Although we still offer basic, Free membership, and Paying membership which entitles you to receiving our print magazine Pagoda World and our news letter, as well as full access to our technical manual, the membership system has been completely revamped on the new system.
Especially if you are interested in learning how to effectively upload pictures, it is well worth your time to try and read the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions listed below.
Netiquette is "Network Etiquette", a set of rules that we think should be adhered to to keep our community friendly, fair and respectful of the opinions of others.
These rules range from the simple (do not post enormous pictures, as not everyone has a screen as large as you), to the practical (do not quote a message if your reply ends up immediately next to it as it wastes screen real estate and fills up our databases) to rules we impose, such as no commercial activity in our Technical Manual or our boards except for in the designated forum.
Mostly, and common sense too:
Read the Forum for a while before
you post anything. This helps you to get an understanding of
the culture of the group.
Do not blame the system administrator for the behavior of the
Forum users.
Consider that a large audience will see your posts.
That may include your present or your next boss. Take
care in what you write. Remember too, that this Forum is frequently archived, and that your words may be
stored for a very long time in a place to which many people have
access.
Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they
say does not represent their organization (unless stated
explicitly).
Messages and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't
wander off-topic, don't ramble and don't send mail or post
messages solely to point out other people's errors in typing
or spelling. These, more than any other behavior, mark you
as an immature beginner.
Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group.
Advertising is abhorred
on our Forums! Unsolicited advertising which is completely
off-topic will most certainly guarantee that you get a lot of
hate mail.
If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting that is a number of messages removed from your reply you
may quote parts of the original at the top of the message, or include just
enough text of the original to give a context. This will make
sure readers understand when they start to read your response.
Giving context
helps everyone. But do not include the entire original!
If you should find yourself in a disagreement with one person,
make your responses to each other via mail rather than continue to
post on the Forum. If you are debating a
point on which the group might have some interest, you may
summarize for them later.
Don't get involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond
to incendiary material.
Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more than
gratuitous replies to replies.
Be careful with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will
display differently on different systems, and with different
mailers on the same system.
If you'd really like to know about formal netiquette, there is a formal standard for it, RFC 1855. If in doubt, please read that.