MESSAGE CONTENT RULES (Last Updated Feb. 18, 2008)
All messages posted to the forum must adhere to the following rules. Any message that fails to adhere to any of these rules may be deleted at the sole discretion of the forum moderators.
- BE POLITE. Everyone is expected to be polite and non-offensive.
Snide comments are not necessary nor are they appropriate. If you'd like to answer a question
by all means please do so--but do it without being offensive or impolite. NO NAME
CALLING. Calling someone a name that is entirely derogatory that has no useful purpose
other than being insulting (idiot, stupid, moron, etc.) will not be tolerated and may lead to
immediate banning, with or without prior warning.
- DO NOT BE ANNOYING, DO NOT BE EASILY ANNOYED. Borrowing from Fidonet-era netiquette, make
an effort to not annoy others. At the same time, make an effort to not be easily annoyed by others.
- MINIMUM EFFORT. Before posting a question to the forum please make
sure you've made an honest effort to solve the problem yourself. At a minimum you should
read the 8051 Tutorial, checked the FAQs,
read the datasheet for the parts you are using, and preferably read what we commonly refer to as
"The 8051 Bible":
8051 Family Architecture
and 8051 Programmer's Guide.
You should also use the search feature of this website to search for the information you are looking
for.
- ON-TOPIC. All messages posted to the forum must be on-topic. "On-topic"
means the message must be related in some meaningful way to the 8052 microcontroller
and derivatives, or to the community of developers that work with them. If you are
posting a message that doesn't clearly specify how it is related to the 8052 microcontroller
please take the time to explain how you are using an 8052 in your project in relation to the
message you are posting.
- NO ADVERTISING. Unsolicited advertisements for products or services may not be
posted to the forum. However, a response to a question posed by other forum participants
may reference or even suggest any commercial product or service. In other words, don't
use the forum to announce or advertise your products; but if someone asks a question
and your product or service is a worthwhile solution, please feel free to reply with
that information. If you have a new product or service you'd like to announce to the
8052 community please submit it as news and it will appear
on the site's news section once it is approved by the webmaster.
- NO "FOR SALE" MESSAGES. Do not post "for sale" messages to the forum as if
it were a "classifieds" section even if you are an individual selling used equipment.
For-sale posts will be deleted.
- NO SECURITY CIRCUMVENTION MESSAGES WITHOUT PERMISSION. Do not post messages asking
for help in breaking the security of a microcontroller. If you have a legitimate
reason to break the security of a microcontroller, contact the
webmaster to explain your situation and ask permission to post the message. Any message
asking for information on breaking the security of microcontrollers that has not been
previously cleared by the webmaster will be deleted.
- REAL NAMES. All messages posted to the forum must be posted using your real
full name--first and last. Aliases, handles, or just using your first name are not
acceptable as this is a professional forum.
- ENGLISH. All messages must be posted in English since this is the single
language that most forum participants have in common. This is not because we believe
English is a better language, it's just the most convenient given the demographics of
the users of this website. Also keep in mind that not everyone speaks English as
their first language. Posts that criticize the way a message is written or phrased are
off-topic and usually offensive and will generally be deleted by the moderators. If
your only contribution to a thread is commenting on the way it was written, don't post.
- DOCUMENTATION RESPONSES. Replies to a message that do nothing but tell the poster
to read the documentation are not considered useful unless they indicate the specific page of
the documentation that the person should read. If you feel the person asking the question hasn't
spent enough time reading documentation, either ignore the question or vote it as "Didn't Search First."
- LEGALITY. Messages may only contain information that may be legally shared with
the public. Messages requesting information that cannot be legally shared or which indicate
illegal intent will be deleted.
- MODERATION BY MODERATORS ONLY. Do not post messages that assail others for violating
forum rules or norms. Either ignore the violation or report it to the moderator or webmaster
for appropriate action.
- COMPLAINTS. Complaints about the way the site or forum are operated, managed, or
moderated should be addressed to the webmaster from the
contact page. Such messages posted
to the forum are off-topic unless in reply to a thread created by the webmaster or moderator
specifically created to discuss such issues.
- DISCLAIMER. The content of each message is the responsibility of the user that
posted it. The moderators will attempt to enforce these forum rules as completely as possible
but the poster of each message is ultimately responsible for the contents of the message.
8052.com and VIS makes no guarantee as to the accuracy or usefulness of any information
obtained herein.
- POSTS BECOME PROPERTY OF THE COMMUNITY. The contents of messages posted to the forums
are considered to be contributions to the public domain and it is understood that such
contributions may be used by the webmaster, VIS, or any member or visitor to 8052.com
in any way they see fit, including for personal gain or in the implementation of
derivative works. Do not post anything to the message forum if you wish to retain
personal control over the rights to use that information. Additionally, posts that have been
contributed to the forum will not be deleted simply because the poster later changes his mind
about having made the posts.
We will attempt to delete messages and threads as seldom as possible. However, the purpose of this forum is to be a useful place to exchange ideas and questions regarding the 8052--not to be a perfect democracy or a "free speech" area to post off-topic posts. So while it is our hope we will not have to delete messages or threads we will do so in order to keep the forum "on-topic" and enjoyable.
If you ever find that one of your messages or threads have "disappeared" feel free to contact me from the contact us page. We keep a permanent record of every message and thread that has ever been deleted and we'll be happy to explain to you why the specific message or thread was removed from the forum.
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POLICIES REGARDING THREAD/MESSAGE DELETION
- The post is clearly spam.
- The post is an announcement/advertisement for a commercial product.
- The post includes illegal information (confidential or proprietary information, etc.) or is a request for illegal responses (such as asking for 'cracked' versions of software).
- The message is vulgar, offensive, actively detracts from the harmony of the members of the forum, or in the judgement of the moderators serves no purpose other than to provoke another forum into a heated exchange.
- The original purpose of the thread has deviated far from the original topic of the thread.
- The thread has become--or is at serious risk of becoming--a flame-war between members of the forum. In the interest of reducing conflict between members, threads may be closed to prevent the exchange from becoming even more heated. This is especially true if the dispute is of a non-technical nature.
- The original poster who started the thread has provided insufficient information to enable members to provide worthwhile answers. Specifically, threads will be closed if: 1) the thread has wandered off-topic due to the void created by no additional information being provided by the original poster, the thread will be closed. 2) If it appears that a high number of replies in the thread are simply asking the original poster for more information, the thread will be closed. In either case, the thread will be closed until the original poster returns and posts in the thread. Once the original poster posts a new message to the thread, the thread will automatically be re-opened.
The moderators will delete threads or individual messages in the following situations. If the message in question is the first message of a thread, the entire thread will be deleted. If it's not the first message in the thread, all messages that reply to the offending message may be deleted even if the replies themselves do not violate the rules.
POLICIES REGARDING THREAD CLOSURE
The moderators will close a thread in the following situations.
It is often stated that this is a "professional forum." It is often answered that there are many non-professionals such as hobbyists and students. It should be made clear that when we say that this is a professional forum we are referring to the level and manner of discussion, not that everyone here is an 8052 professional. Everyone is welcome here--8052 professionals, students, hobbyists, etc. What we do request is that everyone conduct themselves in a professional manner.
COMMUNICATE AS CLEARLY AS POSSIBLE
Please make your best effort to write clear and understandable messages and don't use local shorthand or abbreviations that may not be understood worldwide. The use of "SMS" abbreviations is not professional and is highly discouraged (but is NOT prohibitted). This means you should not write "u" when you mean "you" and should not write "4" when you mean "for."
Remember, we are all "judged" every day and when we are communicating on a forum such as this the only thing you will be judged on is the quality of the messages you post. Your posts reflect on you so write accordingly.
CHAT BOARD
As of July 24, 2005, we have added a chat board. This is a second message board that can be used by members to post messages that are not necessarily 8052-related. General chit-chat and friendly, non-8052 conversations may take place in this forum. Members may post "for sale" messages for things they'd like to buy or sell as well as post messages inviting people to apply for a job or project. The chat board will be less-strictly moderated--though not entirely unmoderated.
Purely commercial or advertising messages are not permitted, even in the chat forum.
Threads posted to the main 8052.com forum that are considered off-topic will generally now be moved to this "chat" forum where the conversation may continue.
Non-8052 topics are welcome on the chat board, although it is suggested that the topics of politics and religion be avoided since these are generally very passionate issues that can lead to unnecessary conflict between members. However, such topics will not be automatically closed.