Rules and Guidelines Index
Flaming
Name calling and use of profanities
Secondary Flaming
Spam/trolling
Mass deletes
Cooling off period
Violations of Delphi's terms of service (TOS violations)
Too Much Information (TMI)
Personal safety
Gossip and rumors
Ads/sales
Sharing vs bragging
Violation reports and how to fill them out
Wasting Moderators' Time
Removing Ads
Contests and posts asking for votes
Flaming: PARF has a no-flaming policy. Flaming is defined as messages that are interpreted as personal attacks on individual members, their children, or groups of members. They are considered to be inappropriately hostile for the situation and for our board. Taunts, racial or ethnic slurs, negative comments about residents of another city or country, are all considered flames. Negative comments about the board which reflect poorly on members or staff are also considered flames (see Wasting Moderators' Time, below). Anyone who flames other members may lose posting privileges on a temporary or permanent basis. While we ask people for personal opinions, sometimes the comments are fine but the method of stating them is inflammatory.
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Name calling and use of profanities: As with flaming, these behaviors are not allowed on the board and may result in a loss of posting privileges.
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Secondary flaming: We ask that members avoid getting involved in someone else's 'fight' or disagreement with another member. Comments like that can be just as incendiary as the original flames and are not appropriate. Instead, please report any flames to the staff members who will then take measures necessary to deal with the problems. Taking on another member will only escalate a conflict. Staffers have the experience and tools to deal with problems quickly and fairly; let them do so.
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Spam/trolling: Spam consists of junk messages posted to a board with the purpose of disrupting traffic and/or service. Trolls are people (often new to the board) who post with the express purpose of causing a disruption of traffic or service. These behaviors may also violate Delphi TOS and will be reported to them if it is appropriate to do so.
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Mass deletes: If you don't like the way a discussion in which you have posted has gone, please contact a staff member to evaluate it. Mass deletes of multiple messages or deleting key messages in a discussion in effect trashes that discussion and makes it unusable for other members to read and learn from. Although you may have started a discussion, quite often other members give their opinions and advice, so you don't "own" it, nor should it be removed unless the staff has determined we want to do so. Anyone who does this may lose posting privileges.
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Cooling off period: If staff determines that a member will lose posting privileges, that member is first given a 3 day or 72 hour cooling off period. That gives the member a chance to understand what behaviors are not suitable for the board and to decide if one wishes to continue participating as a member. An email must be sent to a staff member with any comments and a request for permission to post again. These requests will be evaluated and if we can come to an agreement, the member's posting privileges will be restored. A member who loses posting privileges a second time may lose the right to have them restored, depending on the circumstances. If a member loses posting privileges and signs in under another ID to continue the misbehaviors, that member will earn a permanent lock-out and loss of all board privileges.
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Violations of Delphi's terms of service (TOS violations): Any member who violates Delphis TOS agreement will lose all message board privileges on PARF and will be reported to DelphiForums TOS.
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Too Much Information (TMI): Too Much Information (TMI): Some of our members have
access to advance inside information, such as who booked certain jobs and why. We consider this to be TMI
and will not be allowed on the boards. As a guideline, if information has appeared in the trades or in a
reliable internet source, such as the IMDB databases (not their message boards), Hollywood Reporter or
Daily Variety, we consider that to be public information which you may post in the appropriate discussions
along with a link to the article. Recently, some industry professionals, including agents and managers,
have begun using Twitter or Facebook to announce client bookings. Because we have no way of verifying
that any of the information on those pages is accurate or is intended for anyone other than immediate
clients of those representatives, we do not consider any Twitter or Facebook page to be a trusted or
reliable internet source for booking or audition information.
We ask that you also not say things like the following:
"I've heard this part has booked."
"They have a short list for this role."
"The director is meeting with her top choices next week."
"I read it on another website."
These and similar comments are considered TMI.
We also ask that you respect members' privacy on the
board. Many members protect their identities and those of their children for very legitimate personal
and professional reasons. As a result, you may not post any information that could identify another
member or the member's child, unless the parent has already shared this information first. This includes
posting the name of a film or show or commercial you saw the child in, the name of the child's manager or
agent, or where the family lives.
Any member who violates TMI is in danger of losing posting privileges. As always, if you have any
question about whether what you want to post is TMI please feel free to contact the moderators
before you post and ask. We are here to help.
The term 'TMI' may also refer to information about your child or family (see 'Personal Safety' below).
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Personal safety: Because many of our members are the parents of children under
the age of 18, we ask that you take additional precautions in releasing TMI or potentially harmful
information about your own children or friends. In particular, we ask that you not post your home
addresses, phone numbers, the name of your child's school, or other information that could give someone
information on how to locate your child, such as a parent's occupation or place of business,
sports team names or locations, cities, or identifying landmarks that might pinpoint where you live.
In addition, due to the proliferation of web sites that exploit children, we suggest you don't post pictures of your children in underwear or bare f
eet, and that you consider not putting such photos on personal web sites either. For more information
about photo safety, ask for links to discussions covering that subject on the message board.
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Gossip and rumors: Due to the nature of the entertainment industry, much of what happens behind the scenes may be private or of a type that could harm someone's reputation or career. We want PARF to be as safe an environment for parents and actors as is possible on the Internet, and so we ask that the board not be used for gossip, rumors, or "hints" about other people or their jobs. Please consider how you would feel if untrue or hurtful information about you were given out to others, and act accordingly. Also, remember that this industry is a small one, and harmful words can be used against you as well as in your favor. Some of our members are industry professionals, and they will likely read your posts. In addition, consider your behaviors at auditions and bookings, because the person you meet today, could speak with your agent or manager tomorrow.
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Ads/sales: It is a violation of DelphiForums' TOS to use message boards to sell products or services. We interpret this very narrowly and ask that items or classes for sale not be promoted with flyers or detailed sales information on the boards. You may give links to web sites or phone numbers and addresses for services that might be helpful to members (photographers, photo reproduction services, coaches, etc) but we ask that you honor our decision not to allow detailed ads of any type on the board.
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Sharing vs bragging: There may be a fine line between sharing information and bragging about bookings. We ask that members realize that as many as 75% of our members (or their children) belong to one or more performers' unions, and most members over the age of 7 or 8 have training and experience. Please be considerate of our members when posting comments such as, "My son booked the lead in a film because he is so smart and worked so hard." Actually, most of the members on our board work extremely hard on preparing for their careers. Be aware that there are many decisions that go into hiring an actor for a job, including look (coloring, size, body type, resemblance to other actors in the production) and availability, as well as talent and luck. Very infrequently is the final decision based on how hard one has worked to achieve the booking.
PARF is not a "brag board" (ie, not a place where we brag about the number of auditions or call-backs a child gets, or how much a particular CD "loves" your child) but is a place to share our joys as well as our frustrations and sorrows. We have created a Bookings folder in which you may post information about bookings. We ask that booking information be placed only in that folder. An exception will be made within a discussion about auditions for a particular project. If a role has been booked and that information is public knowledge, posted in the trades, or has been released by the studio, then that information may be shared. Posting bookings anywhere other than in these two areas for these express purposes is considered bragging and such posts may be edited or removed. In addition to our Bookings folder, we offer a free Commercial Tracking service, in which you may ask members in the U.S. and Canada to report airings of your commercials.
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Violation reports and how to fill them out: If you see something on the board that you feel is inappropriate and should be edited or removed, please fill out a violation report. This sends the information to several people, who can then take appropriate action. To find the reports, go to the Options link in the lower left-hand corner of the message you are reading, and click on Report Violations, then follow the instructions.
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Wasting Moderators' Time: As noted above, all staff members are volunteers, including the official host of the message board. Our time is as valuable to us as yours is to you. Please use it wisely. Any member whose inappropriate behaviors (including arguing with moderators) cause us to spend too much of our personal time dealing with problems outside of the normal requirements of our jobs, may lose posting privileges. We are here to answer your questions, offer resources and opinions, but we are not babysitters. Please respect our time so we can continue to offer you this service.
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Removing Ads: DelphiForums runs a variety of ads on message board pages that are seen by Basic members. The forum and the staff of the forum receive no money or reimbursement from those ads. Any profits are used to provide Basic members with the forum platform and use of that forum for free. If you dislike ads, consider upgrading to Delphi Advanced ($14.99/year) or Delphi Plus ($14.99 per quarter). In addition to viewing ad-free pages, you will also get a variety of other perks depending on which level of service you choose to purchase.
Check here for more information on the Comparisons Between Membership Plans or how to Upgrade to an Ad-Free Membership.
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Contests and posts asking for votes: PARF is a professional board.
As such it is not in the best interest of our members to allow posts requests for contest or requesting
votes. Such requests are disruptive to the ongoing activities on the board.
Contests with prizes as castings go against the professional nature of our board, since
legitimate castings for jobs are rarely done through contests. We aren't in the position of being
able to vet all of these requests to make sure that they are what they claim to be. Also, it's
possible that more than one member has a child competing, in which case asking for votes can become awkward.
For these reasons, contest or vote request posts are not allowed on the board.
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