READ THIS FIRST - WineBerserkers Master Informational Thread

This thread should serve as an informational post that helps combine the features and functions of old with those recently made current. I will be editing and adding to it in the forthcoming days.

Subscribers:

In addition to the ad-free experience and sneak preview of BerserkerDay offers, Subscribers (those who choose to pay $25 or more per year - roughly 4% of registered users in total) are able to create an additional ribbon/badge under their current Subscriber badge, which is text-based. Create yours in the User Control Panel, under Profile, ‘Custom Rank’ at the bottom. Be creative, but don’t be offensive! Also, Subscribers will have a 300-character limit on their signatures, and general members (all those other than Subscribers) will have a 32-character limit on theirs. There will be no more URLs in signatures, which brings me to the next one:

BerserkerBusiness:

Through the growth of Wine Berserkers over the last 9 years, one issue that has come up frequently is concerning solicitations, both indirect and direct, by those ITB (In The Business). Because Wine Berserkers happily welcomes those in any form of the wine business - winemakers, wineries, distributors, retailers, collectors, etc - we are often subject to businesses trying to promote their business. In some ways, this can be very good, as often a direct request is made by an individual or group to know more, but those who own or operate a business are not sure how far they can take things, and how much, if any, they can promote their business. Still others try to maximize the huge traffic and fantastic wine-related SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of Wine Berserkers and amp up their own website(s) using hyperlinks in their signatures, posting as much as possible, to improve LinkPop.

This huge and growing community reflects a broad variety of interests, even outside wine, and also a broad variety of businesses. I know that I’d prefer to do business with someone from the community than outside it, and often I find myself asking for info about those who work in particular industries in which I might have interest.

We figured out a way to solve the solicitation problem while simultaneously embracing and organizing the latter two ideas mentioned here, and created BerserkerBusiness.

Now ANY Berserker in ANY industry can list his or her business on a special section of the forum community - wineries, retailers, wine products or services, or anything else - and the listings, posts/blogs will be folded within the forum database and interface. Non-BerserkerBusiness members cannot have URLs in their signatures nor avatars that are images of their brand/company.

You will notice that some names are in bold blue - these are the BerserkerBusiness listing owners. Each has created a listing for their business, and we encourage you to consider looking at them if you are considering working with or buying from a business - support those who are your friends and colleagues here. Some BerserkerBusiness folks will choose to have blog entries - these will appear as posts in the ‘view new posts’ searches, and you’ll see them clearly delineated by their unique mini icon, which is a replication of their chosen logo. Some will have the ability for others to comment on their posts, some will not - it is under the control of the owner of the listing.

Politics:

Simply, NOT allowed on any forum other than the Politics forum, which you can join and get access to via your User Control Panel (see the sticky above the Asylum on joining groups).

Real Names:

EVERYBODY is to use a full combination of their real name, whether it exists in the username, or a combination of the username and signature, where the signature includes the initialed name which appears in the username, be that first of last. No exceptions. You can use special characters if you wish, or spaces, both of which make you ‘invisible’ to search engine indexing.

Bloggers/Linking to your Website Content:

If you wish to share your website content with the community, you are required to post at least a significant portion of the content of the article/page within your thread’s/blog’s original post, not simply post a link to the article/page. If there is any advertising of any form on your website, it is considered commercial in nature, and as such, you should join BerserkerBusiness (by contacting the admin) so you can more freely list your website on the forum.

Personal Attacks:

At minimum, personal attacks are subject to deletion. More significant cases are subject to temporary suspensions, or permanent suspensions. Remain civil to one another.

Newly Registered Users

Every new registrant is in the Newly Registered Users group, until they reach 25 posts. All the rules for them are the same as the standard Registered Users, except for the ability to post a new thread (sell something) on Commerce Corner. This was voted on by the community, and discussed at length, to help protect those involved in transactions with other community members.

ITB

If you are In The Business (ITB), please notate such in your signature

Topic Icons - 'Meanings’

  • BerserkerDay, to be used for anything related to BerserkerDay

  • no particular meaning, typically with tasting notes not imported from CellarTracker

  • tasting note imported from CellarTracker will bear this one

  • for recipes

  • hot topic, or one you expect to be hot

  • no particular function, just dress up your topic

  • radioactive! Likely a poisonous or otherwise harmful subject

  • self-explanatory

  • thinking about something, but not necessarily a question

  • self-explanatory

  • caution, emphasis, holy crap!

  • informational thread

  • embarassing

  • very happy subject, or funny/hilarious

  • Special Use Only (by Admin): The skull and crossbones icon is to be used on threads that, for one reason or another, have devolved a bit into some rude behavior. It is used by the admin and moderator to notate such threads, so that those who would prefer not to read what might be considered ‘rude’ language, or some sort of mockery, or otherwise outside the norm of decorum can choose NOT to read it. If you see it, it is your warning.
3 Likes

Added ITB qualifications to the master post, please note for those in the business.

Added topic icon explanations/definitions, at the request of a forum member.