I am creating a sticky detailing the rules of this forum. I have had a few people ask for clarification and wanted to get a thread started that we can add details to as we go. Please feel free to PM me suggestions or post to this thread.

That being said, here they are:

Forum Rules

1) No racial, sexual, religious or any other kind of intolerance or discrimination will be tolerated.

2) No flame postings.

3) Keep threads on topic.

4) No posting links to commercial websites. This one is up to the administrator and moderators discretion. Obviously, posting to cisco.com or other on-topic, helpful sites is allowed.

5) No private message SPAM.

6) No double posting. Pick a forum and post to it. If your thread is in the incorrect forum, the admin or moderators will move it for you.

7) Do not post discussions or links regarding any illegal activity including pirated software.

8) The administrator reserves the right to terminate a user's privileges at any time with no explanation.

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I figured I'd update this a bit too:

These are not necessarily "rules", but just good forum etiquette.

1) Before asking a question, consider using the search tool to see if it has been asked and perhaps answered already. If there was no answer to the first time, feel free to bump it.

2) Do not expect us to do work for you. If you want somebody to write up a config for your box, this probably isn't the place to ask.

3) Do not expect us to give you the answers to your homework. The point of homework is to get practice at certain topics, asking somebody else to do it for you doesn't help a bit. We will be much more willing to help if you would ask us for guidance/corrections to your homework and keep it to fairly specific questions.

4) Promote open discussion of topics. Forums should be places where free exchange of knowledge and experience occurs on a regular basis. If you have a question, no matter how easy or difficult, please feel free to ask it! We love to talk about this sort of thing and sincerely hope that we can help you in the process.

5) Don't use annoying or uninformative titles. "OMG PLEAZ HELP MY INTARWEBZ IS BROKEN" or "Pleeeeaeaaaase help noob question" for example. Titles like those do nothing but annoy, they hold little or no information pertaining to the post itself. As such, try to keep words like "please" and "help" out of your titles. Simply stating your problem in the title is quite sufficient. Furthermore, I do my best to remove annoyances from titles when I run into them, but it makes my job easier when people don't use them to begin with. All-caps definitely doesn't help either.

6) Urgency is entirely your problem. We understand that many issues in the IT industry can be considered "urgent" by many, however, a forum is not the place for that. If you're seeking urgent help, cut a SEV1 ticket with your vendor. While a subject indicating that the topic is urgent may sound like it'll evoke a response, really all it does is annoy people and make them inclined not to help. Remember that we're not getting paid to be here, we help because we want to.

7) Don't post the same thread in more than one forum. All this does is piss off the mods (and most other users). The users on this forum tend to look at all the forums equally (within reason), so it's not like you're reaching out to more users by posting twice. Double-posts will be locked or deleted.

I think in relation to this particular point it is important to note that you shouldnt expect your question to be answered.

Everyone is giving their own time to help, and collectively we probably cant answer some questions.

My suggestion: If you dont get an answer after bumping your thread, look at other options for obtaining the answer you are after, such as other forums, mailing lists, professional advice, etc.

Naturally, dont give up hope. Someone who knows your answer may not have seen your post, or may not have had the time to post an answer yet.

Another suggestion: Respect other members posts. You can disagree with what someone has said, but dont bag them out, call them a n00b, tell them they dont know what they are talking about, etc. Everyone has the right to their own oppinion. If you disagree with someone, post your answer which you believe to be correct/more accurate, and provide links to back it up if neccessary.

With the membership growing, and perhaps changing in "demographic" somewhat, I suggest a rule be developed that reminds members that the value and respect of the advice given, and of the discussions generally, depends on a high level of integrity, ethics and professionalism.

Accordingly, this is not a forum to discuss, request or offer pirated networking products, including software.

Yes, we all like something for nothing, but if it's warez you're after then there are other places where you can carry out that type of activity.

Most members, well the old timers anyway , depend upon these products and services for their livelihood in some way, so messing in our own nest is not something we want.

My 2c anyway.

Aubrey

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+1

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Acknowledged and thankS.


I appreciate this decision.

Forum rules cleaned up. The first post in this thread are the official forum rules, but feel free to read the entire thread for some good guidelines.

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Sounds like everything is clear.

The only thing I find really annoying is when people just jump in and ask a question without even introducing themselves.
I know this is etiquette rather than rules but, the use of a cattle prod would be apt in situations like this.

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Good Luck,

David

A lot of folks find us via Google and most likely have never even heard of the site. They are probably posting up with very little confidence that they will get a response. We'll show 'em!

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Steve, Thanks for your assistance in moving my forum request to an area you felt would better serve the question.

I am new to this forum. I am IOS trained, though. Linksys is a company that is owned by Cisco.

About the forum and placing question: AS you are the moderator of the forum site, I looked at the layout of the forum. I see that you have the Cisco area as a separate category.

I want to behave in the fashion that all member should behave, so, I need to ask this question: Is the Cisco area ONLY intended for IOS question, or is it to cover Cisco questions , in general?
Helping me understand this would help me understand why my routing question was moved by you. An explanation would help me so that I can better place and pose a question in the future.

Thanks....I will help wherever I can.
P.S. In the past several weeks, my only post has not gotten any responses. as if, I have done something not in line with this forum???
Further, your very first post on this topic indicates that you can be PM'd. So, I PM'd you and my PM was deleted without being read???Help me understand why these 3 things are occurring so that I can approach this forum appropriately.

Thanks in advance.

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We're all related!

I read and replied to your PM. After about a week, I deleted my reply from my outbox because I assumed you weren't going to pick it up. Regarding your sensitivity levels, man up.

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Hey really good decision guys ...... All The Best ...

Regars
Jack

Why don't we have thanks button?
Is this allowed to post a reply and thank the supporter?

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Best Wishes
MERKAVA

If it's me you're trying to thank, that's definitely allowed. And encouraged.

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You can reply and thank people in the thread or send them a private message. It's up to you.

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Steve, thanks for posting the rules.