Guidelines
TVNewsTalk.net Forum Rules
Updated: July 16, 2023
THE ADMINISTRATORS AND MODERATORS OF TVNEWSTALK RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MODIFY, EDIT, MOVE, OR REMOVE CONTENT THAT BREACHES THESE RULES AND/OR TERMS, AND TO RESTRICT SITE ACCESS (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, TEMPORARY ACCOUNT SUSPENSION OR PERMANENT ACCOUNT TERMINATION) OF ANY USER WHO VIOLATES THEM, WITHOUT WARNING OR EXPLANATION.
TVNewsTalk.net is an open community for those interested in digital news media platforms, primarily broadcast television. In order to ensure quality, informative discussion and interaction, we have established the following rules. In doing so, we aim to provide a place that can be enjoyed by all. As a reminder, all content and actions on TVNewsTalk are governed by the Terms of Service, which users must agree to upon registering on this site.
First and foremost, you, and only you, are responsible for what you post here. All content posted to this site is the responsibility of the person that posted it, as governed under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)) The operators, moderators, and host of TVNewsTalk cannot be held liable for content posted by its users.
Membership
Members who have recently registered on TVNewsTalk are initially subject to review by site staff. This is to prevent SPAM or other harmful content (i.e. links to viruses or scams) from being posted on the site. Members must have their first few posts manually approved by site staff before becoming publicly viewable. This process, while subject to human review by our volunteer staff, automatically promotes members out of this status once a predetermined number of posts are approved. Please note that TVNewsTalk moderators cannot override this restriction, and we do not make public the threshold at which this restriction is lifted.
Content Submission Standards
Content submitted to TVNewsTalk, both for public display or through the private message system, must meet the following standards:
Content must be civil and tasteful.
TVNewsTalk is made up of a diverse membership base of people of various ages, views, interests, and backgrounds. Content that is unlawful, harmful, harassing, threatening, defamatory, vulgar, hateful, sexually explicit, or distasteful in nature is prohibited. Flaming or trolling other members is prohibited. All content is to remain “work safe” at all times.
Standards like these are often some of the hardest to enforce. Naturally, there will be differences of opinion on what constitutes "civil and tasteful" or “trolling”. It is never a good idea to inflame a situation in which you may feel like you are being harassed by another user. You may, at any time, report posts to the site staff via the “Report Post" button, and/or block a user via your User Control Panel.
Content must be properly sourced.
Materials, primarily those involving (but not limited to) unreleased news graphics packages, music packages, station branding/imaging, and/or station sets/studios should come from and be attributed to a public source, such as station personnel’s social media accounts, or other credible media outlets. Materials with unattributed and/or non-public sources, like “I got it from a friend,” “It was on a Vimeo account that took it down,” or “it’s on a hidden page on Company X’s corporate website” are prohibited and will be removed.
Any content that falls within these guidelines that is originally shared publicly, but later made private (such as screenshots from a Vimeo video that is publicly viewable at the time the screenshots are posted, but the video is later made private) will be removed as well, UNLESS said content is reposted by other media outlets. This is to protect the interests of TVNewsTalk.net and discourage our community from participating in the type of behavior that often accompanies “leaks”.
Content must protect the legal rights of other parties.
Promoting the infringement of copyright, including (but not limited to) sharing/”trading” music packages, production/library music tracks, graphics files, and/or proprietary/internal corporate documentation, is expressly forbidden anywhere on the site. Posts directing users to content that is obviously not meant for public access (such as internal corporate webpages, even if they are unprotected) are not allowed.
Content must protect the privacy of other community members.
Don’t post an individual's personal information without their consent, even if they have posted it online elsewhere.
Content must not advertise or promote goods and/or services.
Any form of advertising or solicitation is forbidden anywhere on TVNewsTalk. Advertisers who wish to advertise on TVNewsTalk should contact the site administration via the contact form in the site footer.
Forum Etiquette
In addition to the above standards regarding the types of content that can and cannot be posted, we ask members to abide by the following guidelines when participating in discussions.
Keep the conversation going: Avoid going significantly off-topic and make sure your posts make sense. Posting low-quality, one liner posts and responses (such as "I agree!" "Yeah" or "Is it done yet?) disrupts the flow of conversation and adds no constructive discussion to the conversation. Excessive use of capital letters (TYPING IN ALL CAPS) or unusual text formatting (Capitalizing Every Letter, CaMeLcAsE, etc) is not allowed. Nonsensical posts and posts that do not follow the basic rules of the English language are likely to be removed. Avoid ranting.
Post in the relevant place: There are often numerous, sustained conversations taking place about similar topics. Please use your best judgment when posting to ensure your post is in the most appropriate place. For example, a discussion about a station group’s graphics package should take place in the designated Graphics board.
Thread bumping: Please ensure that the thread you are replying to has been active recently. There is rarely a good reason to bump a thread that hasn’t been posted in for two years. Continuously dredging up old threads for no real reason will result in a loss of posting privileges. This includes bumping inactive topics with no purpose other than to bring awareness to the inactive topic.
Threads should have a targeted discussion topic: Creating threads that have no real topic of discussion (such as a "general" thread about a particular company or station) is not allowed without permission from the administration. Though threads of this nature exist from before this rule was put into effect, we discourage posting in them, as it makes it harder to find discussions about a particular topic, or causes numerous parallel conversations to take place at once.
No lists: Threads that exist to list information (e.g. "Your Favorite Stations", "Favorite Anchors", "What Does Your Stations Legal ID Say", etc.), exist to function as a database of information (e.g. "Stations Using Hello News", "Stations that use Accuweather", "When does the morning news start", etc.) or exist to collect and catalog content (such as videos and screenshots) are heavily moderated and may be removed with no warning. If you wish to start a thread like this, please contact the site administration.
Give us Something to Talk About: Don’t just drop a link in a post with no commentary, or copy and paste an article from another source, and hit the Submit button. TVNewsTalk is a community where people come together to discuss topics they find interesting with other interested people. Share your thoughts on the topic!
Let the Mods handle it: If you find content posted to the site that appears to violate these rules, please use the "Report post" link that is found on every post. TVNewsTalk staff will evaluate the content and take whatever actions they deem necessary. Please do not backseat moderate and/or call out the problematic content with additional posts, as this just creates more work for the site staff. This sort of behavior may get you into trouble, as well as the person who posted the offending material!
Respectful Communications Policy
The Internet and Social Media have allowed greater access to television personalities, station personnel, and other associated peoples than ever before. We simply ask members to refrain from engaging with them in a disrespectful, rude, or harassing manner. We specifically discourage members from contacting stations over frivolous topics, such as on-air branding (graphics/music/sets/logos), newscast scheduling, or other matters that aren’t directly related to newsgathering. Basically, calling a station to report a news tip is fine, but calling for reasons like asking when they’re launching new graphics is not. Any member found to be engaging in these types of behavior will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including account termination.
Moderation
Failure to abide by the Rules outlined in this document may result in action being taken against your account. TVNewsTalk uses a points-based warning system for offenses, with punishments getting more severe with every point issued. This is outlined below.
- 1st Point: A warning, no action is taken against your account.
- 2nd Point: Content you submit to the site will be reviewed by moderators before being made public. This restriction expires after seven (7) days.
- 3rd Point: Your account is barred from submitting any content to the site for seven (7) days.
- 4th Point: Your account is suspended from accessing the site for fourteen (14) days.
- 5th Point: Your account is permanently suspended.
Points will stack on top of each other as they are issued. Generally, points expire 6 months after they are issued. For certain offenses, points may be set to expire after one year. All point amounts and expiration dates are subject to the discretion of the administration and moderation. When necessary, TVNewsTalk Staff have the ability to bypass the points system and limit member activity immediately.
This document is not an exhaustive list of rules and regulations, and TVNewsTalk staff is expected to uphold "the spirit of the law" over the "letter of the law".