Community Standards

[colonel_mortis]

Community Standards

 

Generally speaking, as long as you stick to the following core principles you should not find yourself subject to disciplinary action:

• Ensure a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and forum members
• Encourage the freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner
• "Don't be a dick" —Wil Wheaton
• "Be excellent to each other" —Bill and Ted
• Remember your audience; both present and future

 

The following is not an exhaustive list of the rules and guidelines that must be followed when participating on Linus Tech Tips. The rules outlined below are only the minimum expectations of members and not every issue can be predicted and addressed here, so conduct could still be considered out of line even if it isn't explicitly covered here. The moderation team reserves the right to terminate any and all accounts or remove any content at any stage without prior notice. The instructions of the moderation team must be followed at all times.

 

Industry Affiliates, in addition to following the Community Standards outlined here, should also familiarize themselves with the Industry Affiliate Code of Conduct.

 

General Conduct

• No harassment, discrimination, or abuse of any kind.
  • This includes insults and accusations (fanboy, troll, shill etc).
• No pornography, sexually explicit, or obscene content.
• No trolling or flame-bait.
  • This includes topics such as AMD vs NVIDIA, "company X sucks", and religious debates.
  • Do not engage in endless debates or baseless accusations.
  • Posts will be locked or removed if deemed excessively argumentative or no longer continuing in a productive manner
• No political content, regardless of your views.
  • If something spans politics and tech, the discussion must remain clearly within tech and must not descend into politics.
  • This covers all parts of the site, including status updates and the off topic subforum.
• Only one account per person, except with explicit permission from forum staff.

Spam and Non-Constructive posts

• No spamming or non-constructive posts, including:
  • Posting the same topic multiple times
  • LMGTFY (Let Me Google That For You) links or comments in the same spirit
  • Post count / Solution count / reputation farming
  • Low-effort posts that do not contribute to the discussion
• No posts generated by AI
• No shortened links (bit.ly etc.) without the permission of staff.
• No thread dumping (posting a thread in the wrong section). Check the forum for the most appropriate location for your thread before posting.

Advertising and Begging

• No advertising of any non-LTT/LMG material, including:
  • No referral, affiliate, or paid links except those created by Linus Media Group.
  • Self-promotion of personal websites or content (YouTube/Twitch/etc) is only allowed on your own profile page or where appropriate (such as videos demonstrating issues for troubleshooting purposes, and in subforums that permit posting videos per subforum posting guidelines).
  • No promoting items that you are selling on third-party sites (eg. eBay, Craigslist). Trades are only permitted in the Classifieds section of the forum.
• No begging for free or discounted things, asking for donations, fundraising projects, or any similar content.

Piracy, Hacking, and other Illegal Activities

• Discussion on how to engage in piracy is not allowed.
  • Redistribution of copyrighted material, including links to third party hosting sites, is not permitted.
  • Discussion of piracy in general is acceptable (e.g. "Game X becomes the most pirated game ever").
  • Hackintosh discussion is permitted.
• Discussion on engaging in hacking or cracking is not allowed, including:
  • Bypassing security features, restrictions, or filters (including parental filters, school restrictions, or workplace monitoring), including on your own device.
• Any illegal content or discussion on engaging in illegal activities is not permitted. Canadian law applies, as well as any jurisdictions that apply to you.

Privacy

• Do not post other people's personal information (name, email, addresses, phone number, etc) without their explicit consent.
• Do not post personally identifiable information pertaining to anybody under the age of 18, including yourself, regardless of whether you have permission to do so.

Signatures

• Text only, no images or other external content linked.
• No advertising or external links other than
  • a text link to your PC Part Picker profile
  • a text link to your Folding@Home or BOINC stats page

Moderation and Bans

• Do not openly discuss the moderation of any content or user. If you have an issue please contact a staff member.
• Do not backseat moderate – if there’s an issue, please use the report function. This includes responses such as "off topic", "spam", "advertising", "status update material" etc; leave it for the mod team to handle.
• Do not repost or otherwise continue discussions which have been locked or removed.
• Please be aware staff cannot see private messages unless they are reported, except in exceptional circumstances.
• If you have an issue with a moderator at any time, please contact an Administrator via PM: @colonel_mortis @Spotty

Subforum-Specific Requirements (including rules on video posting)

Certain subforums have additional rules specific to that section:

• Tech News – see here
• Off Topic – see here
• Build Logs – see here
• Member reviews – see here
• Guides and Tutorials – see here
• Hot deals – see here
• Classifieds – see here
• New Builds and Planning - see here.
• LMG Sponsor Discussion - see here.

Edited July 31, 2024 by Spotty
July 2024 update

[WolframaticAlpha]

We really need git so that I can git diff this.

[Lightwreather]

  On 10/16/2021 at 8:05 PM, WolframaticAlpha said:

We really need git so that I can git diff this.

I second this.

Or at least a post on the differences between the previous and updated standards

[Spotty]

Changelog:

• Removed note about contacting forum support for account deletion. Account deletion can now be done through Account Settings
• Added rule regarding posting the same topic multiple times (previously enforced but not specified in CS)
• Added rule regarding bypassing work/school device restrictions, parental controls, and security software (previously enforced but not specified in CS)
• Reworded the rule regarding sharing social media channels (twitch, youtube, etc)
• Reworded the rule regarding advertising third party classifieds listings (ebay, craigslist, etc)
• Added obscene content to the no pornography or sexually explicit rule to cover any offensive content that may not have already been covered (gore, etc)
• Moved rule regarding illegal content to its own rule (previously included with no pornography or sexually explicit content)
• General formatting changes to make it easier to read

[danalog]

  On 10/16/2021 at 9:22 PM, J-from-Nucleon said:

I second this.

Or at least a post on the differences between the previous and updated standards

I third this.

 

[lewdicrous]

  On 10/16/2021 at 8:05 PM, WolframaticAlpha said:

We really need git so that I can git diff this.

  On 10/16/2021 at 9:22 PM, J-from-Nucleon said:

I second this.

Or at least a post on the differences between the previous and updated standards

  On 10/16/2021 at 9:33 PM, Mel0nMan said:

I third this.

From a quick glance, the main difference pertains to how the rules are displayed (didn't check if there are additions/retractions/changes); the new one is more clearly divided (section for general conduct, section for piracy, section for spam, etc.)

 

My guess is it's more of a "clean up" of the old rules; easier for members to read & easier for mods/admins to edit.

[colonel_mortis]

I've unhidden @Spotty's summary of the changes a couple of posts up. There are no changes here in what we will be enforcing, just making our current policies more explicit.

[adarw]

  On 10/16/2021 at 8:05 PM, WolframaticAlpha said:

We really need git so that I can git diff this.

what does this mean? my 2 brain cells are dumb today.

[WolframaticAlpha]

  On 10/16/2021 at 10:08 PM, adarw said:

what does this mean? my 2 brain cells are dumb today.

  Quote

Git is software for tracking changes in any set of files,

git diff basically shows the changes that you make to files when using git.

[lewdicrous]

  On 10/16/2021 at 10:27 PM, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

Does this apply to instructing how to remove the Windows local account password?

Might depend on context.

[igormp]

  On 10/16/2021 at 7:45 PM, colonel_mortis said:

No promoting items for sale on third-party sites (eg. eBay, Craigslist). Trades are only permitted in the Classifieds section of the forum.

I'm wondering if that's a hard rule, or if some exceptions are ok.

I remember a xeon phi thread where we discussed about it and also linked some ongoing ebay listings in case one wanted to grab one, would this be ok or a no-no according to those rules?

[lewdicrous]

  On 10/16/2021 at 11:06 PM, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

I understand though it is impossible to be sure if the person asking has forgotten their password or just stole a laptop.

I don't know what criteria said post would have to meet in order to be classified as genuine help vs malicious act, or the likes.

 

I guess that would be up to the mods to decide on a case by case bases.

[Skiiwee29]

  On 10/16/2021 at 10:27 PM, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

Does this apply to instructing how to remove the Windows local account password?

Yes, this would be to circumnavigate restrictions that are in place on the device. Its not our fault/problem if someone forgot there password. Since it is done over the internet and we have no way of verifying that it is accurate, we err on the side of caution and proceed as if this is trying to get around restrictions or something more nefarious. 

[LogicalDrm]

  On 10/16/2021 at 10:57 PM, igormp said:

I'm wondering if that's a hard rule, or if some exceptions are ok.

I remember a xeon phi thread where we discussed about it and also linked some ongoing ebay listings in case one wanted to grab one, would this be ok or a no-no according to those rules?

That rule was already in place for last edition. As with others, it's looked on case-by-case. If there's something with linking that makes it look like advertising personal listing or it's done to harass seller, then it's not ok. But if its done by giving examples within subject of discussion, its usually fine.

[WhitetailAni]

Could a line or two on what you can put for your member title be added if it’s not there already? I didn’t see one.

[colonel_mortis]

  On 10/16/2021 at 11:37 PM, FakeKGB said:

Could a line or two on what you can put for your member title be added if it’s not there already? I didn’t see one.

There are no specific rules for member titles, because it's not something that's been problematic in the past. As long as it complies with the general rules, it's probably fine.

[LogicalDrm]

  On 10/16/2021 at 11:37 PM, FakeKGB said:

Could a line or two on what you can put for your member title be added if it’s not there already? I didn’t see one.

Question implies that you are trying to use profanity, ad or politics. Which are all already been ruled out.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

its been a hot minute since the old Standards were removed and was absent for a while 

[Moonzy]

  On 10/16/2021 at 7:45 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Signatures

• Text only, no images or other external content linked.
• No advertising or external links other than
  • a text link to your PC Part Picker profile
  • a text link to your Folding@Home or BOINC stats page

so no link to 3DMark is allowed?

[colonel_mortis]

  On 10/17/2021 at 12:47 AM, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

its been a hot minute since the old Standards were removed and was absent for a while 

No, it hasn't. The old topic is still visible, and has never been hidden.

 

  On 10/17/2021 at 12:55 AM, Moonzy said:

so no link to 3DMark is allowed?

Correct, you're going to have to remove that. This rule has been the same for a long time.

[Moonzy]

  On 10/17/2021 at 12:59 AM, colonel_mortis said:

Correct, you're going to have to remove that.

sure, i'll remove it

but can i know why though, but it's fine if it's a "just because"

[colonel_mortis]

  On 10/17/2021 at 1:05 AM, Moonzy said:

sure, i'll remove it

but can i know why though, but it's fine if it's a "just because"

Because the rules used to be that we don't allow any external links at all, to cut down on advertising etc (and because we don't want moderators to need to visit all the links in people's signatures to check if they're ok). We have since added a couple of common exceptions that are definitely safe, but there's not much reason to make that list much bigger given that things can be added to profiles too.

[Prodigy_Smit]

Ok so basically just a reformat. Nice.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

  On 10/17/2021 at 12:59 AM, colonel_mortis said:

No, it hasn't. The old topic is still visible, and has never been hidden.

the one from my signature has been dead for a while now.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/95599-linus-tech-tips-forum-code-of-conduct/

 

 

[Red :)]

  On 10/17/2021 at 6:42 AM, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

the one from my signature has been dead for a while now.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/95599-linus-tech-tips-forum-code-of-conduct/

 

 

that is not even the old version of CS, that is the predecessor for CS in the first place