Whether you’re new to SPR or a seasoned old-timer, here’s a handy reference on how to be an amazing community member. It really boils down to this: Make a positive contribution to the community.

It’s a little bit like wearing the club kit – the way that any of us behaves and/or contributes while wearing it reflects on the club. Or let’s put it the other way round – all of these places offer us the opportunity to behave in a way that looks like SPR – a “cycling family” that is welcoming and inclusive for cyclists of all skill levels and interests.

To help all community members “play nice”, the committee has put together these guidelines. As always, feedback is welcome – please get in touch.

We’re all in this together

First up, please at all times keep in mind that the SPR community is made up of volunteers, from beginning to end. Every contributor, whether a member, committee member, sub-committee member, event organiser, group admin/moderator or you-name-it is putting in their time for free as a volunteer because they believe in what the SPR community represents.

So please, play nice. Even when you get upset (it happens to the best of us).

And remember, we all have families, jobs, training programs, fitness goals, race goals etc that probably all are (and should be) more important than the time committed to the club.

No Commercial Posts

Second cab off the rank, no commercial posts on any of the official SPR websites listed on our About SPR page.

There are some exceptions to this, and we do receive a significant amount of interest in having the club promote a range of activities, events and businesses. Because of this, we have a separate page dedicated to the club’s Sponsorship, Advertising & Promotions Policy.

What To Avoid

The club has a firm commitment to fostering a thriving, fun and helpful community with a zero tolerance policy surrounding name-calling, personal attacks and threats. We also have little patience for trolls and fanatical “fanboyism”.

We actively moderate comments and this involves removing inappropriate comments from any official SPR site. You as a user also have the responsibility to behave appropriately and the ability to flag inappropriate comments for review by the club committee.

On a case-by-case basis, repeat offenders may be banned either permanently or for a temporary period of time at the discretion of the club committee.

Personal Attacks

It’s quite alright to disagree with a post, content, or opinion—but there’s no reason to make it personal. No one’s asking you to write responses that begin with “dear sir, I beg your pardon, but my thoughts differ from yours,” but there’s also no need to write things like “you f-ing idiot, you’re wrong.”

See also “F-You Luke”, “iSheep” and “Fandroid”. Comments with name-calling of this nature may be deleted without notice.

Automatic Comment Approval

Mostly we don’t, but the club committee does reserve the right to require that new accounts have a few comments manually approved by a moderator before they appear on the site. Then, after you’ve proved yourself a positive contribution to the community, your comments will be automatically approved.

Bullying

If you feel you’re being unfairly targeted, please get in touch so we can investigate.

Trolling

There are some people who get a kick out of baiting angry responses by writing some utter nonsense or playing the devil’s advocate to an extreme. Sometimes it’s unintentional and innocent, but we’ll begin to toss you out if we notice that it’s a pattern.

Obnoxious Corrections

We’re human – most of us at least – and we make mistakes. Sometimes grammatical, sometimes we can’t do maths. It’s OK to call it out. Just don’t insult our education or mothers while doing so.

Your Fast Track To Getting Moderated… Or Banned

Some final hints on how to fast-track your journey to join the “I’ve been moderated” club:

• “F-You Luke/Bashcraft” style comments. (Don’t like the author? Don’t click the story. Easy, right?)
• Spam or malicious links
• Revealing personal information (such as addresses, phone numbers, etc) of others
• Graphic or disgusting images
• Repeated or multiple comments with nothing but an image
• Do not post threatening, harassing, defamatory, or libelous material.
• Do not post material that infringes copyright or any other intellectual property interest.
• Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law.
• Portraying any person in a negative light based on their age, colour, gender, national origin, physical or mental disability, race, religion or sexual preference

 

SPR Committee
April 2016