Great Western Coffee Shop

What's perfectly acceptable language to some people can be offensive to others. My wife and I originated from different cultures. Some of the things I say to my kids shocked her, and some of the things that I have heard her son say to his natural dad have left me open-mouthed.  Discussions, explanations followed in each case and a comfort zone established and all's well.

On a forum such as ours, I'm delighted that we have a truely representative cross-section of rail users (and I include staff as users - they use the trains to get a salary, as well as spending far longer on trains / railway property than most of the rest of us!) in terms of background and age.  But that does mean, sometimes, that language / terms used by some posters can step beyond what others feel to be acceptable. With a board / forum such as this where we don't see each other IRL (In Real Life) on a day by day basis, we need other ways to ensure we're in our mutual comfort zones. This is not an easy matter when we're looking at emotive subjects such as actions that are percived as vindictive or stupid by certain people, or where we're discussing human waste dumped on the track.

A handful of posts have been reported recently as being out of line in the view of some of our members, and I know that I have found one or two other posts personally offensive (NOT posts that you might have guessed, either!) so that probably means that these reports are the tip of an iceberg of unknown size. So I feel it is a good time to post up some guidelines to help all of our members know what the team of moderators feel is appropriate and what steps over the limit.  I'll do that in a following post which I'll then be able to add on its own to then end of a sticky thread without this long "why" introduction.

What is acceptable language and style on "The Coffeeshop"?

A brief guide for new posters, who should remember that this forum can be read by anyone and everyone, including children, the train company we travel with (or in the case of Melksham WISH to travel with), and groups and individuals who we may criticise .. and who we may wish to talk to and work with in the future.

Language

1. The words that "I can't bring myself to type" - you know the ones, I'm sure - certainly are out. And, no, I am not coming up with a list.

2. The "arse", "scum", "bastard", "moron" level - certainly out when used to refer to a member, an identifiable person, or one of a small group of people. Probably out too when used to talk about larger groups - a very slightly grey area there.  But some of these words have to be acceptable in their original meaning. "They was a horrid scum on the coffee I was served in the buffet at Dilton Marsh station" has to be AOK.

3. Calling an identified peron a "silly cow" or "twit" starts getting even more questionable.  Again I would say "no" when an identified person, but the team behind the scenes does not wish to drive you to come up with colourful new phrases which might be even more difficult to moderate.

4. It has to be a case by case basis with many of the lesser terms and content which may offend by its combination of totally innocent words.  I personally found a comment that I felt to be sarcastic referring to me as "his holyness" to be offensive, although I let it go by without comment at the time as it provided me with a userful reminder of my place.  And that also reminded me just how many others may be offended from time to time, but not say anything!

The moderation team takes a delight in the fact that there a number of us moderating. Any poster who seriously transgressed the acceptable level of any one of the group may get asked to change his/her language (or have it changed), so we cannot be 100% predictable and people should if in doubt, leave it out

Style

a. I would like to discourage the use of texting language as it's not universally understood. We have a common language in English and we're talking about a British company and operation in England and Wales - so really we should all stick to posts in standard English to be universally understood by our readers.

b. Please try to cut down on the number of acronyms you use - we DO have an acronym page (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/acronyms.html) on which I try to list them all as they come up, but at times I get my GOSW mixed up with my GOBLs - so what must it do to the newcomers?   If you introduce an acronym to make your post less verbose, please define it the first time in full.

c. Whilst we don't wish to go round and round (and round and round) the same subject in a thread, remember that we are rapidly growing and that there are many newcomers here all the time - and guests, and people who find our pages via search engines.  So you are encouraged to go back to basics, provide full explanations, re-open matters that we discussed a couple of months back, and should NOT assume that everyone is up to speed. Established posters - if you see a subject repeating itself in a short timescale, please help us by adding a link back to the old subject so that we can keep "churning" at acceptable levels.

In spite of the comments above, the general approach to moderation is a "lighter touch" with moderators very much looking to facilitate the use and usefullness of the board.  Typically, we will NOT jump in and correct spellings nor grammatical errors, nor alter posts that we feel could have been explained better in another way - after all, it's your forum. We may point out via a personal message that a post could be understood in two different ways if we feel there could be a chance the original poster didn't realise this. As a "backstop" we (or rather I as the administrator) have a legal responsibility to act on posts that are (or may be considered) indecent, incite hatred, incite illegal actions, break copyright laws, are libellous and a whole host of other things which - thank you everyone - are very rare indeed here.

Would it be possible to have a spell checker?  ;D

I'm a terrible typist and speller so it may help a bit although I know it won't pick up manger for manager and form for from etc  :(.

However, it might make my posts a bit more intelligible  ;).

Firefox has had an integrated spell checker since version 1.5: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/ (http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/)

(http://www.takeforum.com/forum/images/smiles/help_3.gif)...must...resist...temptation...can't...hold...it...in..any...longer...

'grammatical' has two m's (http://www.takeforum.com/forum/images/smiles/cy.gif)

I ken spull fings the woy I lyke!  :D

As that main article is a major post that will become part of a sticky topic later on, though, I will go back and correct it - thanks for the proofing comments. 

Get a mac.

Is that a type of anorak? ;D

I got a MacBook in June 2007 to replace my Siemens laptop the HD of which got fried 2 days after warranty. Then my Windows PC went bang (caught fire, literally) in October and I purchased a 20" iMac 2.4GHz.

Replaced the MacBook with a MacBook Pro last month.

I got an iMac 24" 2.8 GHZ to replace my Dell XPS 2010 that died two days out of warranty

Two days later after dealing with my laptop (old Dell) I bought a Macbook black - was wonderful but not enough real estate in 13 inches

So I got a 17 inch 2.4ghz high def mac book pro

Then my other half got one

Then he replaced his windoze server with a Mac Pro......

The only windoze device I still have is my HTC TyTN 2 - and I'm seriously considering buying out that contract and getting an iPhone

Ah, the Blackbook, a nice machine that. The 13" screen was one of the reasons I'm now on a MBP.

I'm probably going to upgrade my web server to an Xserve soon - then when my Blackberry contract expires I'll definately get an iPhone.

Anyway, back on topic perhaps...  ;) ;D

I have about 10 rack'd servers heating my flat nicely

Do i win a prize? :P

anyway...

Sorry to bring this back to the top....

But after getting a bill for ^100 and that is with Oranges maximum data charges......... I went and bought an iphone at the weekend - even at ^35 a month and paying line rental to orange for the next nine months - I'll be quids in with the free data!

So far all I can say is:

Pros: Free data - intuitive interface - small - great browsing - easily connects to wifi - I get a signal at home for the first time ever

Cons: So used to having installed apps on a WM6 I'm getting used to webapps (most of which I didnt use mind since they were a pain in the rear to install if you use a Mac!)

Get web 'n'walk by t-mobile.

problem solved.

^20 a month, unlimited 3.5g broadband

And since my non iphone handset of choice is the HTC TyTN 2 which T-mobile dont do (last I checked) I would then have to purchase a circa ^500 handset unlocked. 

Am I the only one completely bemused and baffled by this thread?

I was on about keeping your old phone, and having that for data use ;)

And i doubt you are John :P

No - I am too, and I started it.  Which is rather why my suggestions were "plain English and explain acronyms" ...

Remember you can't tether the iPhone up to your Mac/PC as yet officially... you can probably do it if you ZiPhone it!

I'm fed up with my BlackBerry. Bought an iPhone today, being delivered tomorrow.

Bit nervous about ziphoning it!  Dont want to end up with a brick

You will only brick it if you unlock it. If the jailbreaking doesn't work, just restore to factory settings and you're all ok again! Unlocking it modifies the baseband, etc, jailbreaking just meddles with the software.

Wait a while.

Mark 2 of the iPhone will be a lot better (Copy, Paste etc. Apple??).

It will also be released unlocked, as people are complaining about O2's monopoly.

In Germany, Apple have been forced to sell unlocked iPhones!!!

Software version 2.0 will be good, yep, I've got an iPod touch at the mo and am impressed.

I don't think it will be released unlocked ;) - and it's only France you can get unlocked iPhones.

The software will be updated anyway - Apple could not afford not to

Not too fussed about the locked aspect

The only thing a new i phone might have is 3G but unless you stream audio/video - and I dont - its not an issue

And - this site loads a lot better under iphone than orange 3G!