Are You Ready for the New Guidelines and User Agreement System?

[Greg Bernhardt]

Tomorrow two things will be happening. First we will be revamping the Science Education Zone. New sub forums will be added with the intent of further categorizing homework threads.

The second thing we are doing is adding a user agreement feature for our guidelines. We have been aware from PF's beginning that many members don't read the guidelines, don't read all of them or don't re-read them after we update them. To help combat this problem we will enable a user agreement program. Basicly sometime tomorrow you'll find that before you can enter a forum the PF guidelines will be presented and give you the ability to read them completely. After reading the guidelines you will need to mark a checkbox titled "I have read and agree to these terms". Once checked you can continue to use the forums by the terms you agreed to. For a couple forums there may be two separate guidelines to read and agree to. Whenever the time comes to update the guidelines we will require you to read and check off again, so next time it happens you shouldn't be alarmed. What this does is ensures that everyone is on the same page and no one is surprised on how we run things.

Please let us know of any questions you have.

 

[Gokul43201]

Greg, what happens to all the old and current threads in the Sci Ed Zone ? Do they all get moved into the appropriate new sections, or do they go into some archive... ?

 

[quantumdude]

Whatever he decides to do with them, I'll fish out the active ones and put them in the right places. Mass moving of threads became so easy after the upgrade, even I can do it. :D

 

[ranger]

before you can enter a forum the PF guidelines will popup and give you the ability to read them completely.

If someone doesn't know about this, and they have a pop up blocker activated, would they be able to enter the forum?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If someone doesn't know about this, and they have a pop up blocker activated, would they be able to enter the forum?

Popup was a poor choice of word. It will simply be another webpage between you and the forums. It's not a popup. I've rephrased that in my first posts.

 

[JamesU]

won't this become bothersome?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

won't this become bothersome?

Why would it be bothersome? It's not as if we update the guidelines everyday.

 

[motai]

To help combat this problem we will enable a user agreement program. Basicly sometime tomorrow you'll find that before you can enter a forum the PF guidelines will be presented and give you the ability to read them completely. After reading the guidelines you will need to mark a checkbox titled "I have read and agree to these terms". Once checked you can continue to use the forums by the terms you agreed to. For a couple forums there may be two separate guidelines to read and agree to.

How about making users take a comprehensive quiz regarding all of the PF guidelines for that particular forum...

Only those who score a certain amount (say 90% out of 100%) will be able to enter and everyone else who fails will be denied entry.

Imagine how evil that will be if that thought were applied to all software's EULA agreements...

 

[ranger]

How about making users take a comprehensive quiz regarding all of the PF guidelines for that particular forum...

As if we haven't got enough things to study right now :tongue2:

 

[JamesU]

Why would it be bothersome? It's not as if we update the guidelines everyday.

oh, sorry. thi3s is what happens whan I don't read complete posts and may be why motai's idea is a good idea:uhh:

 

[Moonbear]

How about making users take a comprehensive quiz regarding all of the PF guidelines for that particular forum...

Only those who score a certain amount (say 90% out of 100%) will be able to enter and everyone else who fails will be denied entry.

Imagine how evil that will be if that thought were applied to all software's EULA agreements...

:rofl: Ooh, that's a good one. If the current approach doesn't work, we just might have to try it.

Though, we now have the ability to force habitual offenders to view the guidelines repeatedly...somewhat akin to writing, "I will not break PF Guidelines" 100 times on the chalkboard.

 

[Lisa!]

I agree with motai. That's what I said too but nobody cared!

PS How can you make sure they'll read them this time?

 

[matthyaouw]

PS How can you make sure they'll read them this time?

You can't, but when someone plays dumb about the rules, they now no longer have a valid excuse not to have read them

 

[Moonbear]

You can't, but when someone plays dumb about the rules, they now no longer have a valid excuse not to have read them

Exactly! Nobody can complain they didn't know or didn't see them or didn't know where to find them as an excuse for breaking a rule. We'll be able to see that they've checked off that they agree to them, whether they've bothered to read what they've agreed to or not.

This also gives us an easy way to ensure everyone is informed when we change rules, so all you law-abiding citizens aren't caught off-guard doing something that you just didn't know was no longer allowed.

For example, with all of the reorganization to the forum structure we've been doing, we've realized there are times when religion may need to be a part of an academic discussion, so have modified the policy on posting religious topics substantially to reflect that some discussion is allowed, but by no way does that mean "anything goes." That section should be read very carefully.

The homework policy also has a major change in it in that we actually have a forum-wide policy now instead of it being at the discretion of the mentors for the individual forums. We're hoping this will leave more time for helping and less time will be needed for housekeeping.

 

[Lisa!]

I think they have no excuse by now.

 

[mattmns]

So is this thing going on today? I have yet to see anything.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Maybe tonight, I ran into a little problem.

 

[CRGreathouse]

From the agreement:
"Advertisement of locations where copyrighted materials may be obtained will not be permitted."

Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems to broad to me. Wouldn't this mean that I couldn't post a link to or otherwise "advertise":
* A mathematician's preprint on his university's web site?
* A topic page on MathWorld?
* Just about anything?

What is the intent behind this phrasing?

 

[Evo]

There is a law against against it. I've seen where google was forced to remove links to websites that posted copyrighted material.

 

[ZapperZ]

From the agreement:
"Advertisement of locations where copyrighted materials may be obtained will not be permitted."
Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems to broad to me. Wouldn't this mean that I couldn't post a link to or otherwise "advertise":
* A mathematician's preprint on his university's web site?
* A topic page on MathWorld?
* Just about anything?
What is the intent behind this phrasing?

The intent here is that no one should point to a website that contains copyrighted material that is made available without consent. If someone copied a book and then put it up on a site, this would be prohibited.

On the other hand, many authors post pdf copies of their papers on their own websites. Physical Review, for example, does not prohibit authors reproducing the printed paper by such means. Citing such a website does not go against PF Guidelines.

Simple rule of thumb: if the material is being made public by consent of people responsible for such work, there's nothing wrong with pointing to such websites.

Zz.

 

[Moonbear]

That particular sentence is referring to advertising in the sense of the next section after it:

Advertising:
Advertising for personal gain of any kind is not permitted in any forum. Posting science website links will be permitted occasionally, but will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

 

[JamesU]

I haven't seen the rules and guidelines page yet...

 

[Moonbear]

Did you follow the instructions Greg provided earlier in the thread?