Forum rules changed - how to deal with it

[MiDi]

The forum rules have been updated recently: FORUM RULES - PLEASE READ
How should we report possible violation of rules 11 & 12?

[Nominal Animal]

I would suggest using the "Report to moderator" button at the bottom of one of their posts.  To submit the report, you need to include a short description of the issue, so tell the moderator that the issue is with the user signature (if in the bottom of the post) or profile (if on the left side, below the avatar).

[pcprogrammer]

A bit more polite would be to send a personal message to the member in question that the rules are being violated, and when it is not dealt with in some reasonable time frame report it to the moderators.

[Ian.M]

Unfortunately unless you already have a working relationship with the poster in question, that's far too likely to start a flame war or get you PM bombed or cyber-stalked.  The nut-job percentage here is very low, but non-zero, and if you are unfortunate enough to attract the attention of one before the mods give them the boot, it can get quite unpleasant.

IMHO, report it and leave it to the mods to decide whether to let it be, send a polite request to amend the content or nuke it from orbit.  They've got the tools to deal with the fallout if they trigger a nut-job, you haven't.

[Nominal Animal]

I myself do not have the social skills to message a member directly without being annoying/unfriendly/too direct/something else negative no matter how hard I tried (and I do try, even if it does not appear so!), but I know the moderators deal with this kind of thing often enough to manage it much better than I do.
No, they're not perfect, but they do try their best, and Dave will always have the final say anyway; this is satisfactory to me.

So, I feel more confident at punting it to the moderators to deal with, just like I do with suspected spam.  I don't know if I'm right (about the rules, and a specific post actually is violating the rules), and am happy to have someone else to make such decisions, and be responsible for those decisions.

If I do not agree with their decision, I can always add that member to my Ignore list.  (Which to me is useful, because that way I can limit what I respond to, and thus control my own output and way of interacting with others.  Just because I cannot interact with them in an useful manner, does not mean they aren't useful and valuable to others.  And in specific threads where there is minimal risk of that, I can still click to explicitly open their posts and respond in a positive/useful manner anyway.  I do that a lot, actually, when it's likely they're helping others in that post –– that happens to override any personal bias or belief I might have, you see.  Win-win, all around.)

(Banning is a much more complicated matter, when it comes to non-spam issues.  Here, we're not talking about getting others banned, but just having them remove a detail in their profile or signature that is against the wishes of the forum operator.)

[pcprogrammer]

Guess I'm a bit naive in how others on this forum might be nut-jobs. But you are right, being an engineer or electronics enthusiast does not guarantee a non asshole personality

I hope I'm mature enough to never blow up about some response to what I post. Not easy at times, having a bit of an explosive personality, but feel it is then better to just not respond or in such a manner that it becomes more clear what my point was and how it was miss interpreted.

[Brumby]

Unless you already have a rapport with a member (and even then, it's a maybe), the appropriate path is to report to moderator.

This takes away all the angst of being "diplomatic" and it takes away all the questions as to whether the "offence" is a breach or not.  Moderators will treat all reports with the appropriate level of expertise, collating multiple reports and filtering out malicious reports.  Any subsequent action has the advantage of coming from a small group who have the same perspective - and resources to support their efforts that mere mortal members simply do not have access to.

Reporting a post will not guarantee any specific action will be taken and the membership will often be unaware of what action has been taken.  This is as it should be as it avoids any public humiliation and allows members to be dealt with in a far more effective way.

And, for the record, NO member is entitled to know what action has or has not been taken against another member - so don't press the Mods to reveal such.