A Friendly Reminder for All Community Members of Our Posting Guidelines: Please Read

By AppleVis, 18 May, 2023

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Dear AppleVis community,

We have always embraced a "light touch" approach to moderating our site, placing our trust in the incredible individuals who make up our community to maintain a positive and welcoming atmosphere.

Recently, however, we have noticed a significant increase in off-topic comments and posts that contribute little or nothing to the conversations at hand. We understand and accept that a certain degree of this kind of interaction can foster a natural and inclusive environment. However, we are aware that the recent level of these types of post has become a source of frustration and distraction for many members, hindering meaningful engagement and disrupting the overall experience.

Moreover, we have observed a few individuals repeatedly reiterating the same points or inserting certain references in multiple posts. While we appreciate their enthusiasm, these actions can become tiresome and distracting, preventing others from fully participating and benefiting from the discussions.

In some cases, we have reached out privately to individuals, requesting them to reduce the frequency of such posts. Unfortunately, we were unable to contact some members due to inactive email addresses on record. Consequently, we felt it important to issue a general reminder to the entire community regarding our posting guidelines. These guidelines are crucial for maintaining a respectful, inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome.

You can find our complete posting guidelines here. For your convenience, we have also included them below:

We firmly believe that our guidelines are fair and reasonable, and it is crucial to ask everyone to respect them. By doing so, we can foster a constructive and focused community where we support and assist one another. We genuinely appreciate your understanding and cooperation in creating a safe and welcoming space for all.

The AppleVis Editorial Team

What are the General Guidelines and Rules for Posting to the AppleVis Website

The AppleVis Editorial Team consists entirely of volunteers who generously contribute their time for the betterment of the community. The maintenance of the AppleVis website requires considerable time and effort, and moderating posts or resolving disputes detracts from other essential responsibilities. Accordingly, please take a few minutes to read and respect the guidelines posted below.

  1. All content must relate directly to the use of Apple apps, hardware, or services, or to third-party apps or accessories that can be used with Apple hardware.
  2. Before starting a new forum topic, we recommend that you use the site’s search facility to check if a similar topic already exists or if the question that you are about to ask has previously been asked and answered.
  3. Please use clear and descriptive subject lines for your forum posts. Doing so will significantly increase the likelihood that others will read your post and answer any questions that you may have asked.
  4. Please only post questions about a single topic in any new post to the forum. For example, do not ask a question about using an iOS app and another question about Bluetooth keyboards in the same post. This will improve your chances of getting appropriate and helpful answers and also make discussion easier to follow.
  5. Please do not post replies which add no value to the existing discussion. For example, if somebody has asked for information on a specific app, replying to say that you have not used that app is of no value and only serves to get in the way of what might be helpful answers. Additionally, if someone asks a question about how to do a particular task, replying to the post and saying to do an internet search to find the answer is not at all helpful.
  6. Please stay on topic. Always stick to the original topic that was stated by the person who started the forum thread. If you have a suggestion or comment that is on a different topic, please start a new thread.
  7. Please be polite. The AppleVis forum is designed to build a positive, thriving community. Please give the same consideration and tolerance to others that you would like to receive from them. It is perfectly okay to have a differing viewpoint from someone else; please remember, though, to express your views in a respectful manner. Posts that are deliberately insulting to other members of the AppleVis community will be edited and/or removed.
  8. No flaming. Flaming is the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting. These types of posts are absolutely not allowed and will result in the immediate removal of the offending post.
  9. No trolling. Examples of this type of behavior include:
    1. Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums.
    2. Causing disturbances in forum threads, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, insulting other posters.
    3. Making non-constructive posts.
    4. Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish.
  10. Please do not post inappropriate or offensive content. This includes posting messages with insults or profanity; or messages which are religiously, racially, or sexually offensive. These types of posts will result in the post being edited or removed and could also lead to your posting privileges being revoked.
  11. Please do not spam. Repeated posting of a message (or very similar messages) multiple times is considered spamming and is not welcome here. When making a post, please post it only one time in the most appropriate forum category that fits the topic of your post. Multiple posts will be unpublished or deleted, and continued abuse of this guideline may result in having your posting privileges revoked.
  12. No advertising. The AppleVis Forums are not to be used for trading/swapping or selling/advertising products or services. If you wish to post information about a product or service that you believe would be of interest to our community and falls within the scope of the website, please contact us beforehand for our approval.
  13. Discussion of crowd-funding campaigns is permitted, but any posts must satisfy the specific guidelines set out here.
  14. Please do not use AppleVis to promote or discuss your own website, podcast, YouTube channel, mailing list or other online resource.
  15. Please do not post press releases unless the intention is to inform or contextualize a new or existing discussion; and the press release is only part of your post. A press release posted to do nothing more than promote a product or service will be removed.
  16. Please do not post illegal content. For example, no posts about the illegal use of licensed software.
  17. To keep your identity and personal information safe and to keep from being added to a spam distribution list, it is recommended that you not include email addresses or other personal information in your posts.

We try to avoid overt moderation, but if people stray outside the reasonable requests listed above, then their postings will be removed by our Editorial Team. Those who persistently offend will be banned from using the website.

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Comments

By Bruce Harrell on Saturday, May 27, 2023 - 03:54

Hi. I hope you never have any problem contacting me, and I hope you never have any [problem contacting anyone on Applevis.com ever. Perhaps your web designer could include an annual revalidation of current email address? I know I've been having trouble with my google and iCloud email addresses lately, but you can always reach me at my mind.net address. Maybe once a year we could be prompted by the web system to confirm our email address is still valid? Or an email could be send automatically to all members requiring a validating reply? I believe this can all be done without human time once it's set up properly.

Just a thought.

Bruce

By Brad on Saturday, May 27, 2023 - 03:54

I've been suggesting to dominic that he learns to touch type but should have probably left it out of the forum posts and will do so in the future.

By Panais on Saturday, May 27, 2023 - 03:54

he is still a kid after all, and speaking for myself, I have seen him grow through his posts the last month or so. I am not suggesting someone said the opposite, this is just my humble opinion.
Having said that, I can’t see how this post has anything to do with Dominic, and it’s not me being blind. :)
Furthermore touch typing is so so so slow. I am always dictating and correcting the mistakes afterwards.

By Jimmy V on Saturday, May 27, 2023 - 03:54

hope this site is staying around . It's a great place to learn and find information about apple products and apps related to the blind. I'm very worried about the future of this site. Hope it can be saved. I have an idea. Every 90 days, the web system should send out an email to see if the email address is active. Those that don't respond, on attempting to log in be asked to update the email on file

By Dominic on Saturday, May 27, 2023 - 03:54

Some other people have gotten off topic in some certain topics on this site, I thought I might of been one of them, but this barely has anything to do with me, especially with the whole touch typing thing