Using the forums: Please read and comply.

Some ground rules on forum etiquette.

(Some of this text is inspired by http://www.mozilla.org/community/etiquette.html)

Be civil.

No personal attacks. Do not feel compelled to defend your honor in public. Posts containing personal attacks may be removed from forums.

Stay on topic.

Please pay attention to the topic of your messages, and check that it still relates to the purpose of the forum to which you are posting. If you must continue an off-topic discussion, please consider creating a follow-up post on the 'Off topic' forum and direct readers there.

Be kind to newcomers.

Newcomers may be annoying. They ask the wrong questions, including ones that seem obvious (or whose answers seem easy to find). But lots of valued contributors started out this way, and treating newcomers kindly makes them more likely to turn into the valuable community members we all know and love (and cut some slack when they mess up).

So while you don't have to humor them or suffer them gladly, and it's fine to point out when they make mistakes, point newcomers in the right direction in addition to turning them away from the wrong ones, and be kind to them in the process of correcting their transgressions.

Ignore spammers.

Spam is a blight upon the face of the net. Nobody likes it. However, it is hard to avoid. Despite our best efforts, you will occasionally see spam on the forums. Please do not flame the spammer. Complaining about spam in public increases noise, but not signal. It may make you feel better, but it doesn't help.

Please report spam to the 'Website issues' forum and leave it at that.

No large attachments.

Please try not to upload large attachments to the forums. If you have a large file that you would like to distribute, put it on a Web page and announce the URL instead of attaching it.

Identify your subject matter.

Not everyone has time reading all forum postings. To ensure that your message reach the right people at timely manner, identify your subject matter clearly in the subject line. Subjects like a "question" and "ProsePoint problem" are not very helpful.

Thank you.