Admin

General Chit-Chat

This section is for non-quilting discussions and pictures.

As before, politics and religion are off limits here, just like in all other sections of the board. Those two topics always seem to end up in disaster and hurt feelings.

For the sake of accommodating users with different levels of involvement, we've split the "off-topic" discussions on this board into two sections: General Chit-Chat (GCC) and Personal Diaries and Announcements (PDA).

Here, I'll outline which types of posts are allowed in GCC, while other (more personal) posts should go into PDA.

This section exists for people to "take a break" from quilting and talk about other things.

It's for discussions, pictures and links on various general topics of interest.

GCC is the place to have a "light" non-quilting conversation with others; a place to mingle around and socialize.

Here are some examples of personal topics that are OK in GCC:

- Pictures of your family, pets, vacation trips, far-away places, etc.
- Links to the wacky and way out things you've run across.
- Seeking advice not related to quilting (example: buying a new camera, do pythons make good pets? how many pecks would a woodchuck pick if a woodchuck could pick pecks?) :)
- Positive or neutral events in your life or your surroundings that you feel would be of interest to others.
- Positive or neutral announcements, such as birthdays, weddings, etc.
- Consumer alerts that have been confirmed but aren't yet widely publicized.
- Clean jokes.
- Major events occurring "right now".
- Non-quilting group activities (Mare Stare and Word Association Game come to mind).

The above list is not all-inclusive, but only serves to illustrate the "spirit" of this section.

If it's too personal, too graphic or might make others feel uncomfortable, then please take it to PDA.

All prayer requests should go into PDA.

All "negative" personal announcements should go into PDA, where people who know you well can follow up.

If you are experiencing a personal crisis, a tragedy, a serious illness, or if you just want to vent or if you need support of others because of a personal problem, then PDA is a more appropriate place to post.

It's OK to post in GCC if you have a question or seek advice on some personal matter. But if the thread turns into a "venting/attention-seeking" session, the moderators will lock it and ask you to continue the conversation in the PDA section, where the people close to you can easily follow up.

The sames goes for jokes or any other topic that has the potential to get out of hand. If the conversation shifts to the point of being either too personal or too offensive, then the moderators might lock the topic and post a notice advising you to continue in the PDA section, where the guidelines are much more relaxed.

Preventing any one type of topics from dominating the section

We want to keep the GCC section of the board engaging and entertaining for all users. To do that, we need diversity.
The only way to maintain diversity of topics in the section is to limit the spread (or escalation) of any one type of topic. We ask you to be active in maintaining the diversity so that we don't have to enforce the moderator controls.

Here is what I mean. If today you open up the section listing and see a bunch of topics with jokes, then please don't post yet another joke. This would simply add to the existing "flood" of similar topics and push all other conversations down the list.

The same goes not just for jokes, but for all types of topics.

We need to have a little bit of everything in this section, so that every user can find something of interest.

If your post gets deleted

...then don't take it personally. If there is some serious problem, then the moderators are going to PM you and explain what they think about your post and why it was deleted.

Most of the time, if some corrective action is required, we'll simply lock the thread and post an explanation of the reasons why it has been locked.

Exceptions

If one user gets ill or something else happens and she can't update her PDA to let others know, then another user can post a notice about it in GCC. But before doing that, please make sure you clear it with the moderators.