Forum rules and guidelines

[Spogg]

Hi guys!

I decided it would be good to have a set of forum rules and guidelines. On occasions I’ve had to do some “real” moderation (without any written rules for reference), rather than just policing spam.

This is not my forum, this is our forum, so please comment and contribute and we’ll get something sorted out between us.

I’ll kick off with this:

1. Please be polite and respectful at all times. Treat others like you would want to be treated yourself.
2. Any comment which is, or appears to be, a personal attack will be deleted by a moderator.
3. Where there is a technical disagreement please supply reference to external links to support your statements, rather than simply claim authority.
4. Where a topic for discussion is opinion-based, rather than verifiable, it is better to agree to disagree than start a flame war.
5. Any examples posted here will be considered to be shared for others to make use of, unless otherwise explicitly stated. You must respect any copyright or licensing restrictions imposed by the author.
6. Never remove any original author identification from any schematic or module posted here.
7. Many schematics and modules have no author identification. It is not acceptable to alter them in any way to make it appear your own work.
8. The sub-forum User Examples is for schematics and modules, rather than exported plugins and executable which nobody can analyse and learn from. If you wish to share such items, providing they are relevant to Flowstone, you should use the General sub-forum.
9. New technical questions should also be asked in the General forum, unless the question relates to a schematic already posted in User Examples. The exception is technical questions relating to DSP, in which case please post in the DSP sub-forum.
10. Links provided for websites, products and services will only be accepted if the target relates to Flowstone in some way, otherwise it will be judged to be spam and deleted. Please post your appropriate links in the General sub-forum.
11. Please make use of the Off Topic sub-forum for anything not related to Flowstone. For example your music, or anything that you think might interest some in our community. If your creative work makes use of Flowstone, then it’s fine to post in the General sub-forum, with details explaining how Flowstone contributed.
12. Any member may contribute to any topic. Contributions should be made with the intention of helping and should be viewed as such.

So, comments and contributions please!

Cheers

Spogg

Edited 21.1.18: No. 10 for better clarity.
Edited 22.1.18: No 11 for creative work using Flowstone.

[Phil Thalasso]

Hello Mr. Spogg, hello anyone else,
I joined the forum sometime last year after I got Flowstone as a birthday present
from my wife. It was Kevin Brown who got me into that, although he did warn me
that Flowstone is addictive and yes, it is.
Unless I'm out of town I do come to the forum on a daily basis. I do appreciate
everything that is shared, however, at the time being I don't feel that I have
anything noteworthy to contribute yet.
I do understand from recent experience that some rules may be necessary to keep
people from throwing words at each other, although I must admit, that I don't like
rules. I am working in a highly regulated environment, often involving legal things
and what I often wish for is just plain decency in people.
That said, I think your rules are fair enough and personally I can live with them, but
for one thing and that is "copyright". Please let me explain why.
There are people who contribute to this forum on a very regular basis. I look at their
work, try to understand it - I often do not - and scrape whatever code or schematic
is interesting to me and put that in my tool box or into my production notes.
Over the last half year or so I have accumulated a lot of modules that I just simply
cannot attribute to anyone anymore. I would never claim any idea to be mine that
isn't. But I just simply don't recall whether oscillator this or that is actually the
work of you, dear Mr. Spogg, Martin, Bob, Kevin or whoever.
Since you are asking for comments, I dare to suggest, that there should be some
general exculpation clause for folks like me, who didn't keep track of whom they nicked
what from. Like a general notice: "None of the code is mine".
Example: Martin posted a very helpful guide on i.a. DSP conditionals. I used that code to
build a mixer that does some rather interesting things (it's really crap, which is my
fault, not Martin's). That is one instance I remember. There are, however, many cases
in which I just simply don't know who the originator was. I often copy code into a
text-file and that's it.
Before I come to an end, please let me add that I do very much appreciate all the
effort and heavy thinking that goes into whatever people share in the forum.
When I'm ready to give something back I will, that point hasn't been reached yet.

Regards
Phil

[martinvicanek]

Hey Spogg, thank you for the initative. I think your 12 rules proposal is excellent! I am hesitant to add to it, because the longer the text, the fewer people will actually read it. So my suggestion would be to not exceed the number twelve.

I don't quite understand item 10: to me it sounds like an invitation to post spam in the General sub-formum.
Surely that is not intended, is it?

Oh, and thank you for taking care of this place, you are doing a fantastic job!!!

[BobF]

Many thanks Spogg,

To bad it has to be written, all should know these rules already, but remember we are only humans.

BobF.....

[tulamide]

I agree with Martin on all points, incl. the confusion about (10)

I would take it as it is, make it sticky and we can follow the guidelines.

[Spogg]

Thanks for the comments so far guys

@ Phil Thalasso: On very rare occasions we’ve seen posts made that included a copyright notice from the author, or a GNU (GPL) license. Point no. 5 addresses this and I intended to convey that when there is no such notice provided, the module or schematic will be assumed available for use freely and in any context. I see no need for everyone to include a disclaimer in every project they make. We all do what you do and I’d be surprised if anyone ever remembers where all their stuff came from.

@ Martin and tulamide: Yes I can now see the ambiguity in my text! I’ve re-worded it in the first post for clarity:

10. Links provided for websites, products and services will only be accepted if the target relates to Flowstone in some way, otherwise it will be judged to be spam and deleted. Please post your appropriate links in the General sub-forum.

@BobF: I agree it would be nice if I hadn’t come to the point of feeling the need to do this. We are indeed all too human (as Nietzsche said) and some need more guidance than others.

Any more comments welcome!

Cheers

Spogg

[rocknrollkat]

Hi Spogg,
Thank you for taking the trouble to codify some guidelines.
I have been accused of breaking rules that frankly did not exist.
Whenever I make a comment about something technical, I gladly provide links to relevant technical papers, articles, etc.
I always scan code to find an author, rarely do people sign their work.

---- 11. Please make use of the Off Topic sub-forum for anything not related to Flowstone. For example your music, or anything that you think might interest some in our community.

Since I will be writing more music and producing with Flowstone created plugins of my own design, shouldn’t this music be considered ‘General’ rather than 'Off topic'?
I would think 'General' to be more appropriate, since the end result of these Flowstone creations is, presumably, to create music.

Thanks again for taking the time to create these guidelines.
I will copy and paste them onto my desktop, let me suggest that others do the same.

ROXY

[Spogg]

---- 11. Please make use of the Off Topic sub-forum for anything not related to Flowstone. For example your music, or anything that you think might interest some in our community.

Since I will be writing more music and producing with Flowstone created plugins of my own design, shouldn’t this music be considered ‘General’ rather than 'Off topic'?
I would think 'General' to be more appropriate, since the end result of these Flowstone creations is, presumably, to create music.

You make a good point Roxy.

If you make some music or other creation which showcases stuff made with Flowstone then it’s similar to making and sharing a plugin without the schematic.

I’ve changed item 11 in the top post:

11. Please make use of the Off Topic sub-forum for anything not related to Flowstone. For example your music, or anything that you think might interest some in our community. If your creative work makes use of Flowstone, then it’s fine to post in the General sub-forum, with details explaining how Flowstone contributed.

Cheers

Spogg