A message from the Board Leader Options

[KevinKorell]

I just want to take the time periodically to thank everyone participating in our board for making it the success it has been since On Track On Line went On Line in the summer of 2003. We have behaved well and aside from a couple of isolated cases, have not let controversy tear us apart. Agreeing to disagree professionally makes for a friendly medium that makes our board an attractive place on the Internet to hang out and share our rail-oriented news or comment on it.

With that said, I'd like to talk a little bit about our "Netiquette" when it comes to Topic Titles. This is the top of the two lines above the text of a new post. I would like to see a little more conformity with the Topic Titles, as some have gotten quite confusing. We have had some that are too short, and some that are too long. A Topic Title that conveys what the post is about, without running out of space, is juuuuuust right.

We've had some posts whose titles go over the limit of characters allowed. While this may not be evident when you initially post your message, please double check the results after you complete your post. If you see a sentence, or even a word, stop short in the middle, something is wrong. Please e-mail me or any Administrator or Moderator, so that it can be fixed. Usually some slight re-wording can be done to cut down on the extraneous characters while still getting the point across.

Shorter Topic Titles are equally confusing. A title that contains just a city name, the name of a transit agency, or a combination of the two, doesn't convey anything to the reader. It either needs a verb, or enough of a phrase that the reader will know what your post is about.

To mention the home city of the transit agency can be misleading. For example, I've seen "NJT, Newark, NJ" and the text refers to something in completely different parts of the state than Newark (such as the RiverLine or the Lackawanna Cutoff). Again for comformity and the sake of our non-railfan friends who can benefit from the knowledge we share, please use the well-known name of an agency, such as "CalTrain", rather than the powers running it, like "PCJPA". I know that is the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Authority, but I doubt that all railfans, let alone those who don't know much about trains and especially those not living in California, understand what that means.

I realize that the Topic Description (the second, optional line above the text) is sometimes used. However, when somebody sees the topic listed on our main Index page, the second line does not show -- only the first line with the short title.

This brings us to the posts themselves. As I've said in another pinned message, the proper means to post is not to copy an entire article (which can be considered a copyright infringement unless it explicitly says it is a press release), but to quote only a sentence or a short paragraph... enough to give the reader some idea of what your post is about. However, simply posting a hyperlink with no description of what it leads to can be discouraging to those who might be interested in knowing something about what your cited article is about.

Again, please be careful with spelling. Sure nobody is perfect, and typo's are going to happen. They happen to me, they happen to anyone. But I have seen a couple of posts/responses where the spelling was so atrocious that I could not figure out what the comments were about. If you really don't know how to spell something, and don't wish to use online spell check facilities, then please consult a dictionary.

Taking those few extra seconds will be of great help to your fellow members, and help to keep the OTOL Forums the wonderful place it is for railfans and the rail-curious who often ask for our help.

This post has been edited by KevinKorell: Sep 3 2008, 12:20 PM

[KevinKorell]

Just bumping this thread for the sake of newer members and a gentle reminder to others.

[KevinKorell]

It's time to refresh this note for our welcomed participants who may have joined us in the recent past.

The Board Leader and the Admins/Mods of OTOL work hard to make this the wonderful and favorite stop on the Internet SupeRRailroad that it is for rail oriented news and information. To that extent, being a little more careful in how you post things on the board will go a long way towards helping us achieve that goal.

When you start a new topic, please make sure that the topic was not posted recently by somebody else. You can use our search functions to see if the same news story may have already been posted.

Please try to keep stuff on topic and thus within the correct forum. We recently had what was clearly a commercial for a school that teaches music. Obviously it does not fit in with our theme. We only allowed it to remain because the person who posted it made reference to how to get to the location by train; in fact he did demonstrate clear knowledge of Amtrak and commuter rail in the area. But please take note that we discourage what clearly borders on "Spam". The person also posted the same note four times, in different forums; we allowed only one to remain.

Next, we do welcome the posting of questions regarding rail travel, be it intercity, transit, or commuter. Please try to keep these questions in the pertinent forum, and with a fitting topic title. A good example was that somebody recently had a question about a baggage limit on the AutoTrain. The question was asked within our temporary forum about the recent winter storm. The question and its response were moved to new topic in the Amtrak forum, and given the name AutoTrain/Baggage Limit? Then somebody else came along and asked a question about bringing one's own DVD's on the AutoTrain, nothing at all to do with baggage. The moral here is that if you have a question about rail travel, it is usually best to start a new topic, rather than piggybacking it as a response to somebody else's question. This will help your question better get the attention it deserves, and it won't throw other person's the orginial question off topic either. We're a public forum, so we would like to help as many people as we can. But you need to help us help you by putting things in the correct place. Staff members on this board spend a lot of time moving things around, correcting spelling, or rewriting topic titles that were too long and clearly end in the middle of a word. That time could be spent posting more news items, or even spending more time with our families.

Finally, please note that as long as you are an approved registered member of our board and in good standing, you are free to post a question here. Still, we have been getting questions via e-mail to some of our Chat alerts. The purpose of Chat alerts is to notifiy the staff of abuse of, or a problem with our Chat software. It is not to ask the board staff a question about the board. You can do any of that, by contacting us individually via PM or board E-mail. The Chat alerts are not for the purpose of asking selected members answers to train related questions. We and all your fellow members would prefer these questions be asked publicly, which will increase your chances of getting a good answer since everyone sees it rather than the few who got it in e-mail form. Your answer posted in a public forum will also benefit those who come after you with similar questions. I've already also mentioned in an earlier thread about the abuse of the "Report" button that appears on every post and response. Again this is only to alert the staff of a malicious, off-topic, or otherwise unacceptable post or response.

Please help us to help you. It wil take a lot of the strain off us so we won't have to move or correct where items are posted on our board.

If you are unsure how or where to post an item, please feel free to contact either myself or any of the other Admins and Moderators.. who you can reach via board PM or e-mail. You can also read some of the other pinned topics in this Board Announcements/Comments section which may be of help to you in understanding what we allow and don't allow on the Forums. In fact, everything in this Announcements Forum should be required reading for anybody brand new to the board, so they understand what their obligations are as a new member. With a little care, you can make our lives a lot easier, and we will all apprecaite that!

We always weclome your comments and opinions on how this Forum is run. Some of your suggestions may really be something we've overlooked before that would help us to work together to make this great place even better!