Apple Support Communities Governance Policies - Pointer Please

A slightly different slant from babowa.

what i'm after is any reference to this forum's governance policies that would resemble these: http://www.apache.org/foundation/bylaws.html.

You confusing things.

Appache is some type of corporation. The document explains how they 'run' their corporation from a legal point of view.

These forums, what ever their name, are a bunch of web postings. It's not even a magazine since it isn't written by apple employees. It's more like letters to the editor.

Here is some info on Apple governance.

http://investor.apple.com/governance.cfm

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This could be confusing if you have not grown up in a country with a modern business environment and taken course in business organization.

Robert

If you look near the bottom of this page you'll see the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use link, but if you can't find that follow this link.

What are the editorial policies (I see this as distinct from Terms of Use)?

The Terms of Use are a guideline for all policies

Who determines these policies?

Obviously Apple

How are participants ranked (e.g., levels & points)?

Tutorial for that

Are incentives provided to those who rank highly?

There are but they don't seem to be spelled out in the tutorial. When I hit Level 2 I got an email explaining what was new.

- I believe https://discussions.apple.com/ is an Apple Inc. property.

You are correct.

- I would like to know the policies that govern this forum. For example:

What are the editorial policies (I see this as distinct from Terms of Use)?

Unless someone is keeping it a deep dark secret, all the policies are contained in the Terms of Use.

Who determines these policies?

Someone (or possibly more than one person) who works for Apple.

How are participants ranked (e.g., levels & points)?

Users who ask questions can award points to other users who answer their questions. 5 points each go to up to two answers that the asker calls "helpful" and 10 points can go to an answer that the asker deems to have solved his question. Note that while it is possible for someone who asks to mark their own answer as helpful or solved, they cannot give themselves points.

Various levels of points give you extra priviledges, such as the right to report another post to the forum hosts if it appears to violate the ToU (Level 2) or the right to use a custom avatar in the forums (Level 3). Truthfully though, most of us don't do this for the points, we do it because we like helping other users. The really hot shot users (Level 6 and above) have their own little private area they can use for chatting among themselves.

I hope this answers at least some of your questions.

Are incentives provided to those who rank highly?

Yes! Every time I get another one of those little dots, Apple doubles my salary. It also triples my salary.

C: please provide evidence.

Section 2: Submissions

C: how do you know? are there references you can point me to?

It's an Apple website. I doubt they would allow an outside party set policy.

C: who determines the levels, their intervals, and their rewards? where is this spelled out?

Apple determines the levels, intervals, and privileges (wouldn't call them rewards. I'll sell you my ability to report posts as abuse. Make an offer!). They changed when they went from the old forums to the new ones a couple of months ago. The person who posts the question can assign two helpful posts at 5 points and one answered post at 10 points. What point values are associated with which levels are in the tutorial. No clue why the privileges aren't defined.

Message was edited by: fjfjfjfjfjfjdksllair - Forgot to finish a sentence

- I believe https://discussions.apple.com/ is an Apple Inc. property.

You are correct.

C: can you provide a pointer or any other evidence?

Only the fact that it is part of Apple's web site. That's good enough for me. Do you have any reason to believe it is not?

C: Fair enough. How are Communities defined? What constitutes a new and valid discussion, or thread? Who determines the acceptability of specific posts? (Disclosure: I've had comments booted from the forum before.) If someone were to be removed from the forum (and I'm not planning on it), what are the criteria, who would make the assessments, and what are the possible outcomes?

Apple groups the communities according to their products, for reasons only they know. Maybe users find it convenient? A new thread is whatever is submitted by a user, subject to review by the forum hosts. If they find that the thread goes against the ToU they may remove it or edit it. Actually according to the ToU they can do anything they want. Our only recourse if we don't like it is to go elsewhere. Some users do so. Others threaten to do so (sometimes daily) yet are still here. Fortunately there are enough of us around to make this a useful community. I have both asked and answered questions here and I find both satisfying. I've even answered some incorrectly and been told so in no uncertain terms. I learned something. I have even had a post or two removed. Each time I was sent an email from the Apple Support Communities staff detailing why it was removed. They seem to be very forgiving as long as we try to keep within the guidelines given. People who try to be annoying (spammers, flamers, etc) don't last long. I've reported some and never seen their posts again.

I don't know all of it for sure. I suppose that Apple might outsource the communities but even if they do the responsibility lies with Apple. I have no idea what the real names of the hosts are but they have purple Apple badges when they do post in the forums. They do so rarely but it does happen. This particular forum ("Using Apple Support Communities") is the one I have most often seen them appear in. I'm not sure how to answer the last two questions here. The contributions to these forums are valued by the users themselves. I would guess that Apple probably keeps an eye on technical developments here, but have no way of knowing that for sure.

I'd guess that Link Davis is making a joke here. Double (and triple) of his Apple salary is still $0.00.

That is the corporate (or foundational) bylaws. I'm guessing that Apple has such but I don't think they have much if anything specifically to say about the Apple Support Communities. We are just a detail here.

Okay I did a Google search (something I recommend when looking for information of this kind) for apple inc corporate bylaws and came up with this page. Obviously I can't vouch for its accuracy and I'm not about to wade through it myself.

Best of luck.

I'm still not sure what you are after - all of the policies are spelled out in the Support Communities terms of use, which includes a link to the general Apple.com terms of use. Pretty much everything is at the discretion of Apple and its moderators, so if you are looking for some kind of legal recourse, there isn't any since you agree to the terms by being here.