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Updates

March 23, 2006

Visitor Harassment Policy

Posted by Senior Staff [2:15 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

Staffers have always been expected to treat visitors politely. Visitors, for their part, are expected to treat the staff politely in return. However, although visitors can contact the senior staff with concerns about staffers, including inappropriate staffer behavior, until now, there hasn’t been any formal policy regarding visitor conduct towards staffers. As such, we have implemented the following guidelines:

If a visitor is harassing or abusive towards a staffer, the senior staff will be notified. “Harassing” or “abusive” mean something beyond snippiness or annoyed, even rude, tones. Generally, this means insults, foul language, or deliberate, stubborn refusals to listen to staffer requests. It can also mean repeated negative e-mails to staffers, either over a specific matter or over a longer period of time.

The senior staff will then determine whether the visitor has gone beyond mere rudeness. If this is the case, then the senior staff will formally warn the visitor about the incident and inform her that her behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the future. She will be told that if she has future problems with a staffer to contact the senior staff directly. Finally, the e-mail will also include what will occur to her if another incident occurs. However, if anything about the situation is unclear, we will contact the visitor and staffer(s) first and inquire about the situation before sending any warnings.

If a second incident happens, the senior staff will temporarily ban the visitor from applying for new fanlistings. The ban’s length will depend on how severe the two incidents were, when they occurred, and other relevant factors. The visitor will be informed of the length of the ban. She will also be warned that if she attempts to circumvent the ban (such as by applying under aliases), the fanlistings approved during the ban will be removed from the network. Furthermore, attempts to circumvent the ban may result in the ban being extended, or, if the circumstances are severe enough, the person’s current fanlistings may be removed from the network.

Any further incidents of abuse or harassment towards staffers will result in permanent bans and/or removal of current fanlistings from the network.

Although this policy may seem harsh, we don’t anticipate it being used often. It will be applied only in extreme circumstances. The majority of TFL visitors are polite, and even those who are not always polite rarely rise to the level of “abuse” or “harassing.” One warning will likely be sufficient to correct any visitor behavior. Once visitors have already been warned of the consequences, there isn’t any excuse for further harassment/abuse. We believe that though staffers are expected to deal with visitors maturely and politely, there are limits to what staffers must tolerate – even when the customer is always right, there is a point when managers step in and firmly tell abusive customers to leave the store.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please feel free to get in touch with the senior staff either on the board or via the contact form on the main site.

February 19, 2006

General Reminder

Posted by Senior Staff [2:17 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

This is a general reminder to all visitors that sometimes forms do not reach their intended recipients (the category staffer), through no fault of the staffer’s. If you believe that your form was not received (i.e., a category did a complete Finished form update but your Finished form was not processed), please submit a contact form to that staffer or post in the appropriate category forum.

Also, staffers are required to reply to all forms they receive. If you sent a contact form (not an application, finished/update/closed form, or a troubles report form) and do not receive a reply after 1-2 weeks, please resubmit your form.

Finally, please remember that there are often multiple staffers running a single category. They each have different jobs and do not have access to each other’s e-mail, so they may have no way of knowing that you sent a form/e-mail to a different staffer within that category.

January 17, 2006

Controversial Topics

Posted by Senior Staff [2:18 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

TFL has decided to monitor more closely subjects that may be of a ‘controversial’ nature. Subjects such as ‘Adolf Hitler’ and ‘Nazi Germany’ in History/Royalty and ‘Mein Kampf’ in Books are approvable topics; however, we feel that these should be carefully watched by staffers and trouble checkers.

From now on:
– Controversial fanlistings in the History/Royalty section will be labeled with ‘study of’ next to their name. e.g., ‘Hitler, Adolf’ will be renamed ‘Hitler, Adolf (Study of)’.
– Applications staffers will send a set of guidelines to owners who apply for subjects of a controversial nature outlining that fanlistings must be worded that they are only for the subject in a historical/academic sense, and not for the person etc themselves.
– Troubles staffers and trouble checkers will review these fanlistings to make sure they are not breaking these guidelines.

We feel that these are small steps that TFL can take that will allow us to calm some of the concerns of our visitors but still allow TFL to approve fanlistings for more controversial topics.

January 16, 2006

Reminder: Using domain emails

Posted by Senior Staff [2:26 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

We have noticed that many people have their fanlistings listed at TFL under domain e-mails rather than free services (e.g., gmail.com, hotmail.com, etc) or your ISP-given e-mail address. While this is perfectly fine with us, it can cause problems if your domain goes down, meaning that e-mails from TFL can go missing and create huge problems if you are placed on troubles.

If you want to update your e-mail to a non-domain account, please feel free to send in a Change of E-mail form: http://www.thefanlistings.org/changeemail.php or if you want to see which fanlistings are listed under which address, use our Your FLs List: http://www.thefanlistings.org/yourfls.php.

It’s your choice which e-mail you have it under, but we feel that having it under a free e-mail service (or your ISP-given e-mail address) could prevent you a lot of hassle in the event your domain unexpectedly goes down. Please also keep in mind that some free e-mail services may label e-mail from TFL as spam or junk, so regularly check your spam/junk boxes if you use free services.

September 30, 2005

Use of Aliases/Fake Identities

Posted by Senior Staff [2:27 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

For some time now, TFL has had concerns about applicants using ‘alias’ identities, submitting false information, and using other people’s URLs to apply for fanlistings. We feel that they do this because of fears of ‘staff bias’ towards them, or they have a large number of fanlistings (or fanlistings on troubles or upcoming) and this will enable them to get more fanlistings.

We are aware of several cases and have followed these up with the owners. However, we feel our concerns on this need to be made known to you.

If an owner is found to be using multiple aliases or another person’s information on their applications, their alias identity’s fanlistings may be unlisted from TFL. Repeated use may result in a temporary or permanent ban from TFL.

In order to avoid this situation, please stick to one name and e-mail address and only submit your own URL when applying for fanlistings at TFL. If you need to update your e-mail addresses, please send in an E-mail Change request form, and we will update those addresses as soon as possible.

We feel that submitting false information is unfair to other visitors and applicants and it is something that needs to be taken seriously (especially the use of another person’s URL or name). In all circumstances where this happens, action will be taken.

August 22, 2005

Inactivity rule clarification

Posted by Senior Staff [2:28 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

We have had a few complaints that our troubles e-mails were unclear for the ‘inactivity’ rule (updating once every 2 months). Currently there is no requirement in the e-mail to add ALL pending members. TFL.org feels that if you have 20 members pending then you need to add all of those pending members if you are on trouble for not updating. We have had a few occassions where owners have just added a few members without adding the rest.

Due to this, and a few complaints from owners saying that the troubles e-mail is unclear on this issue, we’ve updated the e-mail.

The Inactivity troubles e-mail now reads:

We found that you had not updated in over two months. We require that all fanlistings are updated at least every two months. To be removed from the troubles list, all pending members must be added to the fanlisting, and all update forms must be processed. Even if no new members have joined recently, you must still post an update every so often to say that nobody has joined. Something like this will do: “DATE: No new members have joined recently!”

Again, this isn’t a rule change – you have always been troubled for not updating a fanlisting in 2 months. This is just a clarification from member suggestions. 🙂

June 28, 2005

Double Approvals

Posted by Senior Staff [2:30 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

For several months now, TFL has discussed creating a rule on how we handle ‘double approvals.’ We have found that handling this has been quite difficult as it is often a mistake, but in some cases, applicants have tried to circumvent the rules.

However, we have decided that we need a definitive rule on what to do in these cases. From today onwards, this is our policy on double approvals:

If a double approval occurs at the network and the second approval is less than 2 months old, the second approval will be removed from the network. Both owners will be contacted regarding this. If the second approval is older than 2 months, it will remain listed, along with the first approval.

We feel that after two months, it would be unfair of us to remove the second listing, so have created this rule to cover those fanlistings that just slip under the radar.

Please note: This rule only is for double approvals that happen from TODAY onwards. Previous double approvals will remain listed and are NOT affected by this rule.

We encourage ALL owners to be careful of how their fanlisting’s name is listed at TFL, especially those of you that have fanlistings for musicians who may have separate stage names and real names. We often find that double approvals happen for subjects that have more than one name and when names aren’t spelt correctly. Please give our staffers ALL names for your subject, along with any useful information about a subject that can help us prevent double approvals.

Please give us an e-mail or post at the boards if you have any questions or comments! 🙂

TFL Network News Mailing List: Want these announcements posted to you? Join the Network News mailing list! All major changes to TFL will be posted there!

June 25, 2005

Number of fanlistings allowed on upcoming

Posted by Senior Staff [2:31 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

After a lot of discussion, we have decided to introduce a network-wide rule as to the number of fanlistings an owner can have on upcoming at any one time. These rules are:

6 fanlistings in a category and/or
20 fanlistings in the network overall

If an owner reaches these limits, the staffer has the right to reject the applicant. Meaning the owner must complete some of their pending fanlistings before they can be approved for more.

The reason for this rule is that we have a number of fanlisting owners who get ‘application happy’ or who apply for many fanlistings at once. Usually, these owners then end up with fanlistings on troubles (too long on upcoming), or they close their fanlistings before the fanlistings have even been built.

We have asked staffers to be careful with this rule in case Finished/Update/Closed staffers are behind schedule, but please feel free to use the Additional Information box to let Applications staffers know if you have submitted finished/closed/update forms recently. Include the URLs to your finished fanlistings in the box, also.

If you have any questions about this rule change, please contact us, or post at the board 🙂

April 13, 2005

‘Last update’ date clarification

Posted by Senior Staff [2:32 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

After some discussion, we have decided to clarify the ‘last updated’ date rule at TFL:

8. You must have an ‘last updated’ date on your fanlisting.

* It must be in an easy-to-locate place (i.e. splash page or main page).
* You MUST either write out the month (4 March, 2005) or if you use a numerical date, you MUST provide a key/legend immediately before or after the date, explaining the format used (4/5/2005 – dd/mm/yyyy).
As more than one date format is considered ‘standard’, you are required to provide a clear way to read the date regardless of the format used. Failing to use either suggested format could result in your fanlisting being added to the troubles list.

All this means is that we are allowing you to use a ‘key’ to show what date format you are using, if you wish.

April 4, 2005

Multiple subjects at one fanlisting

Posted by Senior Staff [2:35 pm] (link)

This is a update of for the General category.

After a long period of discussion, TFL has decided on a policy regarding multiple subjects at/on one site.

TFL prefers each fanlisting to be on its own site. However, we realise there is an appeal to have fanlistings on the same site if they are related.

Fanlistings for similar topics (ie. a movie and a sequel) can share the same site. However, they must either:

– have their own join form, codes and members list

(OR)

– have individual codes and a ‘favourite’ feature, where the member may choose which topic they are a fan of. The fanlisting also must be clearly marked for what it covers.

Fanlistings that can not be ‘merged’ are those for a character and actor and topics which are significantly different from the other. They can, of course, have the same splash page – but must link off to their individual pages.

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Did You Know?

It is essential that owners give credit back to sites that they use in making the fanlisting. Also, using the word 'official' could create problems. See our legal tips for more information and suggestions.