PlanetCatfish.com

I'm looking for some clay pipes for my pleco's, all sizes considered. Fish safe plastic would work aswell.

Thanks

Kev

hows about slate caves
plenty of pics on my group page
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/gro ... 763950734/

tonyp5467 wrote:how about slate caves

How about introducing yourself first?

Marc van Arc wrote:

tonyp5467 wrote:how about slate caves

How about introducing yourself first?

Kev,

I note your reporting of Marc's post with the comment "no need for this". Had a think about it and didn't respond immediately.

I think Marc is coming at this from the point of view of (IMO gently) suggesting tonyp5467 reads the guidelines for commercial posts which suggests those using the forum for selling introduce themselves first. Just linking to a restricted offsite page is a little discriminatory...

Jools

Jools,

That's fine Jools but couldn't he have done that in a PM? With a link to the rules?

The reason I put "no need for this" was because if he is asking the guy to at least have the courtesy to introduce himself before he try's selling stuff then at least have the courtesy to treat him with a bit of respect and explain the rules to him as he was a brand new member. Maybe the fact that he has only bothered to post once since the first reply he got was a negative one speaks for it's self. Not trying to cause problems here Jools but you expect a bit more tact from a mod.

Take it easy
Kev.

kev wrote:Jools,

That's fine Jools but couldn't he have done that in a PM? With a link to the rules?

The reason I put "no need for this" was because if he is asking the guy to at least have the courtesy to introduce himself before he try's selling stuff then at least have the courtesy to treat him with a bit of respect and explain the rules to him as he was a brand new member. Maybe the fact that he has only bothered to post once since the first reply he got was a negative one speaks for it's self. Not trying to cause problems here Jools but you expect a bit more tact from a mod.

Take it easy
Kev.

Hi Kev

A pm might make sense, but then if you consider the volumes we deal with, then it doesn't make sense. A pm is invisible, so others cannot learn from it. Guidance should be public in the main in my view.

I am not sure I would read more into posts or no more posts. This is an international forum and that is often forgotten, uk visitors, for example, form less than 15% of visitors. So, if you're selling Pleco caves in England via Facebook, ten posts gives roughly the same yield (from search engine perspective) as one especially on such a site as Planet.

Tact is often used but I would suggest more sparingly for commercial posters who don't bother to observe our guidelines. They are, after all, making profit from the bandwidth I pay for and the time that the moderators freely give.

I hope that makes sense and really happy to have the discussion, no trouble seen or sought.

Cheers

Jools

Jools,

I don't know the volume of PM's the mod's get, never really thought about it t be honest and I understand what you are saying that keeping it in the open forum educates everyone that may come across it and agree with it but there was no reason that the post could not have contained a link to the rules or a specific rule. I understand that commercial sellers who just jump on here to make a quick quid and not contribute anything in terms of help of info and using up bandwidth will start to get on yours and the mod's nerves at time's and I understand that the mod's give up their time free of charge (I'm a mod myself on a Stingray forum) but it does not mean they can't show a bit of respect and guidance, even if it is a commercial seller who is not going to contribute anything useful. Manners cost nothing as they say.

Take care
Kev.

kev wrote:Manners cost nothing as they say.

Hi Kev,

Yup, couldn't agree more. And in hindsight, perhaps Marc could have provided a link, when I first read it that wasn't my gut reaction however.

May I suggest we look at this from a different, particularity a non facebook users, view? The post looked pretty risky* and certainly took no account of the non FB thing. This could have been a link to anything and from someone who's just breezed in ignored several rules and linked offsite, I think Marc's response was proportionate and in keeping with the tone of the post.


Jools

* Generic content, no punctuation, case insensitive, same link in post as in sig line, first few posts etc. All classic forum spam features - really, I'm not making this up, it looked really dodgy.

Yeah I agree the link looked a bit dodgy and caution should be used with any link on a forum thread, that's why I searched him on Facebook first

Thanks for discussing it with me

Kev

kev wrote:Thanks for discussing it with me

Hi Kev,

Glad to. You took the time to report it, so it was the least I could do. I think it's important also that we do explain ourselves transparently as a lot of folks can get the wrong end of the the stick (i.e. think there's some sort of hidden agenda etc) when all we're trying to do is kept a firm hand on the tiller.

Cheers,

Jools

I think we also need to take into account that English is not a first language for many of the PC users and I often think that replies look a bit terse or abrupt simply because it's the nature of the poster's native language. I make allowances because of this.

If you take Marc's reply and stick a or a after it, I think it works both ways.