Have you read the Webmasterworld TOS?

Just wondering as number 16 seems to always be abused

[satanclaus]

Just wondering how many people here haven't read the TOS yet?

For example it seems people have a REALLY hard time with staying on subject.(Particularly in forum 3 where "Google Update Rage" has spread like wildfire.)

In honesty I didn't read it until probably 6 months after I joined. I only post sporadically so it took a while to trip up.

So have you read the TOS yet? If not then chime in then take a look. Its not that long.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Marcia]

Hi satanclaus, yes I've read it a few times and have even quoted from it once or twice. ;)

The one you pointed out is probably one of the most important as far as helping everyone actually get the most out of the information people here share.

#16

Please stay within the topic area of the forum you are posting a message in, and within any topic that another poster may have started.

Often new people aren't quite sure not only which forum is best, but they may not be 100% sure exactly what it is they're looking to find out.

For example, someone new may want to know about moving files and *think* it belongs in the Google forum because that's what they're mostly concerned with. Whoops, it does impact other search engines as well (there really are a few others out there) and even so, rather than ending up being a Google topic, it may turn out that the right answer is to use 301 or mod_rewrite - making it an Apache server answer they need to have. Where should that thread really be?

Another thing is that a lot of people are primarily focused on Google, but how about questions related to linking that just happen to mention Page Rank? Isn't there more to linking than just Google and PR? Do linking topics belong in the Google forum, or in the Link Development forum to best serve the needs of our members?

So which forum posts really belong in, to stay within the topic area of the forum and stay on track with the member's original question isn't always 100% clear cut. My thought on it is to ask where someone coming here for the first time would most likely be able to easily find that information in a previous discussion.

That's where we who have been around for a while can help out, by both trying to clarify exactly what new people are asking when it isn't quite clear, and then disciplining ourselves to focus just on the original topic so it stays focused enough to have informational value for future reference instead of ending up a potpourri of several topics rolled into one - not to mention being considerate and not overwhelming the person who originally started the thread.