Posting Guidelines  

The following is a set of preliminary posting guidelines for Head-Fi. They are derived from the Steve Hoffman Forums and rules I wrote for another forum and essentially cover what is actually enforced by the moderators. They are not absolute rules. Please see the Head-Fi Terms of Service for those.

Head-Fi is a place for the peaceful and collaborative discussion of personal and portable audio equipment and music. We hope to create an environment that is family-friendly, receptive and educational, not rude or judgmental like many other forums on the internet. To both develop and preserve camaraderie and general politeness among members, simple guidelines have been established. To that positive end, a team of forum moderators volunteer their time to make sure that these guidelines are respected.

Key points:

• Treat others with the same respect and dignity that you would expect back.
• Extend your respect to the whole community by writing quality posts and threads.
• View your Head-Fi experience in a positive light, even when people are negative and unhelpful. 

Our forum rules have one major purpose: they allow a respectful exchange of ideas. These rules have been created to provide you with information about what you can expect here, and what is expected of you. There's nothing wrong with contrary opinions, in fact life would be pretty boring if everyone agreed on everything! We have to insist though that opinions are expressed in a civil fashion, free of insults.

Maintaining forum decorum also means that certain behaviors, such as trolling, thread crapping, and being openly critical of our staff and policies, have no place on our site. The same applies to content that is unacceptable such as politics, religion, racial discussion, pornography, spamming, and so forth. 

Please keep in mind that you are responsible for everything that you post, and it is important that you think carefully before clicking on the reply button. All internet forums have a system of sanctions for members who violate the rules, and we are no exception. We encourage our members to become familiar with the full version of our rules and policies so that we can maintain and nurture our little corner of the internet!

With that in mind, we ask that you please:

Search the forum first. Use the Advanced Search and try searching only thread titles to find info that is more specific.  You can also search head-fi using Google by adding site:head-fi.org into your search query.

Fill in your profile! People will check there to find out what equipment you own and music tastes you have. 

Make good thread titles.

• Good: Need help choosing a pair of inexpensive portable over-ear headphones, mostly for rock and metal.
• Bad: Help!
• Bad: Another question thread.
• Bad: Newbie question.
• Bad: Where can I find...
• Bad: Best IEM <$50

Take the time to write clear, concise questions.

When asking for advice, let people know:

• What you've found from searching.
• What music you like and how loud you listen.
• What other related equipment you have or may buy.

Only start ONE thread with your question. You may, if there are no replies to your question after at least 24 hours, "bump" the thread by making a post, but not sooner. Click on your username to find threads you have posted in (at the bottom of your profile).

Only make the same post in ONE thread. Cross-posting is frowned upon and may be treated as spam which may result in your account being locked after your posts are deleted.  

Curb any urge you may have to flippantly dismiss someone's opinion. (Examples: "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" or "That's bull****").

Don't take comments personally. Just as music tastes are subjective, so is the equipment used. Much of the subjectiveness is actually a result of the different types of music people like and, consequently, how it plays back through different headphones and other equipment at different volumes.

If someone makes a rude or otherwise inappropriate comment, or a post appears to be trolling or spam, DON'T reply, but report it if necessary by clicking on the red flag and filling in the box explaining what the problem is.

If you find yourself getting heated up over comments, consider taking a break before replying.

Respect the OP's (original poster's) intentions and try and keep comments on topic. If you feel a strong need to (continue to) discuss a particular, but off-topic subject in a thread, start your own thread and direct post a link in the thread rather than derail that thread. If it's not a discussion worthy for a thread, consider taking it to private messages.

EG: Appreciation or sponsored threads are not the place to discuss your dislike of the product after it didn't work out for you. 

Please don't recommend equipment you don't own or otherwise don't have a reasonable amount of familiarity with. You wouldn't recommend someone a car you've never driven or suggest someone live in a country you haven't been to, so recommending headphones and equipment you haven't owned or used is unhelpful. Even if you've seen the same comments about something from a dozen members, save discussion of that if you're intending to buy it yourself.

Please understand that our membership consists of people from many cultures and backgrounds, so please don't swear or post of potentially offensive comments and images (including in your avatar). If you're not sure about the potential offense of something you intend to post, consider whether or not it would be broadcast on prime-time TV or in a daily newspaper. If not, then don't post it.

Thus, to ensure peaceful discussion, topics such as politics and religion are not to be brought up on the forums.

Please clarify, when expressing an opinon on or writing a review of equipment if it was discounted in any form at purchase or lent to you in exchange for you posting comments or reviews as well as any relationships you have or have had to audio equipment manufacturers or similar. We like everything to be open and transparent here and that includes whether or not people are receiving any financial or other benefit from posting.