For New Users or those experiencing problems

[Provost]

Please read down through this thread for information you may find helpful to your situation. I am trying to compile into one thread a variety of threads for easy reference. Not everything is covered here, but the most common issues are. It is likely that whatever you're running into, it's happened to someone else before.

Please also consult the FAQ for more extensive information. The link is near the left side of the blue bar near the top of each forum page.

If you can find nothing in either of these resources that sounds like your problem, please feel free to drop me a line at the address below. Reading through here will probably give you the same information faster, however.

Welcome the Civil War Reenactor's Forums. We hope you enjoy and profit from the time spent here.

Respectfully,

[Provost]

Unless you've joined up as a new member since April 2006 you are not a member here.

Our servers were attacked by Romanian hackers (no joke) and we had to switch software. Our old database would not convert to the new software so we had to have everyone sign up again.

You'll find a link on our lobby page to register, just follow the prompts.

If you have problems, consult other messages in this New Users forum or check the FAQ for info. If that fails, please drop me a line, I'd be happy to help.

One point of information: Check to make sure you've enabled cookies from our site. Unless that is allowed, the software won't allow you to function well here.

Respectfully,

[Provost]

Originally posted March 18, 2007

When we had to switch forum software twice in the space of a few months, a few things didn't make the transition to our new system. One of them was the Forum Guidelines, which I'd neglected to back up, for some reason. This was a statement that guided our expectations for behavior on our forums and served us well for many years. I've sorely missed being able to refer to them as we've gotten re-established this last year.

This afternoon I was sent a copy of the forum guidelines circa Feb. 2002. A friend of ours was digging through files on an old computer, stumbled across the guidelines and immediately sent them our way. [The additional good news is that he had a large cache of old threads he'd archived which he hopes to sort through and periodically post online as well.]

I debated whether to post the 2002 guidelines as an interesting historical curiosity, or update them to reflect our current circumstances. I've opted for the updated version for now, and may post the original later, so as not to create confusion.

These guidelines have been our code of conduct since my stewardship of these forums began somewhere around the Fall of Rome.

I have and will continue to expect everyone to abide by these standards. They boil down to simple respect for others and common courtesy.

Forthwith:




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Welcome to the CWR Forums,

Knowledge of these guidelines will help us all to get the most out of the forums. Please take the time to read them.

Most of you are abiding by them wonderfully and make the CWR forums a great place.

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CWR Discussion Forums - Usage Guidelines and Purpose

These forums will be monitored subject to the following guidelines:

1. All posts should relate to the Civil War era, Civil War reenacting, Civil War reenacting events, and conduct of the hobby.

Please post your messages in the appropriate forum. See the main index page for a list of the forums and their purposes. Some additional clarifying comments follow these guidelines.

Unrelated subjects may be removed (or moved to the appropriate forum) at any time.

2. Profanity, ridicule, personal attacks, overt rudeness and inflammatory language will be removed on sight.

3. Inappropriate comments with regard to race, religion, political agendas or disparagement of any social group is not the purpose of this forum. Such comments will be removed on sight.

4. Threads which become flame wars may be closed or removed entirely.

5. Threads which become overly large, redundant, or cluttered with small talk may be closed, archived or removed entirely, at the Provost's discretion.

6. Threads which have become less active over time will move to the back pages of the forum as newer and more active topics are created. (This isn't as much of an issue as it used to be but I left it in on the off chance someone didn't know how the software often works.)

7. Archiving of a thread does not imply endorsement of it's content.

Those who flagrantly or persistently violate these guidelines may suffer suspension or banishment.

Provost's Mission:

My goal is to preserve the forums for the purpose Bob started them: a place for reenactors to share information, provide help, respectfully debate reenacting issues and get to know one another better.

This is a precious resource and we need your help to make it work. If there is a post you believe is inappropriate for this forum, please make (restrained) use of the "alert" button to notify the Provost or another moderator. That will help us spot problems more quickly. If we agree with your concern, we will delete the problem as soon as practical. If we leave the message up more than one business day, it usually means we did not feel it required removal. Due to limitations of time, we don't often answer these alerts with an email but we are very grateful for them.

PLEASE REMEMBER: Any given moderator here is simply one person with one opinion which may simply differ from yours. Please respect that decision.

If you have a strong disagreement with any decision, email the Provost specifically (see address below) and I will reply privately. It helps if you include a link to the thread in question. I do not debate on the forum. For years I have done my absolute best to be fair and reasonable and will continue to do so.

Our working metaphor is that we're discussing things around Bob's dinner table. Please keep in mind that women and children may be present at that discussion. Remarks not consistent with respect for that situation may be removed without warning.

Let's continue to keep this forum at a high level. Thanks for your support.

The Provost

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A few comments about individual forums.

If you are unclear about the purpose of any forum, please go to this page:


http://www.cwreenactors.com/forum/index.php


and review the statements of purpose you will find there.


In the Military Conference:

The General Discussion Forum and the Clothing, Equipment and How To Forum have distinctly different roles. Gear and "how to" threads belong in the later, most anything else that is military related belongs in the former.

The Classified Ads Forum is for the buy/sell/trade of used equipment, not for commercial use nor for new equipment sales. Discussions about the relative merits of items by those not involved in the sale belong on the Clothing and Equipment forum.

Sutler Row is only for commercial use and/or new equipment sales. Both civilian and military items are advertised here.


In the Civilian Conference:

General Discussion of Civilian Topics covers all topics of a civilian nature.

The Classified Ads for Civilian Items Forum is for the buy/sell/trade of used equipment, not for commercial use nor for new equipment sales. Discussions about the relative merits of items by those not involved in the sale belong on the Civilian Forum.


In the Other Business Conference:

Flags & Statues is for efforts related to preservation of these memorials and heritage preservation issues. This is not the area for discussion of modern politics.





The Whine Cellar began primarily as a place for threads removed from other forums that offered only complaints without proposals of constructive solutions.

Other forum guidelines regarding respect for others are in effect here, but we do give more latitude about subject matter, at Sgt. Pepper's discretion.

We currently do not offer a forum for the discussion of modern politics which are unrelated to our hobby or heritage.

Thank you for your participation with us in making this a useful place to share information and debate the issues that concern us all.

[Provost]

Gentle Reader,

First likely reason: You are not a member.

Have you signed up with us since Spring, 2006 when we had to swap out our software?

Do you have a username I can search for?

These are two vital pieces of information that will better help me answer this question.

If you haven't been online with us since April, 2006 you will have to sign up as a new user. Sorry about that, but there was no alternative. Our servers got hijacked by rogue Romanian computer geeks. No kidding. So we had to defend ourselves via new software and lost our old user database.

Second likely reason: Membership validation/activation

I manually review all new members to screen out those who might not want to "play by the rules" of basic respect and debate. Your application for membership here does not grant you immediate or automatic access.

Memberships are usually validated within 24-36 hours. It may take longer on a weekend or holiday or if I'm really swamped, but that's the usual time frame to expect it within.

It will greatly facilitate matters if you send me a private message (PM) letting me know you are not a spambot.

You MUST respond to the email that will be sent to you to complete the validation process. Check your spam filters, firewalls, etc. if you don't see this email. Without a response to it, our system will not complete the validation process and you will not be able to post here.

I realize this does impose some delay on new members, but the benefits to our community of limiting the number of trolls, spam, etc. make it worth it.

Your patience with these security measures is appreciated.

[Provost]

Originally Posted by A Former Member

Dear Moderator,

I had an account in the past under (deleted) and I used to post on the forums.

I have not been active on the forum for over a year as I was taking a break from ACW.

I tried to login in the other day and it would not accept my login or password, so I went ahead and created a new account (thinking that my old one may have been purged due to inactivity).

I can now log in under my new account, however, it won't let me post anything.

Any help you can give me so I can post again, would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

(Name withheld)

If this sounds like you, please be aware that all accounts have to be activated or you can't post. It usually takes 24-36 hours to validate an account, sometimes longer around a weekend if I'm away.

Once you respond to the second email which tells you you're activated you should be ok to post. Let me know if you still can't.

In the past we haven't purged the userbase due to inactivity. We may start doing that at some point, but for the present that shouldn't be an issue. Let me know if you get messages that say that's happened.

[Provost]

Recently I've seen increased efforts to post spam, porn and other unwanted material here. One means to keep this junk out is to invalidate the membership application of those email address that look suspect to me.

I've been doing this a long time now and have gotten a better "nose" for what doesn't look right; learned some new tricks about IP addresses recently and as a result am being more aggressive in denying membership to addresses that are highly suspect.

I used to be more willing to give suspicious addresses a fair chance, but that has backfired a lot lately so I'm more cautious.

However, the occassional baby might be thrown out with the proverbial bathwater, so this thread is posted here in the hope that someone who got denied but is legitimate will read it and send me an email instead of going off in a huff.

If your email address is [email protected], your IP address shows it's in Romania someplace and you try to open a username here like "Luv4sale" then you'll probably not make it in. Sorry about that. Somehow that doesn't communicate a love for American Civil War history.

But some things aren't so obvious and I just want to encourage someone who might have been legitimate and got denied to contact me instead of taking it personally.

Your understanding and cooperation makes this a very unique environment. Thank you.

[Provost]

From time to time email gets forwarded to me by members that purports to be from this forum. It claims your membership info has to be verified, your records updated, etc.

These are not from us. Please do not open them, simply delete them immediately. You don't need to notify me abou it. There's nothing I know to do about it except tell you that it is a fake.

If we need to verify your address, the note will come from my yahoo address below, unless I post otherwise here.

Thank you.

[Provost]

�Free speech means hearing things you like and agree with, and it means allowing others to speak whose views you do not like or agree with. This�listening to the other person with respect and forbearance, and with an acceptance of human diversity�is the price we pay for living in a great democracy. And it is a really low price for such a great thing. We all know this, at least in the abstract. Why are so many forgetting it in the particular?�

�Peggy Noonan
quoted in Patriot Post Vol. 06 No. 42; 16 October 2006

A point to ponder.

[Provost]

I could make this mandatory for all new users, but have chosen not to do so. There is simply no way to check if the name someone gives is indeed real, and I do not intend to make rules I can not enforce.

If someone claims to be John Jones from Hooville, how would I know?

That being said, those who do fill in a name will enjoy an added measure of respect from other members as they establish a reputation here.

Please note: This information will be publicly viewable and searchable.

Those of you who are already members but who signed up after I created that line in the database, feel free to go back and include this information. Click on the "User CP" in the upper left quadrant of your screen while in our lobby.

Respectfully,

[Provost]

You have one hour from the time you post your message to amend your remarks. Otherwise it'll have to be in a new message.

We had some trouble with folks erasing material which lead to some problems maintaining a proper discussion.