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General Messages Rules - READ BEFORE POSTING: Updated September 2023: Thread approval

Annoucements 
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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
All posters should adhere to the forum-wide rules when posting in general messages.
To ensure that everyone is able to participate in the General Messages forum, be sure to adhere to the following set of additional rules that apply specifically to the general messages section:​
Rules when posting in GM:
(1) Try to avoid discussions that are unrelated to the main subject of threads. Posts that deviate significantly from the main point of a thread may be removed, or a thread may be closed when it has veered off topic, or is no longer generating any useful discussion.​
If a thread you have started seems to have disappeared and does not appear to have been merged in with another that is on a similar topic, it means that your thread has been deemed inappropriate by the moderators and removed. Explanation can be sought from the GM moderators if this causes confusion, but continued attempts to create the same thread after deletion will not be tolerated.​
(2) Do not start duplicate threads. This is especially annoying if the identical subject was already brought up by another poster just a few days ago. Use the search function and/or make sure that an identical or very related topic was not started by somebody else by looking at the next pages of the forum. If you would like to bring up an issue again, simply post in the older thread(s).
(3) Make sure the thread you are about to start is worthy of discussion and is related to tennis. The fact that this forum is called "General Messages" does not mean that anything goes here.​
(i) Please do not start threads just to get answers about a matter in a short period of time. Have in mind that every separate section of the board has a purpose.​
(ii) 2021 UPDATE: Exceptions for the types of threads allowed in GM may be made at certain times with moderator approval, usually when no professional tennis is being played. Some of these exceptions include, but are not limited to:​
  • Tennis topics that would usually belong in other areas of the forum, but contain useful for the general public. (ie. where to find tennis on television, tennis live-scoring apps, and tennis betting sites)
  • Tennis or MTF Games - Tennis Elbow, Tennis Draw Games, MTF's ACC & Popularity Contests, etc.
  • Tennis Charity Events or Fundraisers
All threads may eventually be moved back to their usual locations on the forum and the OP will be notified.

(ii) Do not start threads with the sole intention of bashing a player. E.g. "player X is a loser", or "player Y is a choker", or "I hate player Z". Conversely, threads made solely to praise your favorite player (e.g. "I love player X”, “Player Y is the best ever”) are better fit for the player's own forum.​
(iii) Refrain from starting threads or derailing existing ones with the sole intention of speculating on a delicate issue involving a particular player unless there is an actual outside source/link to back the story up. That includes doping and match-fixing allegations, as well as gossip about the given player's personal life.
(iv) The following type of threads/discussions go into the respective tournament forums:
  • daily order of play (OOP)
  • TV schedules
  • questions about attending the tournament
  • tournament draws and resulting discussion (with exception of the 4 Grand Slams + Masters)

(v) Threads regarding doubles go in the doubles forum. (except Davis Cup ties)
(vi) Threads that are related to tennis (e.g. players, fans, coaches), but are not about the game itself, belong in the tennis off-topic forum.
(vii) Threads about minor happenings
  • involving a single player (e.g. change of sponsor, off-court action) are not of general interest and belong into the player forums.
  • in general, or just overly repeated topics will be merged and/or deleted up to the discretion of the responsible moderators.
(viii) Personal questions about your and other posters' tenn is game, or tennis equipment, go in the amateur tennis forum.​
(ix) Threads about gambling strategies, betting odds etc. go in the gamblers lounge.​
(x) If you have a tennis blog/site and wish to post your articles here to open a discussion, go to the Fan Blogs section.​
(xi) Exhibitions are not meant to be taken seriously, so please don't start pre-match polls or post-match result threads here about exhibition matches. You can use the exhibitions forum for more detailed info and discussions.​
(xi.1) Hopman Cup is allowed to be discussed in GM, as it is an official ITF event, but make sure match threads are created ONLY for mens' matches and that all mixed match/womens' match talk is focused in the tournament's main thread.​
(xii) Threads about women's tennis (WTA) are not permitted on this board, neither is livescoring womens tennis matches on the livescore threaf. If you wish to discuss the WTA, go to our sister site Tennis Forum
(xiii) Discussion of live matches is only allowed in the live scores and commentary thread in GM.​
(4) Do not create threads​
  • about results before the matches are really completed (e.g. "Player A def. Player B 6-4 6-4").
  • about premature discussions of draws until the draw is released.

(5) Do not start threads without substance or without anything worthy to discuss. Examples:​
  • "XXXX should retire" (for a young player after losing a random match)
  • "XXXX will win Roland Garros" (for a #200 ranked player)
  • "XXXX and YYYY would make a great couple"
  • threads which are deemed as trolling or baiting attempts, or just to gain attention

If necessary, new rules may be added, and existing rules may be edited. Please be sure to follow these guidelines. Failure to comply with the thread guidelines may result in your thread being modified, closed, or removed. Failure to follow the posting guidelines may result in warnings or infractions. An accumulation of infraction points may result in an automatic temporary ban.​
 
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#3 · (Edited)
Amendment #2:

(7) Thread titles of match results or match predictions [WWW] (and their respective polls) should contain only objective details about the match itself. Nicknames (as per amendment 1), subjective details (e.g. trolls past, mugs past, saves the tournament, roasts, servebots, destroys, mark my words, etc.) and other personal opinions are not allowed. Objective details on the match, as long as they fit inside the title (saves MP, 15 y.o.) are allowed.​
 
#4 ·
GM Moderation Severity Increase

With the rise of the new The Ruins section (where posters with more than 300 posts can enter), we encourage everyone to take baiting and trolling there and leave GM clean. This means that the following kind of posts will be sanctioned more severely in GM:
- Threads and posts that call on posters when their favorite player loses or provoke others (baiting).
- Threads and posts that add 0 value to a thread by repeating old cliche MTF lingo. (trolling)
- Threads and posts that disrupt the forum only meant to increase post count, annoy or attract attention to the OP (forum disruptions)
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
To the MTF user community,

As our site has recently experienced a major update, the moderation team has collectively decided to update some of the site wide rules and regulations to be up to speed with the new forum. In particular, the infraction system has experienced an overhaul.

We would like the forum experience to be as pleasant as possible for everyone. Therefore there are some important rules to adhere to that all members of the forum are expected to adhere to. These rules have remained unchanged from before the forum update, but the consequences and how we police these have been updated. Please take your time to familiarise yourself with the rules and the updated infraction system as per the link below.


A major summary of the changes are provided as follows:

1) All previous infractions and warnings acquired before the major forum update are now considered defunct. That's right, all warnings (yellow cards) or infractions (red cards) from the past no longer count. Everyone gets a clean slate, but only for any warnings/infractions made prior to the forum update.

2) If you are found to be in breach of a site rule, you may be notified formally of a warning (yellow card, only for first offences) or an infraction (red card, applied after warnings, or sometimes immediately to first offences where deemed serious enough). These come in three major categories: minor, medium and severe.
Ban lengths are now determined not by individual offence type, but major category.
For example, trolling and forum disruptions are both considered minor infractions. Getting a red card for both now stacks the ban length cumulatively (so rather than a 1 day ban issued for each offence type, it will be 3 days ban for the 2nd red card of the overarching category).

The details for these offence types and categories they fall under are listed in the site wide rules and regulations link above, or in the spoilers below [click to open].

 

Offense Types & Ban Lengths
Minor Infractions

Code:
Baiting
Doping Allegations
Forum Disruptions
Match Fixing Allegations
Signature Rule Violations
Trolling
Code:
1st Red Card - 1 day
2nd Red Card - 3 days
3rd Red Card - 1 week
4th Red Card - 3 weeks
5th Red Card - 1 month
6th Red Card - 6 weeks
...Permanent Ban warning following 6th offense in single category
Medium Infractions
Code:
Editing Over a Moderator’s Change
Inappropriate Language
Moderator Bashing
Persistent Forum Disruptions
Personal Attack
Porn
Posting for a Banned Member
Code:
1st Red Card - 10 days
2nd Red Card - 3 weeks
3rd Red Card - 1 month
4th Red Card - 2 months
...Permanent ban warning following 4th offense in the single category
Severe Infractions
Code:
Discriminatory Remarks
Harassment
Uttering Threats
Violation Privacy
Wishing Death
Wishing Injury
Code:
1st Red Card - 1 month
2nd Red Card - 2 months
...Permanent ban warning following 2nd offense in the single category
Spam (Advertising)/Multiple Accounts/Using a Second Account While Banned
Code:
1st Red Card - 3 months
...Permanent ban warning following 1st offense in the single category
Custom Infractions
Code:
They may be given in special cases or for offenses that do not fit exactly
under one of those listed above.
Permanent Ban (1 year) Warnings
Code:
Permanent ban warnings will be given if a user fits into one of the following criteria:
1. A user has accumulated 6 minor infractions (expired or not)
2. A user has accumulated 4 medium infractions
3. A user has accumulated 2 severe infractions
4. A user has accumulated 6 total infractions of any kind
Permanent Bans
Code:
Once issued a permanent ban warning, the next infraction of any kind will lead
to a one year ban. Once the user is eligible to return, the next infraction
of any kind will result in a permanent ban with no possibility of reinstatement.
3) The criteria for permanent ban warning has now been adjusted. Please see the bottom of the above spoiler for details.

4) Changes to the appeal procedures are stated here Appeal Process or Appeal Procedures

The email address to send your appeals is appealmod@mail.com

5) New users are to adhere to the New User Trial Period which will last for 6 months from the date you have joined the forum. After 6 months, you'll be treated as a normal user. Violation of the New User Trial Period will result in a permanent ban. See below for how it would be approached generally:

 
Code:
- Warning given for first offence in minor/medium infraction category
- 1 month ban for first offence in severe infraction category
- Subsequent infraction in any category will result in a permanent ban
However, Moderators will have the liberty to instantly ban a new user permanently if they deem fit.

---

If you have any queries or comments about some of these changes, please do not hesitate to contact a moderator by conversation, or through the "Ask MTF mods" thread Ask MTF Mods.

Thank you for your cooperation,

The MTF Moderation Team
 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
We have stated already a few weeks ago that we're reflecting on our moderation style in GM and have asked for patience about a definite answer to the inquiries of several posters. In the light of recent events and posts, we have all come to the conclusion that we want to re-enforce our rules in General Messages and remind you of the following ones, which have been broken several times the past days:

  • Personal Attack/Player Bashing
Some minor types of name calling or words like clown, mug etc. will be tolerated. However harsher words like idiot, piece of trash, retarded etc. will not be accepted and will constitute as a personal attack. Especially due to recent events a lot of players have received criticism which was low down and been called unheard names. This will be monitored strictly and accordingly sanctioned.

  • Persistent Forum Disruptions
This will include especially any kind of political issues which are not connected to the topic of the thread. So you can for example criticise the Australian government for the way they handled the situation with Djokovic for example, but you can not criticise Canadian's government in a match thread to let some steam off about your personal situation. Political posts on covid or posts on covid, vaccination and its side effects will not be tolerated in GM and accordingly sanctioned then. Please talk about these matters in Non-Tennis, The Ruins, in Off-Topic or somewhere else. Political posts in GM will strictly not be allowed and they will be deleted.

  • Discriminatory remarks
Remarks of xenophobic or racist character against any country, being part of the so called Western or Eastern world, will get deleted and sanctioned in GM.

  • Backseat Moderation/Moderator bashing
Questioning moderation team’s decisions in public for its sole purpose to ridicule the moderation team could be followed by a warning at least. We take care to decide prudently by exchanging each other’s ideas and non-moderators know barely what there is behind the scenes. The Ask the Mods-thread will not be used anymore for more information about a ban which isn't even about oneself. The only information that the mods are willing to disclose about a ban are listed in the banned users thread. Another important thing to take note is that you also cannot harass MTF staff members privately off MTF by sending hurtful messages to their MTF emails, personal emails, what’s app or other form of social media accounts, especially in regards to MTF related matters. Otherwise, infraction will be given.


If in doubt, please ask a moderator prior to posting. We remind you to post moderately in GM and from this announcement on threads which are not about the game of tennis itself with very few exceptions (established threads on certain topics which touch the surface of politics or games about tennis) will be either moved to Off-Topic (as for news) or to The Ruins.
 
#7 ·
As we got a Big3 fawning thread every second minute, some measurements have been taken for a while till things cool off. Otherwise we might just ban everyone for opening another repetitive thread for persistent forum disruptions. So for now we’ll keep an eye on threads before they get opened

The criteria for threads in GM should be clear: No GOAT thread repeating the same topics for the nth time and no baiting threads
 
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