Updated rules for the Region Specific Deals

[Got Apex Moderator]

*UPDATE June 4, 2006*
Due to the high amount of traffic in this forum, it's important to follow these additional rules:

- No personal conversations. If your post is not intended for the entire audience, use PM or e-mail.
- No more than TWO 'confirmation' posts.
- No off topic posting within the threads.
- No cutting & pasting from radio station sites.
- Please try to stick to plain text postings. Large colorful fonts clutter up the forum & make it difficult to read.

If these rules are broken, you will be given a timeout and then a ban if they are broken again.

Thank you.

[dogopoly]

Re: - No more than TWO 'confirmation' posts.

Can I suggest that all posts within 2 minutes of the announcement of a radio code NOT be considered confirmations since the posters probably did not know that someone else posted.

Re: - Please try to stick to plain text postings. Large colorful fonts clutter up the forum & make it difficult to read.
I think that single lines with colorful text to highlight a code are okay. Can we keep these? (Like Paniolo gives in his posts.)

[Got Apex Moderator]

Posting a confirmation at the same time as someone else wouldn't be a violation. We will not set a time limit on duplicates - that will be up to GAM to enforce. I would recommend refreshing the page to double check before posting a confirmation.

Using different colors or fonts are OK for emphasis on a single word or phrase, but please keep it subtle.

Bold is subtle. Italics are subtle. A different color is subtle. Changing font size, style and color is annoying.

Thank you

- GAM

[Mydogboomer]

Please reconsider the confirmation issue. If a couple of newbies confirm a code, and ten minutes later (or any time for that matter) a senior trusted member notes that it hasn't been confirmed by a trusted member, then they would normally confirm. With this new rule, we are not allowed to.

The problem lies in the fact that many of us will try the code first before posting it. Or we hear it on the way to or from work. There are only a handful of members that I trust, and unless I see their confirmation, I won't use the code. With this new rule, you are not allowing us that confirmation. If the newbies post the code before trying it, than their posted would be one of the first ones, and since the trust factor hasn't been built up yet, I could be out the points because a trusted member hasn't had the chance to confirm.

Since the whole reason of these boards is for sharing codes, please let us do what it takes to make sure we don't use a poisoned code.

Thanks for reconsidering.

[Prisoner 24601]

No no no, I can step in and say something... I believe what they mean by "confirmation" is when people post codes about 30 seconds apart and we see the same thing posted twice by 2 different individuals. There is a difference between a minute or 2 when people do not refresh or 5 minutes later.

Me personally, if I see the clock has gone by and it's 2:55 and a code normally gets posted between 2:48-50, then I will hit refresh, if no one has posted it then I will. It's a cluttering issue more than anything.

[Got Apex Moderator]

Ok, to show that we are not completely inflexible, you may copy/paste the prize postings and winner lists. AS LONG AS: They are current (who cares about who won 2 days ago or what the prizes were then?) and only posted ONE time. No need for confirmation to those. If anyone has a question about the info, they can then go to the website and look themselves. We are trying to cut down on clutter, which is why we have made the new rules, but again, we aren't completely inflexible. Feel free to PM with any questions.

Also, about the confirmations. Yes, when several people post the confirmation or code within a minute or two, it's usually just because everyone is posting at the same time and pages haven't been refreshed, etc. That's fine. But as Prisoner 24601 said, please refresh the page before you post your confirmation or code and if no one else has, then go ahead. If you already see the code & confirmations, no need to post yours. Again, just trying to cut down on the clutter. But we do realize that occasionally that will happen and we won't worry about it when it does.

--Got Apex Moderator

[dogopoly]

Sounds good.

So in summary (tell me if I'm wrong):
* Post only relevant material (current codes, current prizes, current winners)
* Avoid using shocking text (too colorful, font too large, etc.) although a large, colorful font for ONLY the code is okay.
* Avoid duplicate information if it's clear that the information has already been posted by a trusted individual.

[sixpac shakur]

I wouldn't like large font for any words, codes or otherwise. I don't mind different colors as long as the colors are easy to see but large fonts get really annoying.

[Got Apex Moderator]

Sounds good.

So in summary (tell me if I'm wrong):

Slight revisions to yours:

* Post only relevant material (current codes, current prizes, current winners) in a brief and concise manner.
* Avoid using shocking text (too colorful, font too large, etc.) although an emphasis on individual words or phrases is okay.
* Avoid duplicate information if it's clear that the information has already been posted. (Sorry, GAM has no way of knowing who is a 'trusted individual' so that distinction will not be made.)

Thank you

- GAM

[bendogg]

Thanks for stepping in GAM. It's nice to see that we can all work together to achieve a functional, worthwhile site.

I think if we cut down on the quotes we would be in better shape here. How about the poster deleting everything but the first line of the post he/she is quoting. That way there is less clutter and us members can scroll back to the original post if we need to.

[LittleAJ]

What's the rule on posting prizes "coming soon"? I can figure out what's coming soon by myself. I'd rather just know if it's available now.

[dogopoly]

What's the rule on posting prizes "coming soon"? I can figure out what's coming soon by myself. I'd rather just know if it's available now.

This is tricky. I've seen places like Fox add things last minute, like movie passes that they seem to have forgotten about until two days before the preview, and they have to give them away THAT DAY. Since I usually only log in morning and evening, I may end up missing those unless someone notifies me. And if you try to get them AFTER they go up, you'll surely miss them.

However, if it's for a movie coming next week, I'll usually spot those before they go up.

...
And Jack seems to be putting their things up Sunday/Monday for the entire week, so a post of those things should only occur once per week...but we definitely don't need the entire text of the items..Give us the title and if we're interested, we'll look it up ourselves.

--
On a separate topic, I like to see the various events listed because i usually miss those on EVERY site, but those are usually extra points (except KYXY)

[kgsilvas]

What's the rule on posting prizes "coming soon"? I can figure out what's coming soon by myself. I'd rather just know if it's available now.

The "coming soon" stuff on many of these threads takes up a bunch of space, isn't all that helpful since I can read it on the stations' sites, and ends up seeming more like neffing than anything else.


Thanks GAM! The revised rules are making Region Specific Deals a better place!

[Prisoner 24601]

What's the rule on posting prizes "coming soon"? I can figure out what's coming soon by myself. I'd rather just know if it's available now.

I completely agree. I read it and then forget like 2 seconds after. A lot of times, when I'm entering the bonus codes, I simply see IF anything is available at that present time!

But definitely keep up the good work you mods are doing here! Must be a tough thing to control!

[sixpac shakur]

This needs a bump.

[kgsilvas]

A quick bump to remind us of the new rules. Several new users have appeared too, so this info should prove helpful to them too.

[LittleAJ]

So what's the story on stopping our post counts? We all get punished for the sins of a few? If everyone's following the rules like they should, then neffing shouldn't be a problem, right?

[Got Apex Moderator]

This is a new rule we're trying out to hopefully stem some of the useless posting that goes on. It has long been a tradition (5+ years) that post total here at G|A should not be used to measure the contribution of any members - rather, the quality & content of the posts are what count.

We actually went through a long phase where post count totals were not displayed for any member, because there were too many people who spent all of their time trying to boost their post count, and very few useful posts were being made.

In order to avoid going back to that rule, we are trying to impress on the newest members (a vast majority of whom are radio station posters) that post count is not a useful tool in determining a person's contribution here.

Hope that clarifies things for you!


- GAM

[tailgater]

This is a new rule we're trying out to hopefully stem some of the useless posting that goes on. It has long been a tradition (5+ years) that post total here at G|A should not be used to measure the contribution of any members - rather, the quality & content of the posts are what count.

We actually went through a long phase where post count totals were not displayed for any member, because there were too many people who spent all of their time trying to boost their post count, and very few useful posts were being made.

In order to avoid going back to that rule, we are trying to impress on the newest members (a vast majority of whom are radio station posters) that post count is not a useful tool in determining a person's contribution here.

Hope that clarifies things for you!

- GAM

I salute y'all for making this place a worthwhile site to go into each day. May y'all have a safe and beautiful weekend.
Thank you very much,
tg

[dogopoly]

I can't say I totally agree with the strategy of when posts count as useful, but geez, I'm just a dog--what do I know.