Forum Netiquette

Complaints about breaches of the Netiquette should be emailed to moderator@imra.ie. In general, the moderator will not act without being contacted, except in serious or urgent cases.

The content of this document is structured in three parts:

1. Summary
2. Forum Etiquette
3. Forum Moderation

1. Summary

• Be respectful of all contributors

• Delay your response if you feel very strongly about a matter
• Substantiate your comments with objective information, wherever possible
• Don't be self-righteous - have an open mind and try to understand others' points of view
• Don't keep repeating the same point
• Be honest and truthful
• Once a final decision has been made by the committee, accept it and move on

2. Forum Etiquette

1. Formulate your post in a manner respectful of others

Comments should not be personal and people should not be criticized explicitly or implicitly.

Try hard to understand the opinions of others before reacting to them. If you strongly disagree with something, it is good practice to delay your input for 24 hours, or at least overnight, before responding.

Don't make comments that could be hurtful - remember that not everyone has a thick skin! And obviously, do not slander or libel anyone! It is a public forum.

Do not be sarcastic!

Assume best intentions on the part of all contributors. We're all part of the same association; it is our leisure pursuit. It is reasonable to assume that people are genuine in their opinions. If their opinion is different to yours, it may be that they have some experience that gives them an insight you lack. All the more reason to be respectful, even if you don't understand their point of view.

Don't give in to the temptation of ‘scoring points' in a debate.

2. Base your comments on objective information and facts

As far as possible support your opinion, suggestion or comment with objective information and facts; rather than expressing generalized and unsubstantiated opinions.

3. Avoid a self-righteous tone in your comments

Bear in mind that most situations that give rise to a debate are not amenable to a black and white solution. This has been a significant issue in some threads - there have been some inputs that appear to believe there is only one possible, right solution. Even though other, very experienced persons have different opinions.

Consider the possibility that your own opinion might be misplaced! Bear in mind that people with different opinions may well be IMRA members with very substantial experience of the hills and hill running (mountains and mountain running).

Remember that even if your opinion appears to be supported by others contributing to the Forum, this does not mean it is necessarily widely supported by IMRA members. Many members do not read the Forum regularly and even if they do, many choose not to get involved in discussions. The Forum is very democratic in concept but not necessarily in content.

In an association like IMRA, it is normal for there to be a huge range of opinions - nobody has a monopoly of wisdom. The Committee has to interpret the feelings of the membership more generally; and also use their extensive experience and collective wisdom to take the best decisions possible.

4. Avoid undue repetition of the same argument

There have been cases where an individual keeps repeating an argument made previously by himself/herself or others. One sometimes gets the feeling that they expect the argument to prevail by sheer weight of number of repetitions (if you hammer at the door enough times, it will eventually open). I am quite sure that they are well intentioned in their actions, and simply passionate in their opinions; however, this could certainly be interpreted as political behaviour which has no place in the Forum.

So, make your point and leave the field free to others. Don't expect others necessarily to adopt your opinion - there is nothing wrong with diversity of opinion and it is up to the committee to take decisions, not the Forum. Endless repetition just makes it difficult to follow the debate.

5. Be honest and truthful!

This obviously goes without saying

6. Accept committee decisions with good grace

We have elected the committee to run the association, and they expend very considerable time and energy doing so. They deserve our respect and support.

By all means disagree with decisions, or events, or plans, or policy, or strategy; but don't criticize the people who have formulated these or who have been involved in communicating or implementing them. And once final decisions have been taken there is no benefit in beating a dead horse - if you have heartfelt opinions on some matter and disagree with something that is going on in IMRA, the AGM is the place to get policy changed - put forward a motion or get yourself elected.

All comments on the forum should be respectful of the other parties involved, but this is particularly the case for committee members. Other people make a conscious choice to put their heads over the parapet of the forum, but committee members often have no choice but to get involved. Yes, they have allowed their names to go forward for election to the committee, but in reality this just means that they have had their arms twisted and have agreed to take their turn. There is never a queue of people to join the committee - let's not frighten potential members off.

3. Style of Forum Moderation as a Q&A (comments by previous Moderator on his appointment in August 2009 - one recent modification of minor substance relating to anonymous posts - opinions on this welcome to moderator at imra.ie))
   

Apart from the desirability of having a constructive debate in the forum, the IMRA committee has a responsibility to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the debate is appropriate, that nobody has reason to feel personally attacked, or to feel upset at comments made.

This is why there is a need for a Forum moderator.

Do we currently have major problems with the operation of the Forum?

No! I think it's a great facility for exchange of information and opinions and it works very well. I am reasonably active in reading Forum content, but I can only think of a handful of occasions when I felt a post to the Forum was so inappropriate as to warrant removal.

Why does the Forum need a Moderator?

The IMRA Executive Committee have a legal Duty of Care to the members; obviously this applies mainly to the safe operation of races, however, it could also be considered to apply to the content on the website managed by IMRA. So there is a need to provide for protection of members from obscene, abusive, threatening, bullying or otherwise inappropriate posts to the forum.

There are occasional cases (thankfully rare) where the good-natured, fun atmosphere of the forum is soured by an angry or unpleasant or generally nasty post. Sometimes the forum benefits from these being removed, in other cases, once the heat of the moment passes, the individual realizes the post was inappropriate and makes a further post to ‘fix' the problem.

The Moderator is responsible for managing these situations. That can mean deleting individual posts, even exceptionally whole threads, or it may just mean putting up a post reminding people of their responsibilities. Finally, occasionally I might have an off-line discussion with people who have put up posts that other members object to.

Why not get one of the Committee members to act as Moderator?

That is a viable solution, but the Committee have decided to appoint someone to act as Moderator who is independent of the Committee. That approach tends to reduce any suspicion that the Committee will remove anything critical of the Committee.

How long will the Moderator act as Moderator?

The role of Moderator is not a Committee role, therefore unelected. Nobody has said how long I should be involved, but I think myself that since I have been appointed by the committee, I should in principle exit the role when the new Committee takes up office, unless I am fired before that, of course!

What will be different about how the Forum will operate?

Nothing! Except that anyone who considers that a comment on the Forum is of an abusive, threatening or otherwise inappropriate nature, can contact me at moderator at imra dot ie to request its removal.

Will the moderator be continuously monitoring the Forum ready to pounce at the least infringement of the Netiquette guidelines?

No! I have never had email alerts from the forum and don't intend changing that. I will not be highly proactive at all, rather I'll depend on members to alert me to a problem as they see it. On the other hand if I see something on the forum that I feel warrants urgent removal, I may act on my own initiative.

What is the purpose of the Netiquette guidelines?

Simply to provide guidelines on what is best practice behaviour in formulating posts to insert on the Forum. I would encourage people to read them. (see also post of Feb 12 2009).

Will the Moderator not bring his own prejudices to bear on the role?

I hope not; my attitude is that I don't care whether I agree with a comment on the Forum or not, that has nothing to do with the role. However, in the event of any controversial comment arising, I will as far as possible consult with one or two other members for their advice before taking a decision about what to do with the comment, in order to help ensure a balanced approach.

What about the insertion of advertisements, and comments by non-IMRA members?

The frequency of these has been low up until now, and I am not aware of any particular problems related to them; so I am pretty relaxed about them at present.

Are anonymous comments allowed on the Forum?

In August 09, in taking up the (not very arduous) role of Forum moderator, I wrote as follows:

No. I don't consider anonymous comments to be acceptable. However, I wouldn't go to the trouble of removing them except in a situation where a member objected to a particular post, or it was obvious that the content was inappropriate.

This Q&A was reviewed and approved at the time, so on balance I am inclined to leave this as it is. Since August 09 I think I have deleted one anonymous post, although there have been others I didn't bother with. This is a somewhat ambiguous way of moderating but that doesn't trouble me. On the other hand if the Committee wants a more clear-cut approach, I will accept that. Other opinions are welcome (in the somewhat unlikely event that anyone actually reads this!).

What should IMRA members do to help the Moderator?

Read the Netiquette guidelines and implement them in your own posts on the Forum

Don't refer posts to me for removal unless you feel the matter is serious - I want an easy and quiet life!

Finally, I definitely do not have a monopoly on wisdom in relation to these matters. The above are my thoughts at present; I would be really grateful for comments and opinions from members, that will help me to adjust my approach to the role of Moderator to better serve the IMRA community.