A friendly reminder... PLEASE READ! (moving, rated, complaints)

[gizmo980]

Since we've had to delete two threads for discussing moderation issues, I thought this was a good time to remind you all of the Terms of Service - which you agreed to upon registration. http://www.city-data.com/forumtos.html

I would like to highlight a few passages for you...

"This forum is strictly moderated."

"Stay on topic. Attempts to hi-jack threads by switching topics or going off topic will be deleted and infractions issued. This is not a chat room - when people hi-jack threads by posting messages that are of interest to only few people, the threads often stop being useful discussions of initial topics."

"All posts unrelated to local matters will be deleted or moved. Threads dealing with controversial topics that often degenerate into flame wars, such as politics or religion, may be moved, closed, or deleted by moderators at their discretion without any warning to the participants."

"Discussing moderator actions (deleting/moving/editing threads or posts) is not allowed in the public forums. General concerns should be addressed in About the Forum. Any particular issues will only be dealt with in Direct Messages sent to a local moderator. All complaints should be sent via DM to the senior moderators, Yac or markablue."

"The owners of City-data.com forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason."

There is no "censorship" going on here... we're just trying to maintain order, which doesn't work too well without rules & enforcement of these rules. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact myself or any other moderator with a DM. Thanks!

[gizmo980]

One more note... when a thread "disappears," it is still visible (in italics) to the moderators, and whoever originally started the thread. So it's not really lost in never-never-land, and therefore I can always refer to it when/if necessary.