| Welcome to INTJ Forum
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This is a community where INTJs can meet others with similar personalities and discuss a wide variety of both serious and casual topics. If you aren't an INTJ, you're welcome to join anyway if you would like to learn more about this personality type or participate in our discussions. Registration is free and will allow you to post messages, customize your account and use other features only available to our members.
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| Admins/Moderators |
| The admins are the people who operate the forum and have control over the technical details, promoting/demoting members, creating subforums etc. The moderators help keep the forum clean and organized and have powers such as deleting, moving and editing posts and threads. Both groups are active in maintaining the rules of the forum and are an excellent place to go if you have any questions of a rule/technical nature. You can recognize the admins and mods by the colour of their usernames; the admins have red usernames and the mods have either purple (global mods) or blue (subforum mods) usernames. |
| The Parts of the Forum |
| The Forum is divided into subforums. Some subforums, such as the Community subforum and Introductions, are a little more relaxed than the other subforums when it comes to the type of posts that can be made. Moderation in these subforums is generally light, but major rule violations such as trolling, flaming or personal attacks are not allowed anywhere on the forum, including these areas. The On-Topic subforums (The Mind and Behaviour, The World and Beyond) are places that are dedicated to quality discussion and are more formal in nature and low quality posts and off-topic banter tend to be pruned by moderators to keep the discussion healthy and topical. It is a good to remember the type of subforum you are in when deciding what kind of post to make. Frequently making posts that are better suited to the Community subforums in the On-Topic subforums is not a good practise. Lastly, there is a Support & Feedback subforum which is a good place to post your technical questions or ask about forum features. INTJf has a helpful community and other members will usually answer your question if they can, so this is usually the fastest way to get your general support questions answered. It is also preferable to post these questions publicly so other members who may have the same question can see your thread and the replies it generates. |
| Making Posts |
| Posts in the On-Topic subforms are reviewed for quality. Quality can mean a number of different things to different people, but in the On-Topic subforums, quality generally refers to the post’s ability to add something to the discussion and not the quality of the opinion being offered.
- “Me too” and “I agree” Posts
Posts that only contain “Me too”, “I agree”, “+1” and other similar affirmatives are deleted in the On-Topic forums. This is because the purpose of the thread is to be a discussion, not to reach a consensus. Members can agree/disagree with one another, but posts should contain some additional material that furthers the debate. “I agree” is not a post that can be responded to, “I agree because...” offers more. This may seem to be overzealous for moderation, but please keep in mind INTJf is a typology forum and similarities between people are the norm here. It is easy for a thread to fill with multiple “me too” posts which detract and interrupt good discussion. If you would like to tell a member that you agreed with their post, but don’t have anything additional to add, you should send them a post comment (add link to instructions).
- Fluff posts
Fluff posts are a generic term for posts with little substance or relevance to the thread. Saying “I need popcorn for this” in the middle of a heated discussion in the On-Topic subforums would be the kind of fluff post that would be deleted. Posts of this kind are better suited to the Community subforums.
- One line posts
Not all one-lined posts are fluff, some are just succinct. As long as they are, relevant, add to the discussion and aren’t being excessively used by a member, they are usually acceptable.
Post format can sometimes be moderated as well. Using chatspeak is discouraged and poor grammar may not be against the rules, but members are encouraged to use proper English as it makes communicating ideas with other members a more enjoyable experience for all. Over use of special formatting (ie. making your post all in bold), is not necessary and unsightly for others to read. Using special formatting or signatures to give all your posts a custom look may result in warnings. |
| Making Threads |
| When deciding to make a thread, there are a few things to consider in order to get the most from your topic. First, consider what you want to post. Is it too personal? Are you okay with it remaining on a public forum? Please note that threads that have generated quality responses will not be deleted so don’t plan on being able to delete your thread when you are done. Next, do a search on some key words in your topic to see if there is a similar thread in the past 90 days as active threads with similar topics will be merged. If you don’t find any similar threads, review the focus areas of the different subforums to see which one is the most suitable to create your thread in. Once you’ve composed your first post, choose a descriptive title to communicate your topic to the rest of the forum. Vague or misleading titles may not attract other members to your thread or could cause people to post on the topic in the title and not the one in your first post. Titles may be edited by moderators for grammar, spelling or clarification. If you make a mistake or require a moderator to assist you with your thread, you can use the report feature to get the fastest assistance. |
| Faux Pas and Bad Behaviours |
| The forum has a few rules to ensure the overall forum experience is a good one. While none of the rules are less enforced than others, sometimes enforcement is just having your post deleted; however, repeated rule breaking by a member can result in warnings, infractions and potentially being banned. Some of the most common faux pas and bad behaviours are as follows:
- Low Quality Posts in the Wrong Areas
As mentioned previously, the On-Topic sections of the forum aren’t the place to make low quality posts as they can derail thread topics and degrade discussion. Making repeated low quality posts in the On-Topic subforums is considered a form of spamming.
- Necroposting
Posting to a thread which hasn't seen activity in several months or more is seen as reviving a dead thread, or necroposting. This is discouraged because older threads often contain discussion from members (or even the OP) that may no longer be active to partake. Meanwhile, the old thread can crowd out new threads which can frustrate the active members who would like a chance to voice themselves. Members are encouraged to check the date of the previous replies to see if the thread is better left to rest. If you see an old thread topic and would like to discuss it further, but with a new spin, try starting a new thread rather than making a necropost.
- Custom format posting
There are a number of tags to alter your text to express yourself better from post to post. These items are not meant to be used consistently as a way to make all your posts ‘stand out from the crowd’. While you might think this makes your posts unique, it breaks the continuity of the discussion and can be an eyesore for other readers. The forum does not support automatic signatures for the same reason and by association, manually adding your own signature is not permitted either.
- Advertising and INTJf Filtering of Sites
Posting advertisements for other sites, forums and products can result in infractions. Using sites as a reference is fine, but posting a link to another forum and encouraging people to “go check it out” or posting the same link in several different threads would be considered a form of advertising. Most often this type of infraction is seen from new accounts that were created for the purpose of link dropping, but regular members can make similar mistakes. Some sites have their links filtered and blocked by INTJf software due to past issues with cross-forum drama. If you are posting a link and find the software has modified it (replaced key areas of the link with ****** or changed the text to read “some other forum”) do not try to evade the filter, the site is blocked for a reason.
- Personal Attacks/Flaming/Disruption
Most decisions on these items are made on a case by case basis, so no clear definition can be made which is applicable in all situations, but for those that may be new to online discussions, here are some loose definitions to help you understand personal attacks, flaming and disruption.
- Personal Attacks - attacking someone’s person instead of their argument.
- Flaming - making extremely hostile, histrionic posts that are less about the topic and more about basting another user in profane absurdity, which incites respondents to flame back.
- Disruption - posting material that fails the thread topic, simultaneously maligns a person’s character, and thereby impedes the continuance of debate. There are also instances when a thread is made for this purpose.
Making personal attacks or participating in flaming can quickly degrade discussion and therefore are not tolerated on INTJf. This does not mean that posts need to be politically correct. Posts can still be offensive or objectionable in opinion as long as they don’t attack the opponent’s character instead of the opponent’s argument. Because political incorrectness is protected speech at INTJf, posts that respond to this speech by attempting to disrupt the debate altogether are also prohibited. If you see personal attacks, flaming, or attempts to disrupt debate, please report the post using the report feature in the bottom right of the post. |
| Warning System |
| People who break the rules of the forum may find they have received an official warning or infraction. Warnings and infractions should not be confused with helpful notes sent via PM from moderators. A warning/infraction will contain a reference to the post, a listing of the rule(s) that were broken and a point value. The system is as follows:
1st offense: 0 points / warning / no expiration
2nd offense: 2 points / restricted account / 1 week
3rd offense: 4 points / account suspension / 1 week
Only one warning will be given out under most circumstances. Subsequent offenses will go straight to the two point restrictions, even if the warning was over a week ago. Two points will almost always be given for an infraction, but under some circumstances they might only be worth one point.
New members may be banned without notice if showing excessive use of bad behaviours such as those listed in the previous sections. The infraction system is intended for established members that have contributed to the forum. Administrators do not ban established members except under extenuating circumstances. |
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