We have only a few rules and aim to have the board be as self-policing as possible—we use “soft” power rather than hard power, and lead by example. These are the few restrictions:

 

1) No advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, pornography or MLM (multi-level marketing). This goes without saying.

2) No political or religious discussion. There are countless places online to discuss religion and politics but only a few to discuss film music. Even in the non-film music discussion side of our board, we do not allow religious or political talk. We have found that such threads always (regardless of which “side” you are on) degenerate into fights and acrimony. Obviously there are topics that border on these areas; please use your judgment. If you want to discuss your favorite scores to religious films, that’s fine, just don’t use it to sermonize—and if somebody else does so, report it to us, and don’t take the bait. (These are sensitive topics; please respect that other people may not only have different views, but different sensibilities towards discussing them.) Which leads into:

 

3) With apologies to Google: Don’t be evil. You don’t have to be Pollyanna but don’t be a jerk, please? The world would be very boring (and so would our board) if we all had the same opinions, but be nice to each other. You are allowed to use profanity (although we wish you wouldn’t) as long as it’s not directed at a person. So often on the Internet it’s easy to assume that someone else is attacking you when that may not be the case; try to assume the best, not the worst, of other people’s intentions.

 

4) No Bootlegs. "Bootlegs" is an umbrella term for pirate CDs, unauthorized albums, illegal music file sharing, etc. We have a TOTAL blackout on discussion of these “unmentionables”; we have found that even posts that warn people against them only serve to publicize them. Why is this our policy? For one, we’re ethical fellows. Stealing is wrong. For another, more practical reason, bootleg CDs are typically of poor quality and only damage the ability of legitimate labels to put out official, superior versions. Given that we’re one of the labels, it is maddening to compete against crooks peddling stolen goods. Also...the people at the studios who license us the music have the Internet too and may even read this board, and they would not be happy to see posts about stolen versions of their property. See where that is going? Stealing is wrong, AND bad for business—ours. Recently we’ve been asked about whether it’s OK to link to youtube clips given the abundance of copyright violations there; the answer is yes but please use your judgment.

 

5) One screen name only. We allow you to keep your identity secret as it’s Internet custom and some people work in entertainment and legitimately need anonymity. We reserve the right to “out” you if something extraordinary warrants it; so far, this has never happened. We ask that you do not register multiple screen names because it lends itself to abuse; however, if this happens because of some clerical accident (changing email address, etc.) it’s not a problem.

 

SO THAT YOU KNOW: I monitor the message board along with my colleague, David Sones, but we don’t read every post—you think we’re crazy? We will respond to your messages if it’s a thread we’ve missed; email   and/or —if one or both of us does not respond immediately, it could be something like it’s the middle of the night. Speaking for myself, when I get involved, I make every attempt to straighten things out behind the scenes rather than chastise people publicly.

 

SO THAT YOU KNOW #2: The number of people we have banned from the board in our first decade you could count on one hand—they were sociopaths who delighted in personal vendettas. If you feel the urge to go postal, know that thanks to the last guy, we built a high-tech “banning” system. If you think you will be able to register with another email address after we ban you, you are in for a surprise. That said, we endeavor never to ban anyone. We want different voices and points of view; some people tend to be repeat offenders as far as getting in fights and drifting onto forbidden topics, but we work hard to mend fences and find the good person within—sorry to be corny.

This is our community and let’s make it the best we can. Thanks for reading.

 

  

Considering the real-time nature of this bulletin board, it is impossible for us to review messages or confirm the validity of information posted. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the contents of posted messages and are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of this Message Board or any entity associated with this Message Board . Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email (see above). We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. Also understand that there may be varying degrees of objectionable content, and in the interest of maintaining as free an environment as possible, Film Score Monthly reserves the right to determine whether or not a posted message is objectionable.

 

You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this Message Board to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this Message Board.

 

Although this Message Board does not and cannot review the messages posted and is not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we at this Message Board reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless this Message Board, Film Score Monthly, and their agents with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).

 

We at this Message Board also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

 

Please note that advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes and solicitations are strictly prohibited!