call for input - updating forum rules

[cKleinhuis]

Hi all, the moderator team came to the conclusion that our guidelines and rules are in need of an overhaul,  the idea is to give guide for newbies, and formulate a set of rules that are reasonable so that everyone understands when breaking the rules

beside of  that we want to include some general behaviour for software boards bug reporting, tutorials and improvement suggestions

so this thread is meant for everyone to give us your personal thoughts on what we could do better and what we missed in the current guidelines

[Sockratease]

Just so no users feel uneasy about any of this - if anyone has ideas they would prefer not be posted for all to see as originating from them - please feel free to send a Private Message to any Moderator or Global Moderator, or even Administrator, and it will then be posted in the Moderator's private forum for discussion.

We recognize the difficulties involved in reworking guidelines and the discomfort some may feel about suggesting things publicly which may be viewed as being directed at any specific member, so private input is welcome!  We don't want any voices to go unheard during this limited opportunity to update these things.

[1Bryan1]

The one gallery add picture a day rule occasionally bites me - mainly as I post my pictures in my evening.
So if I post an image at 11pm .... either I drop a bit of sleep to post at 23:01 then next evening or wait an extra day so that I can post at a more reasonable hour (like 8pm).
If a shorter lock out duration could be chosen, this would make things a bit less ... aaaaahhhhh!.

[Sockratease]

The one gallery add picture a day rule occasionally bites me - mainly as I post my pictures in my evening.
So if I post an image at 11pm .... either I drop a bit of sleep to post at 23:01 then next evening or wait an extra day so that I can post at a more reasonable hour (like 8pm).
If a shorter lock out duration could be chosen, this would make things a bit less ... aaaaahhhhh!.

Noted.

Can't make any promises on that one, but maybe we can bump it up to two.  It really got out of hand at one point and it was decided that a lower number of images would encourage people to post only their best stuff rather than go for quantity over quality.

Still, it's a good suggestion.

Thanks for your input.

[3dickulus]

encourage people to post only their best stuff rather than go for quantity over quality.

I think FF is not about posting all of one's fractal images here, we have places like DeviantArt for that, the restriction of one per day is not at all unreasonable, there are 24 hrs in a day no matter where you live, maybe the time could be measured against a user's local time zone instead of the time zone where the FF web servers are located. using a proxy or other means to get around this would be a no-no and  might get a user banned for a period or forever if it is persistent behavior.

@1Bryan1 your works are getting better with time and I find it kind of exciting to observe the evolution of an artist with their own unique style

and...

when a commercial entity, ie: a studio that has more resources than the average user, and clients where they provide digital visual/graphic/3D/code services to those clients in exchange for monetary compensation, is using software and/or math and/or code that originates from FF, to promote themselves or in a production, they should express some small gratitude by donating to FF, maybe by providing some access to their services for members that don't have the resources and people at their disposal, at a discount or free (for small stuff on a limited basis), or contribute $ to the operation and maintenance of FF along with full credits and a prominent display of "fractalforums.com", by prominent I mean 5 seconds or more and a link back to FF with a "thanks" blurb on their webpage.


I know there will be as many suggestions as there are opinions, some will not be feasible and not all will agree on everything, but, the collective distillate will ultimately represent the users, so I encourage and welcome this dialog and accept the results whatever they may be.

  to the moderators for allowing us the opportunity and freedom to express     

[0Encrypted0]

...one per day is not at all unreasonable, there are 24 hrs in a day no matter where you live, maybe the time could be measured against a user's local time zone instead of the time zone where the FF web servers are located.

One per day is pretty good considering the increased image size that is now allowed.
I believe the 24 hours is already measured against a user's local time zone.
That said, I wonder if it would be possible to set the interval to 23 hours between postings.
That way you could work your way down to an earlier time each day.

FYI:There is a profile setting to adjust the offset between Forum and local time.
See attached image.

[3dickulus]

@0Encrypted0 ty for the info, I didn't know that option was available, never had the need for it, so never looked for it.
If the duration is 24 hrs then a fixed posting time like 8:00pm is impossible, you would always have to wait for 24:01 and the posting time would drift (slowly, after 60 posts) into the next hour. The net result is that you would have to go 1 day in 60 without an image upload in order to keep posting them in the 8:00pm hour. imho this is not a big deal.

[Sockratease]

One per day is pretty good considering the increased image size that is now allowed.
I believe the 24 hours is already measured against a user's local time zone.
That said, I wonder if it would be possible to set the interval to 23 hours between postings.
That way you could work your way down to an earlier time each day.

FYI:There is a profile setting to adjust the offset between Forum and local time.
See attached image.

I had a look at the gallery settings.  It is set up to limit the number of gallery posts per day, not the number of hours between uploads.  So something like one per 18 hours is not possible  (unless it accepts non-integer values like 1.25)  (but that would likely not work - what is a one quarter image?).

I'll bring it up with Christian, but don't think it's possible until we upgrade the entire site to newer software for both forum and gallery   

[samiiali1]

Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!