This Ain’t a Wrestling Ring

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park - but you won’t need your skates. :ice_skate:

Like a park, this is a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

The below aren’t hard and fast rules, just guidelines to aid the judgment of the kind, thoughtful humans in our community, and keep this a clean and safe place for civilized bass forum-ing.

Post Cool Stuff

This community does an awesome job of consistently sharing valuable and insightful questions and comments. No question is too silly or basic, if you really want to know the answer. No musical opinion is too out there, as long as it’s spoken respectfully.

You can help keep the forum organized by using the Search function before you start a new thread - someone might have already asked the same question you have, or brought up the same topic.

And feel free to reply to old topics (sometimes called "necroposting) - it’s a great way to help people find older posts that are still relevant, instead of creating clutter with new threads.

Be Cool

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s totally welcome, but remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful counter-arguments that improve the conversation. Remember that there’s a real person on the other side of every screen.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for keeping the forum free of spammers and jerks.

But you can help by flagging inappropriate content. When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Don’t Be a Jerk

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness, so:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive or abusive.
  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
  • Swearing is okay, as long as it’s tasteful and not directed at anybody. Asterisks, @'s, #'s and the like help swearing come across more mildly, so please c*ns@r your s**t as you see fit. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
  • Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
  • Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the newspaper. (if you can even remember what newspapers used to look like)

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Start topics in the right category.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Don’t Steal Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

Powered by You

This site is operated by your friendly neighborhood bass teacher and you, the community. Following these guidelines is part of how we keep this the friendliest bass forum on the interwebs.

If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a flag, contact Josh directly so he can help you out.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.