Professionalism

RVRC.org is dedicated to being a professional, drama-free, friendly, and helpful online community, which includes the forums, chat, blogs, and all other RVRC.org features. The purpose of this project is to provide ways to maintain a professional atmosphere, to clarify sections of the Forum Rules and Terms of Service to further the idea of professionalism, and to provide a unified resource on the topic.

Treatment of members and the staff

At all times, everyone who uses the site is expected to treat other users of the site with courtesy and respect. This applies to members and Staff alike. At no time will rude behavior be accepted, and unacceptable behavior will be met with warnings, infractions, or bans, depending on the severity and frequency of the behavior.

Communication between members and the staff

Members should feel free to communicate with the staff whenever the need arises. Contacting the appropriate member of the staff in the appropriate manner will help to ensure a timely, appropriate reply.

All communication with the staff should be courteous and respectful, and such communications will be returned in kind. At no time will a member be penalized for asking questions of the staff or expressing concerns so long as it is done professionally. The staff will do their best to answer questions and address concerns in a timely, thorough manner.

The most appropriate ways to contact the staff in given situations are as follows:

  • Report Post feature – Every post contains the Report as spam/rule-breaking text link. Any time a member notices a post that violates the forum rules, they should click on this link and enter a brief description of why they reported the post. This generates a report that is available to the entire staff, and those reports are generally addressed very quickly. Please use this tool instead of PMing staff about problematic posts as that will produce that most rapid response. This is an invaluable tool for fighting spam and other inappropriate posts, and the input of members on this issue is very much appreciated.
  • Questions about policies and other forum business – Such questions may be posed to any Administrator.
  • Problems or concerns with the staff – If a member has a problem with a Forum Staff member, it should be addressed to one of the Administrators. Members of the staff are held to the same or higher standards of professionalism than the members, and all member concerns will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.
  • Contacting admin – Members may contact admin directly at any time, though be aware that there are only so many hours in the day for him to handle his workload both on and off the site, which has the potential to cause delays in getting a response. Issues that do not require his personal attention would be better handled by Staff Members solely because there is a larger pool of people who could provide timely assistance.

Private Message system

The private message (PM) systems provides a convenient way for members to communicate with each other and with the staff. Members should not seek help via PMs but rather in the open forums where the answers could benefit other members. PMs are governed by the TOS. Activities such as spamming, recruiting, or harassing are not permitted, and such PMs should be reported to the staff.

Profanity

Profanity has no place in a professional environment and is not tolerated on the site. The use of acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols is treated the same as using the actual words. The use of profanity will result in warnings and infractions.

Signatures

The TOS calls for signatures to not exceed 4 lines nor use text larger than size 3. Each and every line of a signature counts toward the 4 line maximum including spaces, quote tags, etc. Size 3 text should be used only sparingly, and in most cases, size 1 and 2 text are most appropriate.

The TOS also prohibits the use of external links in signature. “External” refers to sites other than RVRC.org. This policy is consistent with other larger forums. Links to other sites are not permitted.

Thread titles

The TOS calls for thread titles to be descriptive. This is both to benefit the original poster as well as others who are looking for info on similar topics. To keep things looking professional, thread titles should follow certain guidelines. Below are some tips for composing appropriate thread titles –

  • Titles should be both descriptive AND informative – “Help!!!!!!!!” is not a good thread title, and “Help with motor” is not much better. Something like “Need help with Castle Creations ESC setup.” conveys an appropriate level of detail.
  • Use consistent capitalization – Capitalization should be used for the first word and proper names only or every word but not a mixture of both, e.g. ” Need help with Castle Creations ESC setup.”
  • Use reasonable and appropriate punctuation – Exclamation points should be use sparingly; if they’re used judiciously, they effectively show emphasis, but overuse makes them pointless. Multiple punctuation marks are usually out of place, e.g. there’s no need for “?!?!?!?!?!” ever. Ellipses, “…”, often hurt the descriptiveness of titles by saying “Need help with…” rather than “Need help with whatever“. Finally, “Need help with whatever?” should not have a question mark; it’s a statement and not a question.

Spelling, grammar, capitalization

In order to effectively communicate, a minimum standard of spelling, grammar, and capitalization must be upheld. Threads that are so poorly written that it is difficult or impossible to decipher will receive warnings or infractions. Warnings/infractions will NOT be given for a random typo or a misused comma. The purpose of this is to ensure all posts easily communicate their point; we’re not trying to force everyone to be polished writers. Posts that are well written tend to get better results, though, so it is to everyone’s benefit to put some time an effort into this.

Responding to spam

Please do not respond to spam threads or posts as that only serves to draw more attention to the spam. Instead, use the report post feature that is described above to alert the staff to the spam.

Sticky threads

To keep the appearance of individual forums clean, sticky threads will be used sparingly and at the discretion of the Staff Members. Forums that have numerous quality resources will have a comprehensive list of resource threads. These threads will be titled Essential Threads will be stickied. All essential threads must be kept up to date, and outdated threads will be removed from the essential threads stickies. Members are encouraged to frequently check the essential threads stickies in their forums of interest.

Drama, bashing, etc.

In order to maintain a professional, friendly atmosphere, at no time will drama, bashing, or other such activities be acceptable. Posts and threads falling under this category should be reported, and the posters will receive warnings or infractions. Keep things constructive and polite, and things will run very smoothly. “White” text is not allowed.