Forum Guidelines

Please take a moment to read through these guidelines. There is some useful information about how to use the forums, our guidelines for behavior, and how to set up your account and profile.


THE RULES AT A GLANCE

  1. No appeals from protest hearings Do not post the facts from a protest hearing to get a second opinion. You'll get a serious demerit.
  2. Don't post any material from a protest hearing This applies to diagrams. You will get a nasty note from us.
  3. No personal insults. This is self explanatory. You'll get only one warning.
  4. No fake names. We have a zero tolerance policy. Do it once and you're out.
  5. No email or telephone numbers Don't post an email address or telephone number.
  6. Don't spam. We have a zero tolerance policy. Do it once and you're out.
  7. Contribute to the discussion. You'll get a friendly warning for derailing a topic and if you do it again you'll be suspended.
  8. No religion or politics. This is not the place. These are not to be discussed on these Forums ever – they start too many fights.

THE RULES IN MORE DETAIL

This is not the place to appeal your protest decision

Protest hearings are final if not properly appealed. We will not debate the quality of any decision here. There is no forum to better understand the facts of your protest than the protest hearing. Looking to relitigate those facts outside that hearing is a fools errand at best. If you have a "hypethetical" question about how a rule applies, you will get a response here based on those "hypethetical" facts. Don't extropolate that to a protest hearing and conclude the protest committee made a mistake. You posted facts and got an answer. That is all. Your protest hearing is over. If you don't like the outcome, that doesn't mean the decision was incorrect. If you think the decision was incorrect, please appeal it to the proper appeals committee.

Don't post material from a protest hearing

While most are not private, there are elements of privacy inherent in a protest hearing. We can't know what is public and what may be private, so just don't post it here. It may be convenient to post a diagram, but when we see that happen, we are suspicious that you want to relitigate a hearing. Just don't post any material from a hearing. Recreate the diagram if you want to post a question about it.

We require civility.

The RRS.org Forums are intended to allow for discussing the racing rules and related matters. Conduct yourself more like you were in a protest hearing than at the bar. Personal attacks are unwarranted and not permitted. You will be only given one warning. And you really should be asking yourself, does RRS 69 apply here?

We only want one of you please

We only allow one account per person please. If you lose access to your account, there's no need to create another one. Instead, try resetting your password on the login page, or contact admin@racingrulesofsailing.org for help.

Use your real name.

Remember that this is a transparent forum, so please don't try to hide your identity. Your creditability is important to the discussion.

Don't post email addresses or telephone numbers.

This is the internet and the forums are public so posting personal information will lead to spam or worse. It's always a good idea to not post your email address or telephone number. And absolutely don't post someone else's personal information.


Remember, everyone was new once

Whether you’re after a quick answer to a question or you’re looking to bounce around ideas, there are certain things that you need to know if you want to make the most of these forums.

It's not just about sticking to the rules; it’s about knowing how to find and use the resources that are on offer in order to make the most of your experience. Before posting a new question, look at the relevant rules and associated cases. Review the recent posts. Make an effort to research before you post.

But remember, everyone was new once. The whole point of these forums is to learn, so for that very reason there is no such thing as a dumb question. If reading the rules and cases hasn't helped, just ask and then know that hundreds of people in the future will benefit from the answers that you elicit.


Contribute to the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the discussion or might detract from its usefulness, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us and members all over the world. We want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said. If you feel compelled to attack someone, just move on. Save your energy for something you value and that won't get you kicked off the forum.

Please spend some time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own. You’ll have a better chance of understanding how to interact on the forum and you'll start recognizing others who share your perspective.


Post Quality

In order to try to maintain a level of quality in discussions here, we ask that you strive to ensure that each post you make is:

  • Meaningful – says something of substance or raise an important question.
  • Relevant – on topic and helpful. Please don't give advice unless requested.
  • New – something that hasn’t already been said in the thread.
  • Humble - it is just your opinion after all.
  • Critical Commentary - it is easy to get pulled into a discussion where you feel compelled to disprove another's assertion or criticize their opinion. However, you should first:
    1. Attempt to re-express the other's position clearly, vividly, and fairly.
    2. List any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
    3. Mention anything you have learned from them.
    4. Only then are you permitted a rebuttal or criticism.

Rather than posting “Yes” or “Agreed”, use the Up Vote button on the left. It is there as a shorthand to record your agreement or disagrement with the Post or Comment

Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, start a new Post. If you have something to say that is off topic, don't divert the conversation.

The official language here is English and all communications should be in English please. That's not because we don't respect other languages, but because it's the language we use in common for the racing rules of sailing.


Spam? There's No Way I'd Do That!

We're sure it’s unintentional, but sometimes spam is in the eye of the beholder. You might have just written what you consider to be the most amazing blog post. You’ve signed up to a forum with the sole intention of sharing it with as many people as possible, because that’s the kind of generous person you are. Now consider it from our point of view. We see a new member come on board and their very first post happens to be a link back to their own site. That, my friends, looks very much like spam... and we have a zero tolerance policy.

Spammers may be warned, you will be banned at our discretion.


What Can't I Say?

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
  • Respect each other. Don’t harass or troll anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
  • No politics or religion. Nothing starts a fight faster than politics or religion, so we don't allow those discussions.
  • Keep personal information private. All posts in the forums are easily found via search engines, so unless you're willing to expose your information to the world, please do not post telephone numbers, e-mail addresses etc in your posts.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — but please avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself whether you'd publicly say it on camera.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.


Other things we ask you not to do

Don't copy and paste whole articles. Don't post content from other sites. If you want to discuss an article you read somewhere, post a link. (It may also be copyright infringement if you post the whole lot.) Make sure to provide enough input of your own to get a decent discussion started. For example, explain why you liked or disliked the article.

However, this is not an invitation to post a link to your own works. You are welcome to write about a topic that interests you and start a discussion, but not to promote something you've posted elsewhere. The content should be unique and not self-promotional.

Social bookmarks. Don’t ask for votes on social bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, or Facebook. We consider this self promotion and it's not OK.

Piracy, adult sites, and illegal content. No sharing of pirated material, please. It is not okay. Likewise, don’t post any work (even a small piece of it) unless you have express permission from the owner or creator of the piece or work. You’ll be responsible for copyright infringement -- not us. It is better if you link to it. Obviously, links to adult sites are not allowed.

Affiliate links, coupons, and offers. Affiliate links, coupons, offers are not welcome. DO NOT:

  • Post coupon codes, discounts, offers
  • Ask for coupons, codes, discounts, invitations to services, etc.
  • Post affiliate links.

This is a serious offense that will often earn you an infraction or banning.


Advertising or Soliciting Services

Advertising and soliciting services is in violation of our self-promotion policy. These forums are for friendly discussion on racing rules related topics not for commercial gain.


Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong Forum.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
  • Rather than posting “Yes” or “Agreed”, use the Vote Up button.
  • Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, create a new Post.

REMEMBER: Search before you post: Nothing fills a forum up with rubbish faster than questions that have already been asked and answered many times over. Please search carefully before asking a question to see if it already exists.


What Can I Do to Make You Like Me?

Our ultimate goal here is to help people learn in a welcoming environment that inspires high confidence. There are a few easy things that you can do to help us achieve that.

Be kind. No one likes a bully. When people from every walk of life get together, there are likely to be differences of opinion. That’s okay—it’s what makes the place interesting, but it also means that on occasion you might just have to walk away. Allow for a difference of opinion. We don't tolerate name-calling or personal insults.

Be patient. Forums attract beginners, and that means beginner questions. You’ll likely come across questions that you think are stupid, but what goes around comes around. Treat people how you'd like us to treat you.

Be polite. If someone rubs you up the wrong way, reply to the content of their post rather than the tone. Flaming someone in these forums will get you kicked off immediately.


Like Us Back

The conversations we have here set the tone for officials and competitors. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting and respectful place to be. Our aim here is to create an environment that is welcoming, but most in importantly, is useful to officials and competitors.

Every community needs growth – not just to keep things interesting, but to ensure survival. You can help us to keep this community vibrant by spreading the good word.


If You See a Problem, Tell Us

We are unable to look at every post and comment, so we rely on you to help out. You can do that by alerting us of anything you see that might be inappropriate. It might be a post that’s rude, it might be spam or maybe it's just in the wrong forum.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it by clicking the Report button (you must be signed in). We will review it and action will be taken, either automatically or by our intervention.

In order to maintain our community, we reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. We try to preview new posts but we take no responsibility for any content posted by the community. You are responsible for what you post.


The Internet is Forever

Before you post, please think carefully about what you post. Occasionally people make silly mistakes and we’ll do everything we can to help you out, but we simply lack the time to edit hundreds of posts and comments, and heavy edits or post deletions compromise the flow of a discussion. So please, think first.


Closing or deleting your account

If you don’t wish to participate in the forum anymore:

  1. Turn off all the e-mail notification options in your profile
  2. Stop posting

We do not delete accounts.


Help!

All this stuff is very interesting, but it doesn't answer my question. How can I get some help?

No worries. You can send an email to admin@racingrulesofsailing.org and we'll get back to you.


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