A note about the purpose and culture of M4Carbine.net:
Purpose --
The primary purpose of M4Carbine.net is to serve as a high-quality technical resource to the shooting community. There is a great deal of myth, misunderstanding, and foolishness that surrounds the subject of firearms and their employment as any brief visit to the gunstore or look around many websites will demonstrate. M4Carbine.net exists to promote the dissemination of reliable information, solidly grounded in fact, that offers the seeker of knowledge his best possible chance of repeatable results in the real world.
To achieve that mission, M4Carbine.net needs the input and participation of those individuals who, through significant training and experience, have accumulated that information. To encourage the participation of these individuals and to promote a generally collegial atmosphere where the experienced armed professional and the newcomer to shooting can both get something out of the site, M4Carbine.net has been structured with a unique set of formal rules which can be found here.
The M4Carbine.net Culture --
In addition to the formal rules outlined in the linked document above, at M4Carbine.net we also attempt to promote a cultural standard that is unique among firearms boards. Formal rules are important to any organization's proper function, but often it is the culture of an organization that truly defines it. With that in mind, here are some rough cultural guidelines that hopefully will help to show what this site is about.
- When participating in a thread we would generally prefer that the motivation for posting be productive. In other words, the motivation for posting in a thread or for posting a new thread is an attempt to solve a problem, to ask an intelligent question, or to further the conversation with some sort of useful knowledge or input. It would also be good to realize that while a question may be new to you, it may have already been discussed at length several times before on the board, so use of the search function is always encouraged. Often a new thread on a topic that's been covered several times will not yield the same depth of information that can be found in reviewing older threads.
- Cluttering up a valuable technical discussion with irrelevant or ridiculous content does not serve the interests of the site or the membership. In addition to being rude and inconsiderate, it serves to drive intelligent and useful contributors away from the topic and the site. The membership, moderators, and staff of M4Carbine.net do not appreciate those antics and our collective displeasure will be registered swiftly and unequivocally when they are spotted.
- Posting on M4Carbine.net should not be viewed as something done out of boredom. While our bloomers are not so overly starched that we are intolerant of any humor or fun, it is still best if posts have a relevant point that other people are interested in, especially knowledgeable people who are generally busy and want the minimum amount of foolishness in something they desire to be a professional quality resource. On M4C there are no cool guy points for having a high post count. In fact, some of our best contributors have a really low post count because they only post when they have something valuable to contribute to the discussion. We strongly endorse this behavior.
- Understand that M4Carbine.net is valued by a large number of our members because it is a fundamentally different site than many others. That value would be completely lost if we allowed every type of behavior allowed on other boards on the internet. M4C is valuable because it is different. We ask you to please recognize the benefits this difference offers and to make every good faith effort to conduct yourself accordingly.
How does one do that?
- Listen more than you talk when you don't have the answer.
- Talk when you have something worthwhile to ask or say.
- Say it in as respectful a manner as possible.
- Strive to stay within the boundaries of your knowledge.
- Understand that others may have valid reasons to disagree with something you say and don't let that offend you.
- Humility is a marvelous personality trait and is encouraged here.
If you abide by those simple guidelines you will probably find your time here to be extremely enjoyable. If not, then your stay will probably be short and relatively unpleasant.
To preserve the valuable aspects of our site, we must politely insist that all members abide by the formal rules and conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with the culture and goals of the site.
Thank you for your attention.
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