Official Army.ca Conduct Guidelines: MUST READ

[Mike Bobbitt]

Please note that we do not wish to censor posts. In fact, it's just the opposite. As long as we keep things civil, there should be no need to close topics or delete posts. We don't want to limit subject matter either. We have the benefit of being outside the official umbrella, and can therefore discuss a wider array of topics, if we take certain precautions. It's not content so much as delivery that is usually the problem.

Definitions

• Personal Attack: Making an abusive remark on or relating to somebody's person instead of providing evidence when examining another person's claims or comments.
• Trolling: Making a deliberately offensive or provocative post, where the primary aim is upsetting someone or eliciting an emotional response from them.

Army.ca is an Unofficial Site
Army.ca is in no way connected to DND or the CF. Army.ca does not represent policy of the Canadian Forces in any way, and does not claim to do so. Opinions expressed on these pages are the sole responsibility of the individual posters, who may or may not be members of the Canadian Forces or other military or civilian organizations.

Protecting the CF Image
First and foremost, we're all representatives of the CF. We may not want to be, but ultimately, we don't have the luxury of choice. The truth is when you post a message even on an unofficial site like this, your comments reflect upon the CF. That's not to say we can't bemoan the current state of affairs - it's a soldier's age old right to complain. But let's keep it clean and dignified.

There's no way for a casual visitor to tell that you're "not in uniform, so these comments are mine." To a visitor, we are all a cross section of what the CF has to offer, which in many ways is a correct assumption. If all they see is a horde of posts rife with profanity and personal attacks, the CF gets a bad reputation. As we've witnessed many times in the past, the public relations fallout from problems with the CF can have consequences well beyond those involved. With so many hard working professionals in the CF, it would be a shame to have the name tarnished here.

Expectation of Respect between Users
All visitors, regardless of age, rank or experience are to be treated as equal unless their conduct dictates otherwise. That means the veteran servicemember and the green private are to assume that they have as much to benefit from the other as they have to offer the other until a reason to contrary is made known. Age, nor number of years excuses anyone from behaving in a manner that isn't civil and polite.

Personal Attacks
Army.ca has a zero tolerance policy for personal attacks, whether against another Army.ca member or a public figure. Posts that contain a personal attack should be summarily deleted, and the user should normally receive a warning. Personal attacks detract from the professionalism of the site and can sometimes cause serious problems for Army.ca as a whole.  See definition above.

Profanity
Profanity is discouraged.

Generally, there is a better way to express yourself than through the use of profanity, especially on the Internet where it can be hard to determine the intended tone. However, we recognize that Army.ca attracts a certain type of visitor, and that not all discussion topics are "family friendly" here by their nature. Still, profanity should not be "overused." There may be occasions where profanity is appropriate to underline your point or reinforce your emotion, however these should be few and far between. Please keep it within the bounds of civil society. There is an automatic censor system in effect by default, so those who are not concerned with profanity can simply disable it in their profile, while others can leave it enabled. In an effort to preserve civility, don't swear:

• excessively
• for the sake of swearing
• at someone else or as part of a personal attack
• to be obscene or extremely vulgar
• in the Cadet Forum (this is for young visitors, and has a zero tolerance policy)

If you break the rule in one of these ways, your post will be edited by the staff. If you have had profanity edited out of one of your posts, please don't argue why it didn't exactly fit one of the above criteria: if it was removed, it was inappropriate. If you habitually misuse profanity, you may receive a warning as per the warning system. You may not always be notified of an edit or the removal of a post. Please respect that the Staff have limited time, and are all volunteers. Therefore it is not always possible to send notifications.

Public Profiles
I strongly encourage you to fill out all the sections of your public profile that you're comfortable with. We respect your privacy and won't force you to fill out your profile if you don't want to. Bear in mind though, that the amount of identifiable info in your profile will increase your general credibility here. Those with empty profiles are much harder to verify and will have to put a lot more effort into building a credible presence here.

Unfortunately, we've had some cases where a visitor tries to exaggerate or invent stellar military experience. ("I was a special forces sniper, but I can't tell you about that as my file is sealed...") Please. Don't insult us with this drivel. It is always painfully obvious what your real experience is, and we're impressed with quiet professionalism, not open bragging. These guys inevitably get forced out in the open and eventually leave the forums in disgrace.

Cooperation with Directing Staff (Moderators)
In order to keep things running smoothly, the Directing Staff take an active role in day to day operations. We've found that some users are surprised by this "hands on" approach, especially those who are used to sites where moderators are not heavily involved. It is expected that everyone using this site will respect the authority given to the Staff. They volunteer their time and have been selected based on a proven track record at this site. They are charged with the policing of this site. Diplomatic criticism and debate of their role is accepted and encouraged. However, any hostile challenges to their authority will not be tolerated. If you feel you have been treated inappropriately, please send myself, or Scott a PM including details on the incident.

Professional Authors, Journalists, Retailers, Defence Contractors and Public Personalities
While authors, journalists, retailers, etc are encouraged to participate in the Forums, posts made for the purpose of self-promotion will be removed unless prior permission from the site owner has been granted. Interested parties should review the advertising options offered by Army.ca for more information.

Before posting article links, users are to read the thread re: Letter from David ******** in regard to Defamation/Libel by Mike Bobbitt/Army.ca and comply with the conditions set out in it.

Employees of defence contractors or consultants who are or have been employed by a defence contractor are required to disclose their employment in their profile before posting in a thread related, in any way, to their business/product.

Posting to the Boards
You are responsible for everything that you post and the tone in which it is posted.
The forums are completely public, meaning anyone can come here at any time and review the comments we make. Among the over 10,000 visitors we get every day are members of the press, senior DND officials and a slew of civilians. Visitors to this site range in age, but it is not at all uncommon for 14 year olds to visit, looking for information on a possible career choice. Bear in mind that messages here are never pruned. What you say now will be available on-line for years to come, easily found via search engines all over the Internet.

So before you post, imagine you're in uniform, talking to a room full of the press, 14 year old kids, your CO, and your grandmother.

In a nutshell, the hard and fast rules are as follows:

• You will not post sensitive or non-public information.
• You will not post any information that is offensive, defamatory, inaccurate, racist, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.
• You will not post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this site.
• You will not post any material which is knowingly false.
• You will not post advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or solicitations.
• You will not post links to sites whose content is in violation of the above rules.
• You will not attempt to bypass or subvert any of site controls or functions.
• You will not spam the boards. This is usually described as making the same post over and over, or the same post to multiple forums or threads. Accounts that are believed to be registered by bots or spammers will be immediately banned.
• You will not become an administrative burden to the Staff by intentionally or unintentionally creating significant work for them through your actions.
• Postings which are deemed inappropriate may be modified or removed.
• Accounts may not have inappropriate usernames, signatures or other account information.
• You will not troll the boards or feed the trolls. See definition above.
• You will not have multiple forum accounts without prior permission.
• You will not use excessive webspeak, or other shorthand styles of typing. Please use English or French to the best of your ability; this makes it easier for those who are not posting in their native language.
• You will properly attribute any quotes to the appropriate author or speaker.
• Users that ignore these rules or otherwise act inappropriately may be placed on warning or banned.
• A user may be banned if the Staff feel it is in the best interest of protecting our members.

You should report any post that is in violation of any of these guidelines or common sense to the moderators. We occasionally miss things, and it can be vigilant site members that allow us to keep the site moving smoothly and even remove content that is not legally appropriate. Once you have reported it, please refrain from replying and potentially further inflaming a matter. Allow the moderators time to view the report and respond, if necessary. You will not always be contacted re: reports, but you can PM a moderator to ask if you are so inclined.

Privacy
For details on Army.ca and your privacy, please see the Army.ca Privacy Policy.

Terms and Conditions
All users and visitors are required to read and agree with the Army.ca Terms and Conditions.

Applicability
The above rules apply to all communications and interactions involving Army.ca, public or private. This includes posts, private messages, contributions, uploads etc.

To sum up:
Use your common sense when posting.

Thanks for your cooperation,

Army.ca Staff

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Folks,

We've had a few instances lately where opinion and rumour have been presented as hard evidence. Unfortunately in many cases, the information is flat out wrong.

Due to the anonymous nature of these forums, it can be hard to tell if information is coming from someone in a position to know or just someone who "has a friend whose uncle served with the Botswana Defence Force in the 70's."

So our request is this: Please qualify unconfirmed information posted here.

That is, if you didn't witness it first hand or read it in the CFAO's, state that it's an opinion, rumour or best guess. We won't think any less of you for not "knowing" the information. In fact, we'll all appreciate the honesty, and it'll likely save readers heartache later on, when they find out (the hard way) that it wasn't exactly bang on. If you do know the source, please reference it with a link or include the related information in your post. If the source information is large or takes the discussion off topic you may want to consider making use of a footnote1 to provide references and sources that back up your claims.

There are lots of discussions which take place on this forum in which either none or all of us are "experts" in some way (politics, rifles, etc).  It's great that we can all discuss the daily news and have civil debate on contentious matters, however these boards are no different than the real world, and if you provide information to back up your claim, you better be willing to give us some proof.  If you base your opinions off of hearsay and rumor, be prepared to be called to task when you use up bandwidth on this board to tell us about it.

The only other alternative is to treat every bit of information posted here as heresay, which essentially makes the forums useless.

So please, make it very clear when you're posting the degree to which your information is confirmed. Opinions and best guesses are OK, just don't present them as being the DS solution.


Cheers and thanks


Mike Bobbitt


1.  Mike Bobbitt, Conduct Guidelines.  2006




Note: Here's the "code" you can use to create a proper footnote:

If the source information is large or takes the discussion off topic you may want to consider making use of a footnote1 to provide references and sources that back up your claims.


[SIZE=11px]1.  Mike Bobbitt, [url=http://Army.ca/forums/threads/24937.0.html]Conduct Guidelines[/url].  2005[/SIZE]

 

[Jarnhamar]

New members/posters joining the site- just a heads up

Heres a few points I've seen cause many many (avoidable) arguments in the few years I've posted here. Not to sound condisending, it's just better when new members stick around and contribute to the board and not just butt heads with everyone.

Regimental Avatars-Before you use a regiment/units capbadge as an avatar give it some thought.
Yes it's an unofficial site. You could put the PPCLI, RCR, 82nd airborne, SAS, JTF, some reserve regiment avatar up as your own. Theres no rule saying you can't.
If your not in that specific regiment your probably going to take flak from people who are. It's just a picture yes but some people work VERY hard to get to where they are and might not like you using it (Which will lead 99% of the people to believe your actually IN that regiment) Who really cares? Well if you want to join the RCRs and you have some questions about the regiment BUT you pissed off the guys currently serving with them where are you going to be? You might not get the answers your looking for. Personally I'm not going to be a jerk to someone using my regiments capbadge as an avatar but I won't be all buddy buddy with them either.  I don't like the idea of someone not in my regiment using the avatar because if they are a jerk, act like an idiot or start posting stupid and wrong information, it will make MY regiment look bad.

Using rank-The same goes for rank guys. It's not an official site but if you put down your a Sgt or captain and you start making posts some people will believe your opinion is that of said rank and not whatever you actually are. (be it civilian, private, cadet etc..).
Some of us will know the difference, others won't.  If someone asks a question "Captain Assault Rifle"with the RCR cap badge avatar and captain rank (WHO is a well spoken 15 year old kid interested in army stuff who posts on lots of message boards) answers the question, the poster might think the answer is comming from a Captain in the RCR. Who cares? Well theres a good chance the answer could be wrong, it gives the RCR a bad name ("Ya some officer in the RCR told me he doesn't think cadets need to take any drill during basic training!") and gives the site a bad name. You also get a wrong answer so your time is wasted.
Cadets should indicate their rank by prefixing it with "Cadet" or "C/" E.G. "C/MCpl" or "Cadet MWO" for clarity.

Posting military experience- You don't need to post your military experience (past or present) but it helps. If you sign up and start answering questions about specific courses/trade requirements/the drawbacks of the C7 and your profile is empty then were going to question where you got your information. Why? For you guys. We want to make sure your questions are being answered by someone who knows the answers first hand and not just through what they saw on another army forum.  Theres a big difference between knowing the requirements for the jump course because you tried out and "knowing" the requirements for the course because you heard about it from a guy at work who knew someone in cadets who took the course X years ago.  You could spend days reading posts where a poster tries to help another poster with a question but is wrong and has to be corrected. This confuses you & clogs the forums.  When you ask an important question would you prefer the answer comming from a qualified person or unqualified person? Posting your mil-exp helps with this.

User names-Some people use their real name, others are a little more private and don't. Whatever you decide for your nickname use common sense. Your name is the FIRST thing posters here will notice. Not your military experience, not your ingenious post, but your user name. If it's something stupid or offensive your post/opinion won't get as much attention as your name. Whats stupid and offensive? Well if you don't know what a stupid or offensive nick name is then maybe this isn't the right site for you. If your REALLY unsure then ask. "Is this user name appropriate" and someone will tell you. If you get told it's inappropriate (wether you asked or not) have the humility to change it and don't flip out over it. What good is posting on a site if no one will give your opinion any credit because their too busy telling you to change your name?

Smiley faces- In some situations using them makes a good laugh or adds to your point. Don't make half your post smiley faces because it uses up limited bandwith AND more so it just looks stupid and childish.

Swearing- Swearing won't offend most of us. People swear, it's life. If you swear 30 times in a 50 word post, well your just going to look like an idiot. If you need to swear to get your point across you should go back to school.

Pissed off- If your pissed off at someones opinion, didn't like it being pointed out your only a civilian and shouldn't be answering questions directed at the military, don't like whatever else, don't flip out. Don't slam the reply button and start typing away, give it a little time before you write back so you don't say something stupid (possibly getting the staff after you) then have to turn around and apologize for freaking out. As you might guess, discipline is a big thing in the military. Flipping out over the internet swearing your head off calling people names and basically going berserk is going to make you look pretty stupid to most of the posters here. Likewise if your first post is a hot headed reply to something someone said 4 months ago, your going to get laughed at.  Your going to get more respect looking like an educated well informed CALM poster then someone so pissed off they can't even form proper sentences.

If your pissed off and are leaving/not going to post here anymore don't be a moron about it, just leave. Don't start making stupid posts, start fights or make up a whole bunch of fake names. Yes we can tell your using fake names. Ever watch COPS and a criminal gets caught and makes up a stupid excuse? "Oh those aren't my drugs that you just found in my pocket, someone put them there." Well thats what your "ya sorry about those fake names it was my room mate who is an anti-war hippie who always posts under my name and hates you guys" excuse sounds like sounds like. Your not clever or special, those dumb little tricks/attitudes are nothing new and yes we've seen it before and we'll see it again.

Reg force vs reserves. Army vs Navy vs AirForce

http://Army.ca/forums/threads/19300.0.html

sorry but im not going to fail this like you did your mighty mo QL3 course buddy.

well i see you guys are sitting on the internet while you should be at work, or are you all just maggots who pretend to be in the army and come onto a website to talk about how tough you are and how many kills you got on roto 15 in bosnia

(ignore the fact that when he was criticising people about posting messages when they should be at work, it was at 2:30 in the afternoon)

No one really cares if your in the Reg forces or Reserves. If your in the Army, navy or Airforce.  Not everyone in the Canadian Forces is going to be a regular force infantry sniper or interested in joining the JTF.  Some people like flying, others like sailing, others like working outdoors while some still prefer being in an office. Some make a career out of the Canadian Forces, some go to school full time or have jobs/careers but still want to do their part or do as much as they can. Who cares everyone has their own interests, reasons for joining and goals.

People are going to pick on each other now and then with an understanding in the end everyone has an important role.
If you come here and try to lord your trade or component  over someone else, everyone is going to point at you and think your an idiot.

 

[Michael OLeary]

Welcome to Army.ca,

Asa new member interested in the Canadian Forces and military subjects in general, you have the opportunity to use Army.ca as a valuable source of information in preparation for joining the CF (if that is your intent) or to learn more about the CF for others.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, though Adjutants do get accused of being anal-retentive occasionally, let me repost a few comments I have made to other recent posters who showed enthusiasm, and yet impatience, with more senior board members:

Army.ca has, as of this morning, over 28,000 members who have made over a half million posts. That count doesn't even include the non-specific content of the Radio Chatter board. The members range from senior retired officers and NCOs, through the entire range of ranks and trades in the CF, to many young Canadians like yourself seeking information about the CF a military topics in general.

With the thousands of years of military experience represented on the forums, and the addition of new accounts like your own every week, wouldn't you suppose that there are few original topics that you're likely to come up with off the top of your head.

We do try and be as patient as possible with newcomers. That's why they get directed, sometimes repeatedly, to the search function. We accept that you may not have a good grasp of the required vocabulary to form effective searches immediately, but this, like all of life, is a learning process.

Jumping into the boards with a bunch of unresearched questions is unlikely to endear you to the regulars. Much work has been done to structure the boards by topic, and to create FAQs to assist new members. But the new members have to learn to listen, pay attention, research and read. You'll get some assistance when you find yourself at loose ends and can't figure out how to find a topic, but no-one's going to spoonfeed you data that can be found with a little time and effort.

The CF puts geat stock in initiative and responsibility. Take the time to explore the forum contents, read along and you will quickly see whose posts are worth following for consistently good content, ans which are simply static.

You may find your first day on the baord frustrating as you clash with the forum's operating method. It's up to you to determine if this will lead to a fatal conclusion on your account (see the Warning System post under Conduct Guidelines thread in the Army.ca Admin board).

We applaud your enthusiasm, but would appreciate it being kept under control as you learn how Army.ca works. I would recommend that you put youself on listening watch for a while (that's when a radio callsign monitors a net but does not transmit) and follow along.

Learn to use the search function, and explore the various forums, and not just the current threads. Find and read the various FAQs, especially those under Recruiting and Infantry. Also browse some of the member's profiles, that will give you an idea of where they are coming from, note that there are some very experienced people who don't post often, that's because they wait until they have something concrete to contribute.

If you take the time to read only 1% of the threads covering subjects you are interested in, you will be able to start fresh with a much stronger perception of the forum's operating methods, tone, expectations of you as a member and its potential value to you as an interested future [service member].

Welcome to Army.ca. You'll find that there is a wealth of information as you explore the site for available information on Canada's military. Because many questions have already been asked and explored in detail, a good understanding of the Conduct Guidelines and familiarity with the search functions are highly recommended:

Conduct Guidelines - http://forums.Army.ca/forums/threads/24937.0.html
Search page - http://forums.Army.ca/forums/index.php?action=search;advanced

...

Enjoy your reading, and by all means, when the threads you are reading don't answer your particular questions, please add your new query to the most appropriate thread.

Cheers

Welcome to Army.ca.

 

[3rd Herd]

Okay first off this topic is a result of a question posed to myself by another site member. I was asked to explain why I use software to examine questionable portions of work that has been submitted to myself to in order to satisfy course requirements. With the advent of computers and widespread Internet use a highly significant number of both pre and post secondary institutions realized that there was a corresponding rise in plagiarism. Which ranges from cutting and pasting a quote or two, to purchasing a complete written paper from one of the various Internet paper mills. Again referring back to the Internet boom, yes there is a fountain of information now available but how much of that information is accurate. For example one so called Internet encyclopedia recently stated that MCPL Franklin is going to receive the Victoria Cross.

In regard to this site there are posted requests in the guidelines "where applicable cite your source, especially if it is something either extraordinary interesting or controversial." Next with as many members as this site has who knows what will interest another member further or assist another member in his/hers own research. Now we are all human and I will be the first to admit that at first I was not following this a religiously as I should have been. So in an effort to assist us all here is the following from the University of Calgary:

Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas in written or  oral presentations and passing them off as your own. If you are charged with plagiarism, you can fail an assignment, fail a course, or be suspended from the University.

This can include: 
• Passing off the work of others as your own.

• Submitting an essay that you have entirely (or partially)  copied.

• Using wording from published material (including material found on the Web) without using quotation marks or citing the source.

• Paraphrasing (rewriting in your own words) ideas or information from published or spoken material without citing the source. An exception is information that is common knowledge (i.e. you don’t need to cite well-known scientific or historical facts). You do have to cite claims and you do have to cite statistics.

COMMON KNOWLEDGE: facts that do not have to be referenced.
Example: Paul Martin was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada on December 12, 2003.

However….if you went on to list a number of his policies – you would have to reference those facts because they are not well-known and subject to change.

STATS: The source of statistical information must be referenced because numbers change and claims are made based on that information.
Example: 46 percent of the population enjoys potato chips. (When was the survey? Who did it?)

CLAIMS: Ideas that require research must be referenced (either the claim itself – or how you came to that conclusion).
Example: Verdana is the best font style to use when writing web pages. (Are you an expert? You need credible research to support this statement.)

WHEN IN DOUBT: if you’re not sure if it’s common knowledge or a claim…find a reference and cite it!!

Lastly, besides student papers I have run a few more spectacular posts through the software. A few members are now on my permanent ignore list. Quoting, Sgt Joe Friday in the TV series Dragnet "just the facts ma'mm"

 

[kratz]

All,

Here at Milnet.ca, we seem to have established conflicting & incompatible expectations of forum behaviour. 

One area this site differs from other sites, is with the idea of necroposting.  Here, you are encouraged to post in existing topics. The warning that appears before you post,  is a reminder if you are responding to an older post, as that person may no longer be active on the site.

To successfully search for a topic, read through the site wiki for current CAF terms or phrases to use with this Google search term. Example:  “site:army.ca BMQ haircuts”

The search result will often show you multiple threads on the topic you are searching for. This is why we are working hard to merge topics and make it simple to find answers, along with valuable past discussions.

If you are concerned about a post, use the “report to moderator function” to pass along your comment and a DS will review it to see if any action should be taken. After your report, please allow some time for staff to review your comments, and the post in question, and do not reply so as to further steer something off topic.

This is your unofficial online resource for the Canadian Armed Forces. As a community, let’s work together to make it as effective and useful we can.

Regards,
The Navy.ca Forums Team.

 

[Scott]

All,

Recently, and not so recently, we have had some work created for the Staff because users report posts and then reply to the post they reported.

A reminder:

You should report any post that is in violation of any of these guidelines or common sense to the moderators. We occasionally miss things, and it can be vigilant site members that allow us to keep the site moving smoothly and even remove content that is not legally appropriate.

After you have reported the post, you are not to reply to it. You are to allow the Staff enough time to read the report, view the information, and form a response (if one is warranted).

Example: someone calls you an arsehole. You don't like that. You bang the report post button and ask the Staff to kindly reign in the dude calling you names. All well and good to that point. But then you get pissed off and mash the reply button and go all, "OH YEAH?" and chuck your own names at buddy.

So now you have expanded a situation by adding further to it. You've also run afoul of the guidelines you want us to enforce on another. Lastly, you've created more work for us by adding more content to wade through, and sometimes it's not just dropping a name into the conversation - it can be loads of posts to get through.

Again, if you wish to report a post then please do so. This is the single best way to get someone to look into it as an email is generated to all Staff.

Thanks for your cooperation.

 

[kratz]

All,

As a reminder. The value of Milnet.ca is the quality of informed, educated and reasoned discussion of Canadian Armed Forces topics.
There has been a growing trend to "post and go", to 'score' a point

IAW Conduct Guidelines , posts that do not substantially contribute to discussion will be removed.
Example:
- .
-  , other emoties ect...