rights end where mine begin. This community is my property, and as such, it is my right under freedom of speech to control its content. The issue is not debatable; if you have a problem with the way that I run this community,then you are free to start your own message boards elsewhere. Here, however, this topic is not open for discussion. That's the way it is; case closed. Think of it as quality control, and there won't be a problem.

Please be cool and respect your fellow members. I always welcome intelligent debates from opposing points of view, but I will not tolerate ad-hominem attacks upon someone's character, capabilities, or sensibilities. There will be no platform wars, period. We can politely argue issues, we can debate the merits and demerits of the topic at hand, we can agree to disagree... but there will be no personal attacks made upon community members. You are welcome to flame *me* all you want; I have a thick skin and a high pain threshold. However you may not flame each other.

The topics are media and the tools of media. Please stay on topic! DVinfo.Net Community discussions will remain focused on DV and many other types of media; as well as the general categories of media production and consumption. Comments, statements, remarks, etc. about religion, politics, race, sex, gender, lifestyle and other obviously sensitive topics are strictly prohibited and will be removed without delay or explanation. Please avoid meta-discussions. Meta-discussions are comments and remarks, which add nothing of value to the conversation. Prime examples include such boring and ubiquitous emotions of "LOL!" and ROFLMAO!" and extend into non-productive replies of the "me too" and "I agree." variety. The problem with this is that nothing of value is really added to the conversation -- it's just a waste of bandwidth with an increase of noise (and a lowering of signal). I've seen folks on other message boards continuously post empty nonsense replies as a joke just to keep a thread going indefinitely. That ain't going to happen here. Please have something tangible to say, that's all I ask.

Cross-posting is starting identical or essentially similar threads in more than one forum. While cross-posting may seem a handy way to get quicker responses, in reality it fragments the discussion and makes life more difficult for everyone. Moderators, known here as "Wranglers," will remove extra copies of the cross-posts; please save them the bother and JUST DON'T DO IT! Thanks.

Our Answer To The Single Most Important Question

The "where to buy" question is the single most important question we get here and it's treated with the utmost importance. I take this topic very seriously and reserve the right to have the last word on it (hence the usual closed thread on those topics).

I strongly urge dealing only with our DV Info Net sponsors. The reason I signed them up to support this board is that they're simply the best in the business in terms of reliability, honesty, value and customer service. I get inquiries all the time from camera dealers wanting to get on our sponsor list, but I turn down most all of them. Only those dealers known to me personally on a face-to-face basis have any chance of getting on board with us. They'll take good care of any DVi member.

References to dealers not on our sponsor list tend to get deleted, as a service to our readers and out of respect for the sponsor members who pay for our message boards that you're reading now. Sorry, but I can't allow posts that drive traffic towards dealers I don't know and away from the sponsors who pay for the boards here.

New, And Having Trouble Making A Post? Read This!

From the registration page: "At this time we are validating only those registrations submitted with a REAL NAME and location. User names on DV Info Net follow the conventional style of "John Smith" and not johnsmith, JohnSmith, or john_smith; and without numbers or special characters. If you're not comfortable posting under your real name, you'll still be able to read the boards."

All new user accounts are validated by hand, by a live human being (that's me) and any registrations using "handles" or incomplete names simply aren't activated. If you're one of these folks, contact Chris Hurd at chris@dvinfo.net to get squared away. Old folks still using handles, be advised that these accounts might become suspended... that's to get you to contact me, so that we can get your real name plugged in there. Also, we require a valid e-mail address from you. Upon registration, a confirmation message is sent to the e-mail address you specified. This message *must* be replied to, as doing so confirms that the e-mail address you entered is legitimate. There's no need to worry about spam; it's impossible for spammers to harvest addresses from this board and we don't send out e-mail blasts. The only e-mails you receive from the board are the notifications you yourself choose to subscribe to.

Follow these guidelines, and you're in quickly and easily!

Thrown together by Chris Hurd