Read this before posting in Drug Policy Reform & Narco Politics

[Heretic.Ape.]

Please read these guidelines before posting in the Drug Policy Reform & Narco Politics forum
by Lunar Loops

 

• 1Drug Policy Articles and Political Articles relating to drugs now go in the Drug Policy Reform & Narco Politics forum
• 2Only post drug-related articles
• 3Check for duplicate articles before posting
• 4Include the article text
• 5Include the article URL
• 6Use the thread prefixes
• 7Things we want to see more of
• 8Things we want to see less of
• 9Uploading pictures and videos
• 10Use descriptive thread titles
• 11What about Drug News and Law articles?
• 12A final word

[top]Drug Policy Articles and Political Articles relating to drugs now go in the Drug Policy Reform & Narco Politics forum

All articles or any other items relating to Drug Policy or politics involving the use or control of narcotics should be posted in this forum.

However, we still want substance-specific articles to be seen in the appropriate forum. So if the article that you want to post is about a topic that has a dedicated forum (For example cannabis), then post your thread there and hit the report button (!). In the report message, ask the moderator to move your thread to the drug policy section with a permanent redirect. This will allow the thread to be accessed via both the substance-specific forum and the Drug Policy forum.

[top]Only post drug-related articles

Please check that the article has a genuine link to drug policy or to politics relating directly to drug policy. Often it is only a passing reference and is not really relevant to the main thrust of the article.
Articles on general politics would be better placed in the Some For All forum.

[top]Check for duplicate articles before posting

Before you start a new thread, please check that it has not already been posted. Often several media outlets will cover the same story under a slightly different headline, so don't assume that something has not been posted based purely on thread titles. Two things that can help are:

a) Use the forum search function to look for unusual words in the article. People and place names are often good choices (but make sure you spell them correctly when searching; use cut and paste).

b) Take a look at the titles of recent postings in the Drug Policy forum to see if there is anything that could be the same story. Also scan the Drug News and Law & Order forums as there is some crossover in this area.

If the story has already been posted, but you have found an article with new or different information that adds to the discussion, please add this to the existing thread. Do not start a new thread for every new article.

[top]Include the article text

Make sure you include all the text from the original article. Don't just post the URL, because web pages often disappear or get moved over time. Remove all unnecessary formatting from the text before posting. One easy way to do this is to paste the text into notepad or another text editor first, which will remove any formatting. Do try and recreate paragraph breaks however as a long continuous stream of text can be very hard to read.
Also try to remove picture captions, advertisement links and other text that doesn't belong to the body of the article. Take special care to remove any links to official government sites or to sites with other forums.

It’s good practice to put the text of the article between tags so everyone knows that you are quoting someone else's words. This is especially important if you add some of your own explanatory text as well. To do this simply place tags around the text of the article like so: Quote:
ARTICLE TEXT
Another way to achieve this is to write your own introductory text first and then re-paste the Title of the article (in bold and slightly larger text) followed by the text of the article.
As a final note, if the article is too large or is in PDF format then please upload it to the file archive in either the Drug Policy Debate or Drugs and (Inter)National Politics sections.

[top]Include the article URL

Try and include a link to the web page where the article came from. This provides attribution and lets people check the original source.

One exception to this rule is if the article came from a government or law enforcement website. In these cases, you should include the URL as text rather than a link by un-checking the "automatically parse links in text" box under "miscellaneous options". This avoids putting DF referrer entries in the target web server logs.

[top]Use the thread prefixes

When starting a new thread, please choose the appropriate thread prefix from the drop-down menu to the left of the subject title. If you feel that there is no suitable prefix available in the list, please use the prefix of “Other”.

[top]Things we want to see more of

Articles related to the following subjects are of special interest and are especially welcome:

a) Articles offering a critical appraisal of current drug policy. However, as stated previously do not try to re-invent the wheel and if a thread already exists on the topic, attach your posting to that thread.

b) Stories relating to policy in your own country that may not make the international press and would be of interest to our readers.

c) Details of policy documents (where possible actually upload those documents to the relevant section of the file archive).

d) Follow up to original stories: It's always good to see follow ups to old stories (posted in the original thread of course).

e) Stories on planned changes to drug policy (particularly those that are moving down the path to less prohibition).

f) Stories where drug policy has been challenged.

g) We are also trying to encourage links to organisations involved in the fight against the ‘Drug War’. If you feel you know someone involved in this way, please invite them aboard as their input would be most welcome.

[top]Things we want to see less of

Most of these are already covered by the forum rules, but we do not want to see flaming, spam, links to other forums or government or law enforcement sites.
Also we are VERY keen to discourage the sort of one liners that add nothing to the discussion (e.g. “Yeah man that sucks” or “Right on great article”). Comments along the lines of "right on great article" are best suited for reputation messages or by rating the thread so everyone can see that the article has been rated worthwhile.

[top]Uploading pictures and videos

If the news article contains interesting pictures, please upload these as attachments by downloading them to your PC and using the "Manage Attachments" button to upload them to DF.

Videos should be uploaded to the "Video Clips about the War on Drugs" section of the video archive; not uploaded to the Drug Policy forum.

[top]Use descriptive thread titles

Remember that the title should reflect the nature of the article. Make sure that you use descriptive thread titles that will spark interest. The headline from the original article is generally a good starting point.

[top]What about Drug News and Law articles?

There is some degree of ambiguity and overlap between the Drug Policy, Drug News, and Law & Order forums. Please try and post all articles relating to drug policy or narco politics in this forum to avoid cluttering the other forums. If in doubt (and it can be very difficult in some cases) just post it where you think it fits best. Nobody is going to jump on you for this one.

[top]A final word

Finally, bear in mind that all of the usual rules of the forum apply in Drug Policy as in all other forums.

Feel free to contact Heretic.Ape. or Lunar Loops with any further questions, concerns or suggestions. We are most approachable so long as it is not spam or junk.