CRF GUIDELINES

What is a sysop? A sysop (system operator) is a CRF staff member. Sysops of the CRF are your hosts, and they are vested with the authority to make the final call as to whether infractions of the guidelines below have taken place, and to take whatever actions are necessary and appropriate in order to address such violations. Sysops are unpaid volunteers who give generously of their time and expertise in order to enhance your experience on the CRF, so be nice to the sysops. They're your friends. (You will find the Sysop roster HERE.)

Your Court Reporters Forum membership being a privilege, not a right, the benefits that flow from that membership will be accessible to you for so long as you conduct yourself in accordance with the forum guidelines below.

A) Avoid the use of profanity. Messages that contain profane materials will be immediately removed from public view, after which you will receive a private warning from the Forum Manager, reiterating that profanity is not allowed on the CRF.

B) Though dissenting opinions and debate are encouraged, on those occasions when you find it necessary to disagree with another member, do so without impugning the integrity, intentions, or character of the member you are addressing; in other words, personal attacks will not be tolerated on the CRF.

C) Without the express written permission of the author(s), you are not allowed to post on the CRF material from other sources, e.g., Web sites, magazines, newspapers, E-mails, private messages, etc. If you post such copyrighted materials, they will be immediately removed from public view, you will be notified by a sysop or the Forum Manager of such action, and you will be asked to provide a link to the text rather than the text itself. 

Exception: You are allowed, under the educational copyright exception, to post text from English style manuals and dictionaries for so long as you identify the source of the material(s) you are posting.

D) If you post messages that are deemed, for whatever reason, to be inappropriate, they will be removed from public view, and you will be notified, by a CRF sysop or the Forum Manager, of the reason(s) for taking such action.

E) You are allowed to post advertisements for businesses, products, and/or services on the CRF, but only those that are directly related to the court reporting profession. All such advertisements must be posted in the Classifieds section.

NOTE: Agency owners, reporters, scopists, proofreaders, and/or videographers, you are not allowed to post specific rates (or ranges of rates) for the services you provide or that you seek. Messages containing references to such specific rates (or ranges of rates) will be immediately removed from public view.

F) Please refrain from posting duplicate messages on the CRF. Select the folder that is most appropriate for your message, while keeping in mind that duplicate messages will be immediately removed from public view.

G) Consecutive messages within the same forum discussion are referred to as "threads." When posting to threads on serious topics (as opposed to chit-chat threads), please make an effort to keep your comments within the subject matter of the thread so as to avoid what we call "thread drift," where a thread that starts out on one subject ends up being about other another subject. For sysops and members, avoiding thread drift will be helpful when searching for threads on specific subjects. Upon the first violation of any of the above guidelines, an official warning will be issued by the Forum Manager. If that warning is ignored and the violation is repeated, your CRF membership privileges may be revoked by the Forum Manager, after which you will no longer be able to access the CRF.

It's very simple, actually: When you come to the Court Reporters Forum, be as polite and respectful of others as you would be when sitting in the living room of a friend's home. Civil discourse and professional conduct, even in the course of expressing strong disagreement, is expected of all CRF members at all times.