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*steps up to the podium*

I'm sure most of you have read the rules by now; if not when you signed up then probably on the rules page found in the Community Information section up above. I'm pretty sure all of you know about my goals and vision for this site as well. If not, let me explain.

I started this site with one goal in mind, "To create a community where Northwest gun owners could come together in order to defend and expand our Second Amendment rights". Those of you familiar with goal setting know that after you set goals, you have to ask yourself how you plan on achieving them and the best path to take. I knew that to achieve this goal, to make a community that was so well respected and well organized that we could actually effect laws and legislation, we were going to have to run a tight ship.

Most of you are very familiar with internet forums, and know most of them are pretty relaxed when it comes to what you can and can't do or say. As much fun as it would be to run NorthwestFirearms like that, it cannot be done without jeopardizing my original goal; the whole reason I created this place to begin with.

I'm not sure how familiar most of you are with elected officials and others who control firearm policy, but they're a busy bunch. They don't have time to 'get to know us', but rather a few minutes to browse around the site. If we're as organized as we are in my vision, we'll be able to fill these guys mailboxes with letters at the first whisper of anti-gun talk. I promise you that when that happens the first thing they're going to do is visit this site and find out who we are. With first impressions being what they are, they could literally discount all of us and this website after reading only a couple of posts.

Potential advertisers fall into this same category. Same as us, they have to look after their image. If they see us over here as a bunch of kids, they're not going to want to advertise with us. Let me tell you, advertising is good for you and it's good for this community. Ad money and donations keep this site running, they pay for things like our table at the gun show, our business cards and other marketing materials, the events we hope to sponsor, the contests and giveaways we're planning, and so much more.
While some day I'd like to make a little bit of money to cover the 12 hours a day I spend working on this site, that's not why I started it. I have and will continue to invest every penny of ad revenue or donation money back into this site.

You, as a member of NWFA, will benefit from working to improve our image. Maybe by winning a raffle we hold, paid for from advertising money. Maybe by being able to use your CHL in WA or OR, if we successfully fought for reciprocacy. Maybe because of our good image a lurker decides to join the forum with the deal of a lifetime posted in the classified section, who would have otherwise been afraid of associating himself with this site. If you think about it, the possible benefits are endless.

Now that (I hope) you have a better sense of where I'm coming from, I hope you have a better understanding of why us administrators and moderators have to be the way we are. I'm telling you right now, for the record, I will not let a few people stand in the way of this site achieving it's full potential. Those of you who don't understand where I'm coming from, maybe you don't have a place here.

Those of you who do understand, and who feel like they can get behind me and my goal, we couldn't be happier to have you here, and we hope you don't hesitate to call this place home.

*steps down from the podium*

With that said, we're implimenting a new infraction system to better manage the rules and those who violate them. Each of the rules is assigned a point value, between 1 and 5. If you get 10 points within a certain time period, it will result in a permanent ban from NorthwestFirearms.com. Bans do not 'expire', you have one chance. In the interest of honest and open communication, here are the point values for the various rules:

1 Point

- Try to keep the classified section clean.
- Your threads should go in the appropriate forum.
- Do not bump a thread more than once a week.
- Keep signatures to a minimum.
- No religious discussion and/or material

2 Points

- The Legal & Political section is to pertain to firearms only.
- The information you enter in your post should be (to the best of your knowledge) correct.

3 Points

- No member of the community can use the website to promote his/her commercial activities/products/services without a Supporting Vendor membership.
- Inappropriate language, images, and conversation have no place on this website.
- Do not abuse the staff.
- Spamming, trolling, flaming, personal attacks, and distasteful material are prohibited.

5 Points
- You violated the Golden Rule of NorthwestFirearms.
As you can see, it's not exactly 'easy' to get banned, you really have to work for it. There are, however, certain circumstances when an immediate ban is appropriate, and we of course have the right to bypass this point system if we deem it necessary. Also available to us is the ability to issue a warning, which carries no point value. Chances are good that if you've never received an infraction before, we'll simply send you a warning.

If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear them. Feel free to post them in this thread.
 
Joey
You seem to be on the right course more power to you, Thank you for all of your time and effort to make a great place for us to , chat sell , trade.
and do a little bs.
all of your effort is fantastic.

thank you

sam
 
Just read the 'rules' joey and i sure hope my (more-or-less) constant touting of the little vancouver show doesn't constitute 'commercial activity'....

I'm a past prez and really believe in the club, and it is a non-profit corp...

And we really >need< an altenative to the commercial 'rose city' abortions that they pass off as a 'gunshow' these days.........
--carlos
 
Non-profit organizations are in the clear, I hope we can get more of them here to tell us about their events and activities :s0155:
 
Hey Joey,

One quick question... how does someone "know" how many "points" they have? Will there be a PM to the offender advising them of a particular infraction and the number of points they've "earned"? Will there be a PM warning given prior to points being handed out so that folks know when they are straddling the line and can then be given the chance to "back off" or are people expected to KNOW where exactly the lines are at all times and points are issued for crossing them, period? What is the time period during which the 10 points results in permanent ban?

Okay... I guess that was more than one question. :p
 
So, which one of those questions do you want me to answer? :s0114:

When a user receives a warning or an infraction, a PM and an email is automatically sent which tells them which rule(s) they broke, how many points they've received for breaking that rule, and a brief message from the moderator who issued the warning or infraction. Our policy for when most rules are broken is to give an 'official warning' before giving an infraction which carries points. These 'official warnings' look just like infractions, but carry no point values. The time period in which the points expire varies depending on which rule was broken, but we don't give out that information. These are 'guidelines' rather than hard and fast policies, and we do have a button which perm bans the user on the first offense (though we've never used it on anyone, only spam bots).

So, all in all, you'll definitely know you're walking the line, and members are given multiple chances to straighten up before they're permanently banned. I would go as far as to say it's pretty difficult to get banned from here.

For those of you who are curious (but hope to never find out), here's what the PM/Email looks like.

Dear Test User,

You have received an infraction at NorthwestFirearms.com.

Reason: You violated the Golden Rule of NorthwestFirearms.
-------
You broke the rules.
-------

This infraction is worth 5 point(s) and may result in restricted access until it expires. Serious infractions will never expire.

All the best,
NorthwestFirearms.com
 
Good system and a great vision for the site. We need a voice that can carry weight with the politicos... if hate speech or other vile behavior is tolerated it would completely invalidate any efforts the legitimate freedom fighters can put forward!

I for one am tired of gun owners being treated like sex offenders- I remember when it was common for folks to have rifle racks loaded up in their pick-up trucks, now it seems like folks have to hide their guns and fear being pulled over by the police while having a firearm in the car.

I hope that by putting our best foot forward we can make a difference in the community and get our rights restored to their former glory. Firearms are a time honored tradition of American history after-all!

I am new here- but appreciate what you are doing!

Casey
 
As in when someone in their post just says the word bump or that they are bumping the thread?
It just means that the thread was pretty far down on the list of threads to read, and they felt that it was worth being brought back up to people's attention to be back toward the top of the list. :)
 
OK, so now I'm officially a Supporting Member and couldn't be more proud! :s0155: Thanks for the opportunity.

In an effort to not accumulate points(or, more points, maybe), if I'd like to post an add for my custom display stands(and I do), where do I list them? In the parts and accessories, or in Group Buy Vendor adds?

Again, just wanted to check before I put something up.

Thanks in advance!
 
In an effort to not accumulate points(or, more points, maybe), if I'd like to post an add for my custom display stands(and I do), where do I list them? In the parts and accessories, or in Group Buy Vendor adds?
Thanks in advance!

My bet would be in the group buy/vendor location, because you are a supporting vendor. But my word is not the word of nwfa god (joey).
 
I must say,I am glad that I was given that simple yet effective business card at the last PDX gunshow. I'm glad to be a part of this community. I'd like to get more info on what I can do to help with the issue of OR/WA CHL reciprocity. I live in Portland but, I have family & business just over the river. I feel a bit naked without my sidearm (actually, very naked). If I need to write letters, please give me addresses. If I need to donate funds, let me know where. I would also like to get more info on how to legally obtain fully automatic & suppressed firearms. Any info on this is greatly appreciated.Thank you again for providing this site to folks like me. Responsible, law abiding, concerned citizens.
 

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