Rules and Policies
For Forum Participation

Disclaimer

Rule 1: Post On the Appropriate Forum
Please take the time to notice that we have a number of forums available for you to post in.

The General Forum is meant for the discussion of most wine related content that isn't specifically set aside for the other forums. Pricing, vintage updates, winery information and any of your favorite wine related experiences are examples of the content that should be posted on this forum.

The Tasting Notes Forum is pretty basic, anything to do with a tasting note, looking for one, asking for one and or posting about one, should be done here.

The Italian Forum is for all things having anything to do with wine that are Italian.

The Travel & Offlines Forum is used to talk about places you have been and places you have stayed at. If you have had a great experience at a B & B or a Spa, let us know here. What are your favorite Inns to stay at in the wine country? It is also used to discuss any upcoming offline get togethers.

The Food Forum should be used to discuss recipes, food/wine matches, cooking methods and restaurants.

The Value Wines Forum should be used to post about modestly priced wines. Both tasting notes and any thing else you would care do discuss about in regards to these wines is most suitable on this forum. We have a loose cap of $20 for this forum but will allow an occasional note about wines slightly more expensive.

The Commercial Events & Winery Release Forum is for posting the dates of upcoming releases and commercial wine events. This is the only forum that allows commercial posts to be made. We are going to allow wineries to report notes on their wines here. Those notes can include technical data, personal tasting notes along with any press the wines have received. The intent here is to provide the information on the wines with release date being the primary reason of the post.

We also are allowing posts for commercial wine tasting events. These can be large commercial tastings, such as ZAP or local wine shop tastings worth mentioning. If your winery is having an open house, if there is a large consumer or trade tasting that you want to get the word out about, you are free to post that here. The key concept for this forum is that the events and releases must be date specific. We do not want anyone coming in and promoting sales of their wines in a general sense. Directions and phone numbers to events would be appreciated. If you are a member or sponsor of the event in question, it is OK for you to make the post. All information is appreciated, but please don't use this site as a place to conduct your sign up processing. Simply post the notice and feel free to answer questions if they are asked.

Rule 2: No Spamming
Spam is an unsolicited commercial post. Placing an ad without the involvement of further dialog is unwanted. Please don't use this site as an avenue for placing these ads. Some of our members are in the wine business and we don't mind if our "regulars" place an occasional post about their business on this board. We ask them to be discrete and use pointers and links when at all possible. If you are not a regular member, please take caution of your ads.

A post that redirects posters to another forum site is considered spam. It will be deleted. A response to a post that redirects posters to your own personal web site to receive the response is considered spam and will be deleted. We suggest that you cut and paste the information to our site and do so without placing an ad banner for your site in the post. You are allowed to point out articles to other sites if you have no affiliation with that site. If you have an economic incentive to increase your traffic at that site, then it will be considered spam and be deleted. If you are running a completely non commercial site, other than a a forum, then we don't have a problem with you pointing out an occasional article you might have. If you have any questions about how this might apply to you, please feel free to e-mail me.

If you are a journalist and want to query our participants, we ask that you contact Brad Harrington, the site owner. We have mostly had really good experiences with this and will usually OK the interactions. There have been a couple of instances where people had ulterior motives involved with redirecting traffic to their own web sites. As most people who run web sites know, traffic is what it's all about. It took us years to get to this point so if we are helping others by allowing pointers, we want to be involved in the process and be sure we understand the motives.

We have had a number of questions about what kind of links are suitable for posting within a biographic introduction or within a message on the forums. There are going to be some links that come off as advertising of your site and others that are needed in order to divulge your affiliations during a thread that may directly relate to your business.

Let me give you a couple of examples that have come up lately. Mind you, there are no hard feelings, we realize we have not covered this adequately in our rules and policies up to this point. One example involved a lawyer who was a drunk driving specialist and would post a link in just about every post he made. A number of people felt that it was a bit too commercial and that the fact that he was a lawyer with that specialty had nothing to do with his posts and therefore he should not leave a link. It seems to me and the other editors that they had some good points.

Another example, happens when industry folks, such as winemakers, respond to a post that perhaps deals with the quality of a certain varietal within their region. When they don't divulge their affiliation, it has often been interpreted rather poorly by some people who felt they were being manipulated. Some people have told me that they feel that they should divulge their connections if they are going to comment on something that has so much to do with their business. This makes some sense to me also.

At best this is a complex and confusing issue with quite a bit of a gray area involved. So here is what I propose. If you are affiliated with a winery, you should include the name of the winery in the one of a few places, your signature file, your biography section or as your sign in name. This should be especially considered when you are talking about a subject that is particularly related to your winery. Example: you're a Pinot Noir specialist and are listing the best Pinot's in the state.

If you own a wine shop or are a distributor, it's an even more slippery slope. You can still reveal your affiliations by placing your company name in your biography or signature file but we would prefer you use your real name to log in. You do not want to appear like you are trying to sell your wines through your posts, our participants will consider this a spam. What most of the shop owners or clerks have done is to do their best to not comment on wines that they currently have in stock. It is a bit of a tough road but I think that it is needed. If people are asking about a certain wine, it would be bad form to then come out and post your company link and point out you have the wine. It's a bit opportunist and may encourage other shops to do the same. It could potentially get ugly. If you want to send a private message to people with that type of response, you are on your dime and it is none of my business. If you harvest names to do this and I get complaints, then I will write you and ask you to stop. Now if something comes up about pricing and it is fairly obvious to you that people are not seeing the real costs that are being handed down and you have an insiders perspective, it would be appropriate for you to divulge your affiliation in your post. There is a subtle difference there.

What we are trying to avoid is people posting to attract sales only. What we encourage is sharing of information that will be valuable to the other participants of this site. If your posts could be interpreted differently due to either divulging or concealing your affiliation, go with the concept that is the most honest and least commercial. In the end, industry folks who walk this fine line successfully have really gained a lot of respect and business thrown their way for their goodwill and intelligence. We want to be supportive but we don't want to be taken advantage of.

Any spam that is posted without the solicitation of our members, especially the board manager, will be removed from the board. If you have any questions about this policy, address it as a post on the board or contact me personally through my e-mail address. We are accepting advertising for a reasonable fee. If you would like to place a banner ad on this site please contact the site manager, Brad Harrington, at 858-458-3636.

Rule 3: No Flaming
Please refrain from personal attacks on this board. It is often difficult to know how someone is saying something. The tone that someone is using does not often convey itself well over the Internet, especially with inexperienced writers, such as myself. Were they joking, teasing, mocking, condescending, scolding, prodding, etc., etc. It's hard to tell and easy to fall prey to. I know, I've done it myself. When someone angers you, stop and ask yourself how you would perceive the post if it was made by someone you had more trust in. This board is a fairly civil place and I have rarely seen a post that is an out and out attack on another person.

Any threats made to another participant of this site either online or in an offline e-mail, regardless of the merits of your interactions on this site, will be dealt with harshly. We will not tolerate any types of threats, whether direct or hidden behind vague references. This is grounds to be blocked from our site.

Also take note that if you are causing this site, my moderators and/or myself undue personal problems and we suspect you could be using our Private Messaging area to further your agenda, opinions and dissent. We will look through your private messages to determine your intent. If you want to rip on people from this site, the moderators or simply the site itself, we ask you to do this on your own dime and do NOT use our website to do so!! Read through our disclaimer section, where we state that any information contained within the domain of this site, INCLUDING PRIVATE MESSAGES, is available for reproduction by the owner of this site!

Rule 4: Take Heated Debates and Personal Disagreements Offline
Once it has become apparent that a disagreement exists, it should be taken off-line. If a poster feels they have been personally attacked, they may post one polite, un-controversial note stating their position. Any further discussion does not belong in this forum. Participants visit to share their love of wine and broaden their knowledge in a friendly environment, not witness personal disagreements being aired. If someone takes offense to a post, the poster may make one effort to explain themselves more clearly, apologize, or move on. If none of these alternatives are acceptable, take it off-line. This also applies to less than satisfactory personal dealings with others in the wine industry. It is one thing to share one's disagreement with the policies of a winery, distributor or retailer. It is another thing entirely for a poster to use these forums to facilitate their own personal agenda. This has occurred in the past and the results were disparaging and unpleasant for everyone involved. It will not be tolerated in the future. The bottom line is - if you are intent on airing your dirty laundry in public, don't do it here. Your cooperation will help maintain our congenial community, and is greatly appreciated. Also, if you do decide to contact someone offline about an online dispute, try to keep it as civil as possible, no matter the circumstances. Let them know how the interaction made you feel and then leave it at that. If you are just contacting them to make them aware of your personal negative opinions about one of their posts, or even worse, their perceptions of a wine, please don't. This is not needed by anyone and in fact when I have seen this in the past, it has always clearly indicated that the person trying to make a point is much too impressed by their own opinion and ego.

Rule 5: Use Real Name and an E-mail Address
This isn't mandatory, but it has grown out of group consensus and observed that we all behave more tolerantly when people know us. Other sites, that many of us know, may have a tendency to slip into uncivil behavior, (flaming), towards each other. It is our goal to treat each other better than this. A little politeness goes a long way. We have much more tolerance for statements that are posted behind a known person. People who post provocative opinions and statements while hiding behind anonymity, or engage in critical threads, will find their posts deleted on a more frequent basis. You must also know, that you will have very little support from us while behaving in this manner. It is our suggestion that if you feel you have to post anonymously, for whatever reason, you should stay away from controversial or provocative subjects. Furthermore, we would like to have you contact Brad Harrington and at the very least introduce yourself to the editors. This enables them to contact you offline if the need arises and we are willing to keep it confidential, as long as we know who you are and what your affiliations are. Once again this is not mandatory, but if for any reason we have a problem with anything you post, you stand a much higher chance of being deleted if you post anonymously.

In addition, we do not allow people to post under multiple aliases. If we find that you have chosen a number of names to post under and have hot identified these names to us, we will either out you to the other members of our community, or block you from the site to the best of our ability. It's fairly easy for us to see where people post from. Please take this as notice if you are playing this game with us. We have the capability to see it and in many cases already know of it. Please stop!

For those of you who post an occasional humorous post using a funny alias name, either sign off the message with your real name, leave your real e-mail address in it or contact the editors and let us know who you are. If you don't do any of these things, don't be surprised if the post is deleted and please don't bother to complain about it.

Rule 6: Member Bios: Who Are We? Use it!
To enter a BIO, click on the "My Home" link located in the navigation bar at the top of the all the forums. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill in the form located there.

Again this is not mandatory, but it is very much appreciated by many of the regulars on board. It's nice to know what background everyone has. Why are you here, where are you from, who are you?? It goes hand in hand with using your real name. It really does help keep the place civil. It also helps newbies who are browsing through for the first time and are curious about what's going on here. We have many mini biographies from the people who participate on this board.

Though bio's are not mandatory, if we don't have one from you which gives us your real name along with your moniker, then it will be more likely that your posts will get edited more frequently. This is because I have very little tolerance for people who hide behind fake names, while causing controversy amongst the other posters. I would really appreciate that all people who do post with anything other than their real name submit a bio and let us know who you really are there. If this board gets to the point where I feel I cannot use reasonable judgment to keep things civil, then I can guarantee one of the first things I will do is edit out all the monikered people who have not properly identified themselves to the community. Ultimately I'm going to do what ever I need to do in order to keep this place civil and peaceful, and furthermore as long as I'm running this site for free, I'm going to do it the easiest way possible.

A couple points about posting a bio, if you are in the business of selling wine it's OK to post a link in your bio or in your signature file to your site. We see this as a way to divulge your affiliations to the wine industry, but if you are running a web site that is a community based forum rich website, I will consider this as direct competition to WCWN and delete it. I'm not trying to be paranoid but I think this is a fair limit to what kind of linking I feel comfortable with. The majority of my users are here because they love wine and while it is one thing to help provide them access to those wines and the people who sell them, it's another thing for me to allow direct competitors to pursue users for their site at WCWN. Any post or bio that links to another wine forum site will be deleted.

If you are running a wine related website that is NOT a wine forum, you are free to put a link in either your biography area or in your signature file, same as with retailers.

Rule 7: Keep it positive
Please keep a positive tone. Don't disrespect peoples opinions. It's one thing to point out erroneous facts and information and it's another to tell someone a wine they just said they loved, sucks! There is always a nice way to show someone the light, find that path before you blind them with your good intentions. Don't be rude to people! It's a pet peeve of mine and I can't tolerate it, so please help us keep this place warm and friendly. Please be careful when you poke fun at people, be sure you know them a little and have some rapport established. One of the complaints I get most often from people through e-mail exchange is that they don't like being the butt end of a joke. I know that in many cases it is actually meant as a compliment, but if you don't already have a positive relationship established with that person, they just may not take your loving jab in a friendly manner. Please use some thought here. Thanks.

Rule 8: No Religious, Racial or Purely Political Philosophical Nonsense
I don't want to deal with social issues in any kind of broad context. This is a wine site, period! If you want to talk about any controversial issues such as Clinton's policies, Church doctrine, medical HMO practices or racial matters, take it elsewhere. It's not wanted here, I really could care less about anyone's personal philosophy! This is a wine discussion site. If you have something to say that has to do with the politics of wine, then fine, but when you start approaching topics that are offending people here, it's not appreciated. Use common sense folks. I don't care if Black people, White people, Indians or Jewish people drink wine or not. I don't care if your religion thinks it's good or bad. I don't care if gay people or straight people drink Merlot and I'm really not interested in what wines go good with sex!! At least I don't think a public forum is the place to discuss these kinds of topics!! If you are not here to discuss wine in a positive, public manner, then you are not welcome here. Full stop! Bottom line.

Rule 9: Rules of Engagement
Like any place in the world, you will occasionally run across unsavory people who you disagree with. People who really turn you off due to their abruptness, rudeness or inability to communicate effectively in a caring and thoughtful manner. We will even come across people who will flame us and cause us problems. When we, as this group, come across an individual such as this, I have a suggestion. Do not engage these people in any kind of conversation. Don't be rude back, it only encourages more responses. Don't try to cajole them. Just leave them be. Most people that want to cause any kind of discourse are looking for response, any response. When they don't get it they tend to look for a place where they do! Let them find that place somewhere else and let's be sure that they don't find it with us!! Thanks.

Rule 10: No Not Send Inappropriate Private Messages to Our Members
This would include suggestive and/or sexual comments, sexist and/or racist remarks, links to porn sites, etc., etc. The WCWN forums are not a singles forum for you to find romance on!! Sexual harassment or unwanted come-ons will not be tolerated!! Inappropriate messages sent through our system from others who have not solicted them from you are grounds for your removal from this site! Please treat people with respect.!

Rule 11: Tasting Notes
Please place TN: at the beginning of your subject area before you enter a tasting note. This helps out the search engine when trying to separate the TN's from the more general discussions.

Rule 12: Non Wine Related Posts
Please keep these to a reasonable minimum and when you do post one, be sure that others can easily recognize it as such. The way we do this is by placing NWR: , for Non Wine Related, at the beginning of the subject area before you enter the note. Keep in mind that this board isn't an area for you to search for your long lost best friend from childhood or a place to be used to exchange e-mail messages. This type of posts may be deleted earlier than others, just because they aren't as important for this site as the wine related posts are. For those people who are very annoyed by people who actually have the nerve to post non wine related messages here, get a life. While this is a wine site, it's also a friend site. Many of us have met offline and enjoyed each others friendship and camaraderie. A little NWR conversation is a healthy by product of our mutual understanding and admiration. I don't understand why this bothers some people as much as it seems to. In my mind most of it has been a good thing. But there are limits and I ask people to use some common sense.

Rule 13: No Not Take Online Swings at Mods or Administrators
If you have a disagreement with the owner, administrators or moderators of this site, you need to present it to us privately. We address every single issue up front within the moderating group. We try to be fair and open. However, if you take your argument or disagreement with us online, you will be deleted and if you persist, then you will be blocked from the site.

Not every decision that is made in regards to other members or forum settings is apparrent to others. There are often circumstances going on behind the scenes that require our response. Additionally there can be economic concerns and incentives that lead me to make some decisions in regards to the forum settings.

I mean no one any disrespect but I have spent a considerable amount of time and money to develop and maintain this site. The site belongs to me and how I run it is not open for public debate. I am very open to private suggestions, though that does NOT mean that I am going to drop my methods and follow every single suggestion that is made to me.

I do NOT have the time or desire to debate people who want to "Take me on" in public.