I have started setting up tools to help regulate Tabulas as a community.

As a growing community, we must learn to respect one another - this is not a free area where you can harass other users or take advantages of the services here.

I have begun issuing warnings to users who are in violation of our TOS, primarily with hiding advertisements or the top navigational bar (IT MUST BE AT THE TOP OF EVERY LAYOUT! Not in the MIDDLE or BOTTOM! At the top!).

Accounts that do not respond after 5 days in fixing up their accounts will be suspended. 30 days after a suspension the accounts will be deleted.

We are also suspending accounts without notice that are run by children under 13. This is due to a federal law called COPPA.

If you feel a member is in violation of our TOS or is abusing our services, please feel free to report them in our abuse forums.

Thanks for you continued support of Tabulas!

Posted by tabulas on February 21, 2005 at 02:45 AM in General News | 15 Comments

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Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 05:03 AM
I didn't alter the template for my tabulas at all, yet I don't see any ads on there. o_o

I hope I'm not in trouble because I was just too lazy to bother making templates and I noticed I didn't have any ads.

e_r_n_z (guest)

Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 02:52 AM
i hope users don't ignore this message/warning. pls post this again and again roy so that all will be reminded. thanks.
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 02:16 AM
I have to agree that having the Nav Bar all over the place (or non-existent) makes getting around some Tabulas sites very difficult - and irritating!
Reminds me of when word processing on PCs first got popular - so many documents had that "ransom note" look - so many different fonts and sizes on one page... made it seem like *communication* was the last thing on their minds! :)
I think that you have been more than patient about this issue. Hiding the Google ads is just plain stealing from you! I've tried, gently I hope, to point out to people how the Nav Bar and such help people use Tabulas more easily and creates a sense of community through standards you can count on. What if every Windows program had its own standard of where to find things?? It used to be like that...
This especially makes sense on a site like yours where many people are newbies in web design, or at least new to blogging and are especially looking for a community that is easy to use and geared towards fast and efficient communication.
I've looked at most of the other blogging software sites out there, and nothing else compares to Tabulas. All the bells and whistles others have mainly tend to make things more complicated, while rarely aiding communication.
I think a lot of people get burned out of "blogging" because they feel like they have to have the "layout de jeur"... more than emphasizing saying what they have to say in the most straight forward way possible.
The vast majority of people here are very nice and trustworthy, so I think the right amount of education (and some enforcement) will go a long ways to making Tabulas even more sucessful! =)
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 03:06 AM
Yeah, I think people are confusing the navbar as an element to their "site." It's not, and should never be considered as such. Just like people don't try hiding the FORWARD/BACK buttons on their browsers, when designing their layouts they should try forget the navbar exists and simply design the layout underneath it.

The meaning got lost through time. I'm going to reinforce it so people will remember. Too many sites have i visited with the navbar all in weird places...
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 04:47 PM
I agree with you. It is kind of hard navigating in someone else's site if they place it somewhere else (for a blog hopper like me) and not to mention the fact that they make it harder for themselves by incorporationd it into their design, which as you said they shouldn't do.
Great jobs guys for putting all that work to make tabulas great for us!
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 12:18 AM
i'm just interested to find out how you react to unjust (subjectively unjust, anyway, lol) laws since you yourself are setting out relatively good laws which other people are beginning to find as unjust. :D "why fight city hall, when you yourself are a semblance of a city hall of sorts, and you know roughly what all these bigwigs of law and economics have to go through everyday with millions of people nipping at their heels like dogs of war and greed and hate?"
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 03:04 AM
Are you asking me personally how I react to unjust laws? I don't quite follow your quote.
Comment posted on February 22nd, 2005 at 03:44 AM
haha, nah, this was just a rhetorical question. feel free to ignore. :D
Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 04:28 PM
you tell em, roy! ;)
Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 10:32 AM
wait so all ads have to be at the top of the page too..?
Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 12:03 PM
No, the Navigational Bar has to be at the top, right after the body tag. The Ads just shouldn't be hidden. If you want to hide the ads, buy a subscription!
Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 12:25 PM
Ah thanks.. I was about to ask the same question..
Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 06:01 AM
/no1

phineyae (guest)

Comment posted on February 21st, 2005 at 04:37 AM
That's right. You tell them..