Rules of Conduct on The Flexus Forum
Yes, there will be rules of conduct and they WILL be enforced. The Flexus Forum is being supported by Flexus to assist our customer base and obtain feedback so that we can serve our customers better. Feedback refers to both positive AS WELL AS negative comments regarding our products, however, we do expect our customer base to conduct themselves in a professional manner when posting to The Flexus Forum. Here are a set of rules which are not necessarily an exhaustive set of rules. Flexus reserves the right to remove any customer from The Flexus Forum at any time for any reason. Customers who conduct themselves appropriately and professionally will not be removed from The Flexus Forum unless they fail to renew their annual maintenance or support contract. The Flexus Forum is for the purpose of:
- Free exchange of ideas on COBOL related topics and Flexus product related issues.
- Postings involving suggestions, advice and opinions on COBOL related topics and the use of Flexus products.
- Request for consulting services and offers of employment are acceptable so long as the individual who posts the message also posts the location of services/employment and the amount of remuneration for said services or employment in the COBOL Jobs Category of The Flexus Forum.
- Advice to Flexus on enhancements to consider as well as constructive criticism on suspected bugs or missing features in any Flexus product.
Postings Which are HIGHLY Discouraged
Flexus asks all Flexus Forum subscribers to refrain from off-topic postings. Many of our customers have limited time during their workday to review Forum messages and off-topic posts require them to devote more time to message review.
Messages which are considered “on topic” include the following types of messages:
- Messages which involve the use of any Flexus product;
- Messages which involve issues regarding the COBOL programming language or mixed language development using COBOL as one of the languages;
- Messages which involve hardware issues, operating system issues or network issues and a COBOL application running in those environments;
- If your desired posting does not meet any of the three criteria above, please use good judgment in posting your message so as to minimize any inconvenience to any of our other customers. We do appreciate your cooperation regarding off-topic messages posted to The Flexus Forum.
Postings Which Will NOT be Tolerated
The following postings will not be tolerated and WILL result in the automatic and immediate removal of the individual who posts the message:
- Inappropriate textual content in postings. This may include offensive language, off-color jokes, insults, name-calling, ethnic or racial slurs or anything else which the administrator deems to be inappropriate to the purpose of The Flexus Forum. If two or more parties wishes to engage in such behavior, it must be conducted via private e-mail.
- Inappropriate attachments to postings. This may include attachments which include offensive language, offensive photographs or graphic images, off-color jokes, insults, name-calling, ethnic or racial slurs or anything else which the administrator deems to be inappropriate to the purpose of The Flexus Forum. If two or more parties wishes to send such attachments, they must be sent via private e-mail.
- Arguments. Disagreements are not only acceptable, but anticipated. Disagreements are never a problem so long as the parties conduct their discussion in a manner which is deemed by the administrator to be polite and professional. If two or more parties wish to argue a particular point, those parties should do so via private e-mail.
- Criticism which is not constructive to the purpose of The Flexus Forum. While it is perfectly acceptable to disagree and to offer constructive criticism, it must remain professional at all times. This includes discussions of Flexus products as well as compilers and even products which are competitive to Flexus products. It is intended that the discussion in The Flexus Forum be conducted with the utmost of professionalism. Playful joking, witticism’s, repartee and friendly, good-natured “ribbing” is actually encouraged in this list server, however, because of the impersonal nature of electronic mail, Flexus strongly recommends that those posting such banter to the list server make it very obvious when they are joking. This can be accomplished with an emoticon (smiley) or an indication such as “” or “” after the humor.