Notice New & Updated GIRS Policies

The Board of Directors has voted some new policies into place and updated some existing policies & guidelines.

These have been placed on the Help page, which can be accessed via the "Help" link on the lower right-hand corner of each page, as well as via a tab on the Nav Bar at the top right-hand corner of each page.

Here's a summary:

#1 User Agreement

The previous "Terms & Conditions" or User Agreement was pretty much non-existent; it was the default one that came with Xenforo, and before that, it was the default one that came with the previous forum software - which even had the incorrect city/state (California?) for the jurisdiction!. Examples of other forum User Agreements were reviewed and I went through a few of these with a fine tooth comb to come up with this one. Now at first glance it might seem pretty huge, but this doesn't mean anything has changed regarding how the Board of Directors will moderate things, it just means that how everything has pretty much been getting done is now in writing, so if anything does come up, the BoD at least has something to fall back on.

There are a few changes written into this that you may note if you read it carefully enough. For instance, the Classifieds section says that only GIRS Members can create a new listing...but until that's enforced (by permissions and/or a separate addon to Xenforo), it's the same as it was before (more on Classifieds below)

#2 Discipline Policy

This was established earlier this year as we really didn't have one in place. This policy will remain in place until the tools that are built into Xenforo can be evaluated.

#3 Classified Guidelines

You might recognize this as part of the old Buy/Sell/Trade guidelines. These are essentially the section of that guideline that suggested how you should craft your listing, and nothing more. The rest of the items in that guideline really belonged in the User Agreement and the #4 policy (see below)

What is noticeable is the obvious change in terminology from "Buy/Sell/Trade" to "Classifieds". This is because 1) Classifieds encompasses all types of transactions, and 2) there is a Classifieds add-on that I am evaluating that may replace the forum-based B/S/T (and feedback) sections of GIRS. For now, it's status quo.

#4 Forum User Roles

So this is what most would consider the major change. This is a brainchild that I spawned a while back and it just took some time for all of us on the BoD to hammer it all out to where it worked right. So we'll see how this goes...adjustment might need to be made!

Basically, I was looking for a way to stop finger-pointing and drama around who is a hobbyist and who is a business and all that hullabaloo. What we came up with is an extension of the GIRS Member role, aptly named GIRS Premium Member.

The original purpose behind establishing this role was to account for the "more than a hobbyist" type of situation, but this role will be made available to anyone who wants it as long as they meet the conditions listed in the Forum User Roles document. More details about what benefits you get by being a GIRS Premium Member will be listed in the Club Business section of the Club Members Forum.

Well that's it for now.

If you have any questions at all, please ask. I or one of the other BoD members will try to answer your question as best possible.

 

It's also a rather annoying kids' game