Author Topic: Rules and positions update  (Read 34417 times)

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Offline Deep Toaster

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Rules and positions update
« on: December 09, 2011, 12:30:34 am »
After weeks of editing by the managers, the Omnimaga rules page has finally been updated. The new changes are designed to make the rules more comprehensive and readable. The ideas behind the rules are the same for the most part, but we still encourage everyone to take a look at the new rules.

Remember that although the new rules are currently available only in English, they apply to everyone—which means we'll need translators! In particular, we're looking for people fluent in Dutch, German, and possibly Portuguese to help translate the new rules into these languages. Please tell us if you can help!

Another major change we're making on the forums is that the groups/titles such as "Coder of Tomorrow" and "Anti-Riot Squad" have been rearranged. ARS members are now to have full global moderator status, like CoTs currently do. The CoT position will be changed to have moderator rights only on their own project subforums, and the right to post in News. Members can hold both ARS and CoT positions from now on. Look for these new changes soon!

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2011, 12:49:23 am »
I like the change, I wondered when this would happen since I heard about it a long while ago but then it seemed dormand. The rules seems to be pretty clear and I think "intolerance" being disallowed sums up what has always been my goal about Omni prior my retirement. More importantly, however, I like how the bit about a site free of hostility was kept and integrated in the new rules.


As for the group update this is a good move, since this will make it easier to accept new CoT members in the future I think (in the past, some applications were rejected because a member had good behavior in general and coding skills, but didn't seem mature/stable enough yet to moderate (partly a reason why I removed my own mod powers anywhere))

Will there be any special secondary group so people like Adriweb and Critor can post directly in news btw? Or is that already done via CoT as secondary group?
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 12:52:42 am by DJ_O »

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2011, 12:52:16 am »
Finally. I was beginning to wonder if this was ever going to be finished! But now it's done, and that is excellent. :)
I've voiced my support for this before, and agree with what's being done here.
Now to stand by to receive full mod powers (including the staff board, I hope) ;D
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2011, 12:54:32 am »
Yeah I got worried for a while. Also the rules are well layed out I think. The listing I had was patched update after update and it made it confusing, while the new one is more organized. The thing is the old rules made it seem like double posting was as bad as flaming, so when we were lax on double posting, some people might have thought we were lax on flaming too.

EDIT: Suggestion: Add the disclaimer about all programs/music being property of their respective owners

Offline aeTIos

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2011, 01:04:22 am »
I can translate to dutch.
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Offline Juju

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2011, 01:54:13 am »
I already volunteered to translate the rules in French :) They look pretty good and clear.

And the positions change is a rather good idea.

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2011, 01:58:27 am »
These new rules look much simpler. However, maybe it would be a good idea to include the section that was in the previous version of the rules about how long should users wait in order to avoid double posting.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 01:59:13 am by Jonius7 »
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Offline Michael_Lee

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2011, 02:02:18 am »
Huh.  I like these new rules.  They're definitely a lot cleaner then the old ones.
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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2011, 02:56:24 am »
I can help with the dutch translation if it's needed.

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Offline harold

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2011, 03:50:50 am »
Not clear enough yet - I assume "illegal content" refers to "content illegal in Canada"?
Probably better to explicitly state that.
But even if that's what it means, I (and I assume many others) have no clue what's illegal in Canada.

- is direct linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is indirect linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is describing how to find a specific piece of copyrighted material allowed?
- are movies & music exempt from those rules?
- will there be a black unmarked van parked in my street if I do it anyway?
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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2011, 03:55:41 am »
Thanks for the feedback guys, we'll update the rules with needed clarifications and suggestions :)

The rules for double posting should be the same and anything illegal under Canadian and American laws should be illegal, so yeah, no copyrighted material, such as the TI roms.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 04:00:29 am by Juju »

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2011, 03:57:37 am »
Not clear enough yet - I assume "illegal content" refers to "content illegal in Canada"?
Probably better to explicitly state that.
But even if that's what it means, I (and I assume many others) have no clue what's illegal in Canada.

- is direct linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is indirect linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is describing how to find a specific piece of copyrighted material allowed?
- are movies & music exempt from those rules?
- will there be a black unmarked van parked in my street if I do it anyway?
Unless things changed after my time as staff:

Linking to copyrighted songs hosted on Youtube is tolerated on Omnimaga, but providing download links to the songs or videos is not.

Discussing how to pirate softwares and asking how to is not allowed, same for linking to tutorials on it.

Linking to sites that primarily offers copyrighted content such as SNES ROMs is not allowed, although we tolerate links to sites that mainly provides freeware material. Eg TI-Planet has GB/GBC ROMs available in TNS format, but we still allow linking to other content on TI-Planet.

If you want to link directly to a copyrighted file, the file must be hosted directly on the company's website, such as TI-OSes on education.ti.com.

« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 03:59:24 am by DJ_O »

Offline harold

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #12 on: December 09, 2011, 04:05:36 am »
Ok thanks for clarifying so far, but I still have some questions..
How about linking to a torrent? A site where you can download that torrent? The SHA1 describing the contents of the torrent? A magnet url?
What if the work is copyrighted, but known not to be enforced by the copyright holder?
Does "just google it" constitute "discussing how to pirate software"? What if you use the name of a popular torrent site instead of google?
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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2011, 04:12:48 am »
In such case it's best to host the .torrent file on a non-torrent site, such as Mediafire.

As for unenforced copyrighted material/abandonware, we do not take chances. While the owner of the material might not care anymore, the hosting company on which Omnimaga is hosted could freak out and delete the entire site without warning, accusing us of providing illegal material, with no way to argue otherwise. An example was the TI RSA keys DMCA matter two years ago. If TI decided to send such DMCA notice to Omni's host instead of me directly (since I do not live in USA), then 1and1 (our hosting provider at the time) might have freaked out and simply shutted the site down, along with our domain name. And in 1and1 case, nobody in their staff speak English as their native language, so they would probably have misinterpreted the DMCA notice as something extremely dangerous for them.

As for pirating discussion, we generally tell people to google it.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 04:16:47 am by DJ_O »

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Re: Rules and positions update
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2011, 09:17:56 am »
Not clear enough yet - I assume "illegal content" refers to "content illegal in Canada"?
Probably better to explicitly state that.
But even if that's what it means, I (and I assume many others) have no clue what's illegal in Canada.

- is direct linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is indirect linking to copyrighted material allowed?
- is describing how to find a specific piece of copyrighted material allowed?
- are movies & music exempt from those rules?
- will there be a black unmarked van parked in my street if I do it anyway?
I think it's more what is illegal for the country for which the server is on. So basically what is illegal in the US. I would say Canada, but some things are legal in Canada that aren't in the US.
What DJ has said has all been applicable btw. Maybe we should add a subsection on some specifics but mention that it is not limited to those.

Thanks for pointing that out to us :)
/e