Discussion guidelines - The rules for our content

A friendly and respectful tone should prevail on our pages. For this, the following discussion guidelines must be observed:

Rule no. 1: Netiquette

• For many, but unfortunately not for all, a matter of course: there should at least be time for a greeting (e.g. "Hello" or "Hi" etc.) before one's own oh-so-important, oh-so-urgent concerns are dumped on the forum floor. It's a sign of respect. [Note from @Biber. I'm sorry that I have to describe something like this in such detail in an adult forum. But the daily new posts show the necessity.]
• A name or username under the text is just nice.
• CAPITALIZATION is interpreted as shouting in a forum, just like in an e-mail, and is therefore considered rude.
• Appropriate language should be used. Profanity, lewdness or other content that may be considered offensive is prohibited.
• Threats, insults, personal attacks, trolling (useless or derogatory comments that have nothing to do with the purpose of this platform) and flame wars etc. are prohibited. Anyone who is attacked in this way should not respond, but should report the post in question to a moderator or administrator.
• Private disputes are to be settled outside the forum, e.g. via internal PM ("personal messages") or in the chat (if available).

Rule no. 2: Posts and comments

• Please use the search function and help before creating new posts.
• Do not post any forbidden content.
• Do not post twice!
• Assign correct category tags to your posts, this will help users to find similar content.
• Choose meaningful and topic-related headings for your posts.
• Formulate your questions as clearly, understandably and precisely as possible. Try to make your request clear and easy to read.
• Be very sparing with "!" and "?" and underlining, e.g. Urgent, Urgent, Important. This will not speed things up and will only annoy users.
• Posts and comments should be written in the language chosen for the post if possible. Pay attention to the generally accepted rules of the respective language in your posts and comments.
• And - as a matter of course - no spam, no chain letters.
• If necessary add images (screenshots etc.) to illustrate the problem. They must not be larger than 4 MB.
• Provide necessary problem-specific information (operating system, service pack, software version, manufacturer and device names, etc.).
• Do not post two comments one after the other, but use the EDIT function or ask a moderator to delete or merge the comment.
• Please always post information with your own comment or opinion (and always include the source, this also applies to KI generated content).
• Quotations should be recognizable as such, do not forget to cite the source.
• As soon as a solution has been found, the contributor should mark his question and the comments that have contributed to the solution as "solved". If not clear from the thread history, the path leading to the solution can be described in a corresponding comment. This also applies to self-discovered solutions.
• The moderator can also close a post or comment or mark it as "solved" after a reasonable amount of time and/or if there is no response from the contributor, if it appears to have been answered from a technical point of view or if there is no further interest in following it up.
• If you find a thread with wrong category tags - this also applies to double postings - please report it to the responsible moderators. They can then move or delete the post.
• No takeovers. Do not try to take over posts by other authors with their questions on other topics. Instead, open a new post of your own.
• For all IT topics that cannot be tagged with one of the listed categories, there is the "Off Topic" area. Do not create posts which have no relation to IT.
• Please avoid unnecessary references to search engines in your comment. If the reference to a search engine is necessary, provide the appropriate search terms in the same post. However, always assume that the author of the post has already used a search engine.
• Please do not jump to conclusions in your comment, e.g. "Ask someone who knows about it", "If you have no idea about the subject" or similar. In most cases, you don't know all the terms of the post. Here too, politeness should be the first commandment.
• Use the internal text formatting to better present and structure your content.

Rule no. 3: Shared links

• Do not enter a link twice.
• Do not publish forbidden links.
• Tag your links with matching categories.
• Only IT-related links are allowed.
• The netiquette also applies to the comments and ratings of the links.
• Rate a link only once.
• No links to illegal downloads are allowed.

Rule no. 4: Advertising

• Commercial advertising in posts and comments is prohibited, this also applies to any headers and footers.
• The PN system ("Personal Messages") may not be used for commercial advertising.
• Advertising by entering a homepage and a corresponding comment in the member profile is permitted.
• Information about banner advertising on administrator.de can be found here.
• Adding commercial job offers is only permitted in the "Job exchange" section.

Rule no. 5: Prohibited content

Each user is responsible for the legality of the content he or she provides. All content that is illegal or is considered obscene, pornographic or otherwise offensive is prohibited. This applies in particular to the following content:

• Calls or instructions to commit crimes (e.g. How to crack software or a user account).
• All illegal content and links to it, i.e. in particular texts or images that violate the Criminal Code, the Narcotics Act, the Medicines Act or the Weapons Act, that glorify war or violate human dignity.
• Content that is not approved for all age groups in accordance with youth protection regulations, i.e. in particular content that has been included in the list of media harmful to minors, content that is obviously capable of seriously endangering the morals of children or young people, and content that is capable of impairing the development of children and/or young people or their education to become responsible and socially competent individuals.
• Statements that are directed against personal rights, religious and political views or other freedoms of third parties or are otherwise discriminatory in nature.
• Copyright-infringing content and instructions for the creation of such content.
• The publication of personal data of other members of the forum without their express consent.
• Criminal offenses within the meaning of the German Criminal Code can of course also be prosecuted, reported and punished outside the forum.
• References or links to illegal downloads.
• Please note: We generally recommend that you never publish your own personal data on websites (not even on Administrator.de). Anonymize your data before you post it on our site (e.g. no real e-mail or IP addresses, etc.).

Reservation

The administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit or delete inappropriate posts, comments or links.
They can close posts or comments, change or delete ratings at any time.

Moderators

Each topic area is managed by moderators. The moderators are responsible for the smooth running of their area. The moderators occupy a prominent position on our pages. They have extensive rights to fulfill their tasks. In particular, they are responsible for enforcing the guidelines and rules of the forum in their respective areas. As a result, they also have the obligation to handle the rights assigned to them with care, to visit their area regularly, not too long intervals and to check for irregularities.
Moderators should not be absent from the forum for more than 3 months without prior notice. If a moderator's last login was more than 3 months ago, the administrator will contact them by e-mail and ask them to be active. If they do not comply with this request within a reasonable period of time, their moderator status will expire. A new moderator will then be sought for this area.
Furthermore, the moderator can be held accountable by the administrator in the event of their own breaches of the forum guidelines or abuse of their rights. Due to their predestined position, compliance with these rules is particularly important for moderators and is closely monitored.

Violations/measures

In the event of violations of these guidelines or abuse of rights, the moderator may issue a warning to the relevant members via the PM system ("Personal Messages") and call for correction. In the event of repeated warnings, a member can be excluded from this site at any time by the moderator or administrator. A moderator or administrator can also remove or deactivate a post, comment or link from the website at any time if a violation of these guidelines is suspected.

The text was created in cooperation with our regular users.