A Review of the Red Box Rules
Due to several inquires, I think a quick reminder of what the Red Box Rules, (RBR) do.
The RBRs in practice will be a very self leveling device. Those who want them will use them. Those who feel that it is an infringement on free speech will not. No one forces you to join a RBR discussion, and you may find that each author handles them differently. This will all shake out as they are used.
What does the RBR's mean to the author?: Complete control over the discussion they want to have. The author must mark the article RBR in the title and put the rules in the first comment, so that they can't be changed.By using the RBR you are telling your participants,I maintain the right to delete any comment at my discretion. Obviously, that isn't what you are going to write up as your RBR's so take care in setting your RBR parameters, (BTW, the CoC is still in effect to both the participants and the authors. CoC violations will be removed and saved as they have been in the past). To remove a comment, you may contact a mod by chat, email or on the article.
What does the RBR mean to the moderators?: In a RBR article the author is stating that, I maintain the right to delete any comment at my discretion. Obviously, that isn't what the author is going to write up as their RBR's, but in practice for the moderating team, the moment we are called in to delete, that is what they are going to do. No record of the comment will be made, since it will make the job impossible to do, and so no chance at restoration, as with other CoC violations. (BTW, the CoC is still in effect with RBR to both the participants and the authors. CoC violations will be saved as they have been in the past). Since moderators act only as a delete button, don't bother leaving your initials.
What does the RBR's it mean to the participants?: That is up to each of you to decide, and probably, this will vary from participant to participant and from author to author. Hence, it is one way that the RBR's become self leveling.
What does it mean to the rest of the NT family that doesn't want them? Almost nothing. If you don't like articles with RBR's or feel the RBR's are too strict, just avoid the those articles. You as the seeder/author are free to use or not use them in your articles. The CoC will still protect you in both regular articles and RBR articles and the mods will be keeping comments so that they are restorable. Again, in this way, it is self leveling.
Just an FYI for the members. If you would like to look at other discussions on the subject, please join the RBR group.
Disgusting they totally destroy one of the great guiding principles that made this a fair site. Nobody participating in a discussion should be able to moderate the discussion. They are not fair and balanced and they are not enforced in a fair unbiased fashion.
I have to agree, we have an individual here that does many RBR articles and then says whatever he wants and if you don't agree publicly with his opinion he requests deletion of your comments. But, good point in saying, well, no point in bothering with that article, the author just wants his own personal echo chamber.
First a review of what we had at NV: The author could delete at will. You could complain to Tyler (at the time most of us were there), but more often than not, nothing was restored. This was a huge issue to me, since there was one particular author who would delete anything I said. Hence, why this site was designed differently.
Which now brings us to the RBR's. Yes, it can be abused. Yes, it can cause an echo chamber. But if an author does that, then I wouldn't participate in that article. On the other hand, I have used them, when I don't want to be cursed at, and no problem. So the question becomes what are reasonable RBR's. Well, in the Redbox Rules group found here: you will find this discussion: . In there you will see, that moderators can look at a comment and see if it meets the RBR. If they feel it does, they are under no obligation to remove it. Hence, why the RBR.s are written in the first comment, so it can't be changed at the whim of the author.
As some of you may know, I recently had a bit of a run in about this issue. I went back to the RBR group and found the above discussion, and had the on topic comment re-printed. No one system will please everyone, but we try our best to meet everyone's needs.
This is getting way to complex...Get me outta this box.
Okay, so as I understand it:
1. RBR has to be in the Title Line of the Article
2. The Red Box Rules must be stated in the very first comment of the article, so they can't be changed, added or modified later.
3. When an RB Rule is violated then the Author needs to contact a moderator to get the violating comment deleted. (The author doesn't actually have the ability to delete comments him/herself).
Is that about it?
Yes.
Just to clarify this:
3. When an RB Rule is violated then the Author needs to contact a moderator to get the violating comment deleted.
The author CONTACTS the MODERATOR(S) by RED FLAGGING the comment. No further contacting of the Moderators or R.A. should be needed other than that. Which is what I have been told.
If I am incorrect about that, please let me know. Thanks!