Revised OppositeLock Handbook for Commenting and Posting

"Gamecat235" (Gamecat235) 07/27/2014 at 19:00 • Filed to: oppositelock, owners manual, moderation, oppo tools, rules of the road, handbook

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This version is an old revision to the guidelines and is preserved just for the sake of documentation. The most recent version is located at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

As Oppositelock continues to grow and evolve as a community, we felt that updating these rules was in the best interest of every member who contributes in any capacity or who would like to do so in the future. Some of these modifications are to clarify our position and provide a bit more additional detail as to what is expected from all community members (defined as anyone who comments or posts in this space). Other modifications are just updates due to changes in kinja (doing away with the sections on “grey” commenters and following for oppo).

With apologies and thanks to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the rules of Oppositelock basically can be summed up thusly:

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Don’t be a dick.

Seriously, don’t be a dick.

And don’t be a shit-stirrer either (here or elsewhere that will lead back to Oppo. Specifically this entails no trolling, no troll parties, no burner baiting and no posts attacking other Gawker/Kinja communities - Jezebel, Groupthink, Gawker, etc).

NSFW must be announced in the title of your post and be hidden behind a safe lead image. Additionally, we expect NSFW material to still follow all rules outlined here. If NSFW content is the first piece of media (picture or video) regardless of where it is in the post, Kinja will display it on the Oppo frontpage. (If you have doubts whether it’s NSFW, it is . This includes nudity, real or implied, gore or anything else that might get someone in trouble if their boss caught them reading it at work, assuming that you are allowed to browse the internet at work. Additionally, if the need to post this material exists, we are issuing a general challenge. Keep it classy and respectful. We’re not a porn site, the internet is full of porn, we don’t need more here).

In addition to the above, there has been a lot of discussion recently regarding the place that NSFW materials have within this community. A group of people have wondered if it really has any business being here. Oppo is a very diverse community, even if it doesn’t look like it on the surface. Please consider the impact that any NSFW materials may have on other members of the community, both vocal and silent, before posting.

Political / Sensitive topics are welcome, however it is recommended that you announce such content in the title and that all sensitive material is posted “after the jump.”

Do not “doxx” anyone without their explicit permission (do not reveal personal details about a person which could be used to identify them).

When sharing material from other areas of Kinja, or from posts originating from within Oppositelock, keep all of the above rules in mind. (For more information on sharing / unsharing posts, please see !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ).

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OppositeLock is an off topic forum for everyone that happens to have a very obvious and intentional leaning toward subjects focused mainly on all things automotive, mechanical and generally of interest to folks who love all manner of contraptions that move. However, that doesn’t limit us to only those topics. We’re all humans here. We have lives, we will probably talk about them in detail. But this community is for everyone. Seriously. If there are commenters from Groupthink/Jezebel/Gawker who want to talk cars or pick our collective minds on the best planes from World War II? Awesome. The same goes for everybody else from anywhere else. We have, and will continue to welcome anyone who shows interest in joining and contributing / building our community.

However, That is not to say that ‘everyone’ will initially get author access or that ‘everyone’ will be approved. In practice, unless we know you to be a troll by name, and you have not expressed a desire to join our community and understand that your prior behavior will probably, at least initially, color the reactions to you (we can, and do forgive, we rarely forget), in general we’ll probably add anyone who asks to join. We want to make clear that while this isn’t Jalopnik, we do still mainly talk about cars and car related subjects, that this is an offtopic forum that is a general purpose space and, accordingly, our aim is to make this a welcoming place that people feel comfortable interacting with each other in.

In order to accomplish this, we strongly discourage people from making posts attacking other commenters or communities, starting inter-forum pissing contests, and purposefully picking fights with people you don’t get along with.

We are not asking that everyone get along. We are not banning cathartic ranting. But we are asking that authors on this forum maybe think twice before posting about how much they hate Commenter X, especially when they know Commenter X will see the post, and everyone will start bitching about everyone else. No one enjoys seeing that go down. It’s awkward, it’s embarrassing, and most importantly, it damages the community. This would, in 99.9% of occasions, be considered a major violation of rules #1-3. What is that 0.1% of exception? Publicly being called out for behavior which violates the spirit and/or rules of the community which also will enrich the community by raising the levels of awareness.

The expectation is to treat others the way you would actually want people to treat you in a public space where consequences exist. Though this should go without saying, explicit or heavily implied sexism and racism will not be tolerated , period. This has little to do with “being PC” but is based on the expectation of being an open and respectful space. Personal attacks, call to arm posts, asking who the most reviled commenter or community here is, essentially any commenting behavior which specifically negatively attacks another commenter, area or member of staff with the intent to cause disruption or general harm to a specific commenter or to the community at large is verboten. You will be warned, suspended or banned depending on the severity of the issue and other criteria.

A major point of clarification. The moderators are not here to censor unpopular opinions. We are not asking you to post only along certain political views. We are not asking you to refrain from discussing touchy subjects. The moderators are not here to police your views . For the most part (see above) talk about anything you want – make your points respectfully and clearly, accept that not everyone will agree with what you have to say, and understand that this is an open forum where a lot of different kinds of people will read your post. But above all, don’t be a dick.

The Moderators

I am one of the moderators. I am not the owner of the forum, that particular role belongs to Porsche9146. There are a handful of moderators here and an incomplete list of them is as follows: Nobody, Dusty Ventures, pauljones, SnapUndersteer Italian Spiderman, Party-vi, For Sweden, Brian, the life of, Das Wauto, Jagvar, and Automatch. As moderators, our goal is to essentially be invisible when we are in that role, occasionally reminding people of the rules, and our expected primary public function is welcoming newcomers and adding users to the community.

The launch of Kinja has given you, the commenters, access to a number of tools that used to be admin-only. This means less work for us, but it also means that you, the commenters, need to be more responsible for your conversations on this board. If someone is harassing you in response to something you wrote? Dismiss them. If the conversation is unproductive, walk away. If someone is chiding you for cursing too much, dismiss them and walk away. Basically, we expect you all to act like adults and therefore to handle conflict like adults (This applies even if you are not technically an adult).

If you run into a situation that you are unsure of how to handle, or if you find a troll or have a persistent issue with another commenter, feel free to contact any of the mods for assistance. You can find us on-site or email us at oppomoderator@gmail.com or contact us on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Want to know what powers a moderator actually has? Check out this helpful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Posting Access

There are two main levels of posting access to Oppo. One is the basic commenter and the other is to be granted authorship privileges. Like on the main page, anyone is free to comment on any thread on Oppo, however to create a post or share content to Oppositelock page, you must be an author.

Authorship privileges are granted by the mods. If you wish to post to Oppositelock, respond to one of our semi-regular request threads. You may not get authorship the first time you ask, but you are welcome to request again at any point. (See any request post for expanded details on this process.)

Beginning tomorrow we will be posting monthly “open authorship” threads where all authorship requests should take place. We would appreciate keeping third person requests to an absolute minimum. These posts will always be under the tag “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” so that these posts can be easily found.

Anything else I/we can clarify? Let me know and I, or one of the other mods will respond to you.

( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 9/11/2013, revised and updated as of 7/27/2014)

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Victorious Secret > Gamecat235 07/27/2014 at 19:12

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There should be a way to get this stickied to the Oppositelock masthead, or something?

Surely, there should be a way.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Gamecat235 07/27/2014 at 19:13

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didn't party vi change his username to party iv?

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Victorious Secret 07/27/2014 at 19:17

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If I remember correctly, no you cannot. The only way I know of is for it to draw a lot of traffic.

Justino6969 > Gamecat235 07/27/2014 at 19:18

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Can we add something about not calling out other users? I don't remember if that was here or just Jalopnik, but that used to be a rule. I see way too much of that on here, such as entire posts just containing a link to another person's comment and the OP calling them out.

Victorious Secret > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 07/27/2014 at 19:18

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God damn Kinja

Leadbull > Victorious Secret 07/27/2014 at 19:20

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It's be great if someone could fiddle with code and stick it up in the sidebar. That wouldn't be obtrusive at all.

Victorious Secret > Leadbull 07/27/2014 at 19:22

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Or even beside the full Oppositelock logo, have a section for "quick links" to posts like this

Leadbull > Victorious Secret 07/27/2014 at 19:26

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Like in the drop down menu with related blogs and such? That'd be awesome.

Of course, I don't know how hard it would be to tweak Kinja to allow that.

Gamecat235 > Justino6969 07/27/2014 at 19:26

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I have this:

In order to accomplish this, we strongly discourage people from making posts attacking other commenters or communities, starting inter-forum pissing contests, and purposefully picking fights with people you don't get along with.

We are not asking that everyone get along. We are not banning cathartic ranting. But we are asking that authors on this forum maybe think twice before posting about how much they hate Commenter X, especially when they know Commenter X will see the post, and everyone will start bitching about everyone else. No one enjoys seeing that go down. It's awkward, it's embarrassing, and most importantly, it damages the community.

Which I felt was enough to cover that... if you think I could expand it, let me know.

Gamecat235 > Victorious Secret 07/27/2014 at 19:28

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It would be nice. But not even Hardibro can do it. I've asked.

V8VespaStoppie > Gamecat235 07/27/2014 at 20:08

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Wish I could post. Seen lots of #DOTS worthy cars and NPoCP cars on craiglist near me. Seen a Tesla an R8 and a un restored 60 something Continental withing 4 blocks of eachother yesterday while I was walking around downtown. I was busy drooling so my dumbass forgot to take pictures.

Racescort666 > Justino6969 07/27/2014 at 20:50

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I see many people come back to Oppo to vent if they feel like they are being trolled on the FP or another Gawker FP site. I don't think the practice should be explicitly banned.

That being said, I agree with Gamecat in that it's discouraged —for good reason, it could easily get out of hand— and it also makes the community look bad if it happens a lot.

XJDano > Gamecat235 07/27/2014 at 21:32

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what about the sponsored posts on the front page, they are usually 1 or 2 in the feed? Oh well, not trying to beat a dead horse.

Gamecat235 > XJDano 07/28/2014 at 02:10

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That is a "power" reserved only for a select few, and if I understand correctly, it is a feature which has been disabled for the subblogs and only exists on the mainpages of each primary blog (Jalopnik, Gizmodo, etc).

Gamecat235 > V8VespaStoppie 07/28/2014 at 02:12

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Tomorrow there will be a "club openings" post, come back and request authorship once the post is up. =)

V8VespaStoppie > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 02:16

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Sweet and thanks! Will be mashing f5 until then.

macanamera > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 14:12

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Hey, just curious, do you have a complete list of all the Oppo mods? Is there, like a lot of you guys?

How do you even become mods? Some sort of ritual dance combined with an appropriate offering/sacrifice?

Gamecat235 > macanamera 07/28/2014 at 14:58

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I do, we actually have a couple of moderators that like to stay more in the shadows and assist with things, so I've been hesitant to name every one of them.

The initial group of moderators were chosen from some of the more legacy group of users. And we've added a few since then to keep the place basically looked over. There is no secret process other than being a very levelheaded and intelligent person who is capable of remaining calm and rational in all interactions.

Is there a specific concern that you have, or are you just curious as to who we all are? I'd be happy to address who the mods are, and they are all expected to follow both the letter and the spirit of all stated rules here.

macanamera > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 15:06

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Thanks for getting back to me! I was just curious, no concerns at all.

I may have also been curious as to whether I could someday perhaps be one. Maybe.

Gamecat235 > macanamera 07/28/2014 at 15:08

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Well, specifically the last three we have added (of which I will use Automatch / Tom as an example), we saw in them a consistent approach to generally better the community, not to start any battles, and to really show a desire to grow the community with an emphasis on adding to it.

There isn't a ritual (that's my official stance, you can't prove anything, no pictures exist).

macanamera > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 15:26

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That's cool, it was actually Automatch that gave me authorship privileges. Anyways, I'm sure there are more qualified people than me, and I'm pretty sure I enjoy the lack of any (major) responsibility on Oppo, other than not abusing my authorship. Should you ever need anyone else, maybe keep me in mind. And great job, it's an awesome community.

As for the ritual...no pictures, maybe, but no evidence ?

The Tunnel > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 17:49

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Right timing.

j.davism5 > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 19:31

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What about leaving cross posting to front page articles only, and gawker staff only? We leave them alone, they leave us alone? No pitchforks? From what I understand, stuff went down because a member of gawker staff decided to cross post and get the pitch fork team ready, but if gawker staff stick to posting stuff from thier own sub blogs, or only FP articles, then all should be ok. If we stick to posting our own stuff and not cross posting from other non related sub blogs, no body gets to pissed about differing points of view. We can use our own torches and pitch forks on our own, on the absurdy rare occasion they are needed. I remember when Porsche1964 got beat up by jez for calling out danica's lack of form vs her status within nascar. Similar shitfight because cross post. Nobody actually read his article properly, or looked at the stats. Net result, oppo lost his consistent updates and opinion pieces on motorsport. Just doesn't need to happen.

Gamecat235 > j.davism5 07/28/2014 at 19:42

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You are drawing a lot of conclusions and making a lot of assumptions. I mean, one, Kinja is based upon the premise of sharing and community. I can't change it, and the folks behind Kinja won't.

And the crossposts that you are referencing are rather out of date and not really relevant to the conversation as a whole. Rennsport was created after the Danica post. Rennsport being specifically targeted for actual motorsports. Porsche9146 is busy with life and school, the Danica post did nothing to slow him down. At all.

I don't want to live in a world where everyone lives in their own little insular world. This post has zero to do with the posts you have referenced, and was created because of some much more recent and with the exception of one incident this weekend, all intrablog sharing issues (and this post has been being drafted for about a month, so that incident had nothing to do with this post).

j.davism5 > Gamecat235 07/28/2014 at 20:19

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Given, didn't know about rennsport. Point taken. As for the whole cross post vs insular world, that's like making the assumption that this is the one place on the internet everyone visits. My point is this: gawker is built on the premise of multiple blogs covering multiple topics. Many come here for the topic related to it's parent blog, jalopnik. Thus oppo is composed of a collection of individuals that are, for the most part, like minded. Perceptions of opinions, right, wrong or otherwise are going to be seen a judged by like minded individuals differently to another group of like minded individuals that relate to another blog, such as Jez or Deadspin. I understand that Kinja is Kinja, and thus the term Kinja'd (albiet I haven't seen the little hamster latley) however the internal community of oppo is not going to treat someone who posts on oppo with thier choice or opinion the same as people from other sub blogs. I suspect the situations often arise out of someone outside of that like minded set (ie from an outside blogosphere) misunderstanding or misinterpreting a post or comment that within their own like minded community is considered taboo or passe. Cross posting occurs, flame war begins. If the original post was posted it thier forum of like minded individuals, well, open fire. If not leave it where it is, and let the specific community take it as they will, with either a constructive argument, a 'pull your head in' comment or a grain of salt. Whilst I might visit other blogoshperes such as GT, I don't post, as their opinions are different to mine, and as a collective of like minded indivduals, it's not my place to call BS.

TL;DR Not your like minded community, not your place. Leave it alone. Read it, accept that you think differently, and walk away. That a big part of the first rule of oppo; don't be a dick.

EDIT: If other blogs stick to the same, happy days! Also, just checked out rennsport. Good stuff.

Gamecat235 > j.davism5 07/28/2014 at 20:40

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I understand your points I believe. And we are trying to find a happy balance here. I don't want shares to even make up a small amount of what is posted here. But items which are on topic or of interest are sporadically nice.

Glad I could introduce rennsport to you. It's an awesome blog.

Thanks for the feedback.

Gamecat235 > V8VespaStoppie 07/29/2014 at 13:20

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Should be going live any minute now. Thanks for your patience.

Gamecat235 > V8VespaStoppie 07/29/2014 at 14:04

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http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/club-openings-…

RWS Motorsport > Gamecat235 09/16/2014 at 08:06

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Hi Guys

I sent the OppoMods gmail an email last night regarding referring to OppositeLock when applying for Media Passes to UK race circuits. I wont go into detail here, its in the email I wrote, but I was wondering what the state of play was :) Thanks

BJ > Gamecat235 09/19/2014 at 10:09

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Can we please add a recommendation to keep themes single-threaded? Contribute in a reply, not with a new post.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Gamecat235 10/17/2014 at 14:34

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Hey Gamecat, I was an author and I was going to post something today, but couldn't... could you look into that please? thanks.

Gamecat235 > CaptDale - is secretly British 10/17/2014 at 15:43

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The account captddale.kinja.com is an author, but this account isn't. It appears that you have two different accounts.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Gamecat235 10/17/2014 at 16:22

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oh... uh ok.... this is the only one i know how to sign into ha ha... could you add this one?