Online Media Usage Policy

COPA strives to provide a constructive environment for discussion of the ownership, operation, and enjoyment of Cirrus aircraft, in accordance with our mission statement. Above all, we are committed to the safe operation of Cirrus aircraft. We present information via our website, magazine and other media to promote discussion among, and for the entertainment of, our members. Naturally, we want members to find the COPA forum, blogs and articles useful and enjoyable.

This policy describes a standard of behavior intended to improve the online experience for all COPA members. By and large, they are based on commonsense notions of good manners and mutual respect. We recognize that online interaction creates unique problems not seen in face to face interactions. When conflicts arise, we rely foremost on our members’ goodwill and good sense to maintain decorum. These guidelines form a basis for adjudicating the more resistant issues. Keep in mind though, as with all social media, the ultimate nature of the online experience depends on you: COPA members and contributors.

Civility

COPA-hosted social media (forums, wikis, blogs, etc.) are designed to exchange and debate ideas. Personal attacks (“flaming”) are not tolerated. Personal attacks are defined as any attempt to short-circuit the debate by diverting attention to the shortcomings of the other debating parties rather than their arguments. We encourage you to challenge other points of view but please do so in a respectful and thoughtful manner. Think before clicking on the “send” button: is this something you’d feel comfortable saying in person?
COPA materials are often read by families of members. Explicit, obscene or vulgar language is not appropriate and COPA may remove any material containing such language. Similarly, writings that solicit or offer (whether directly or implicitly) sexually explicit, X-rated, or similar ‘NSFW’ content may be deleted without notice.
As a matter of policy, COPA does not preview or approve member content. However, your participation grants COPA the right to modify or delete material to conform to these guidelines. For instance, a misplaced post will be relocated to the appropriate forum without notice.

Intellectual Property

Member contributions are intended to be shared within COPA. Do not copy, reproduce, or post them outside the COPA community without express permission from COPA or the author.
Do not publish copyrighted materials on COPA unless you are the copyright holder. Examples include photographs, news articles, etc. If you don’t own it, post or embed a link to the content but do not copy or upload it.
By contributing material to COPA online media, you (a) represent that the content of your post is your own material and you have the right to post it, and (b) you grant a nonexclusive license to COPA to reproduce your material in any manner it sees fit, in any media or form, including the right to edit or alter your material without limitation. For example, the material you submit may be used alone or in combination with other material and reproduced on a website, in a magazine article or in any other media. COPA has no obligation to attribute the content to you in any such reproduction.

Forum Posting Best Practices

Use meaningful subjects. Make it easy for readers to decide whether or not to read your post. Subjects like “Need help”, or “Look at this!”, or others that are intentionally vague in order to attract attention, are considered bad form. Unclear subjects may be modified to improve clarity.
Post in the appropriate forum. Read the forum descriptions and choose the forum appropriate to your topic. Posts placed in the incorrect forum may be relocated without notice. Individual forums may have additional guidelines.
Avoid duplicate posts on the same issue. Post your message only once in the most appropriate forum. The desire to reach the largest possible audience is not a valid reason to clutter up the forums. Essentially duplicate posts and the associated thread may be removed without notice.
Political commentary does not belong on the COPA forums, all discussion directed toward a particular political party, politician, or that leads to divisive political debate and/or controversy, will be removed from the forums, repeat offenders risk the suspension or revocation of their member privileges in accordance with COPA’s bylaws. Political discussion that is germane to aviation is allowed, however, the rules of civility still apply, if you are unable or unwilling to articulate your opinions and carry on a debate without violating these tenets, you risk having your post removed.
Use “Conversations” or email for personal messages. You may be pleased to see one of your friends post after a long absence. A forum message such as “Hey Vlad, long time no see! How are things with the family?” does not add meaningfully to the public discussion. Send Vlad an email, start a conversation, or put comments on his profile instead.
Posts that constitute advertising of either personal or business nature must be made on the Marketplace forum. When a thread becomes predominantly marketing-oriented, perhaps due to participation of a vendor, it may be relocated to the Marketplace forum. Individuals affiliated with aviation-related organizations are requested to list their affiliation in the footer of their personal profile.
Before posting, please ask yourself: “Will this post help my fellow COPANs with the safety, understanding, utility or enjoyment of their airplane or COPA?” If you can answer “yes” to this, then please post. If not, then please refrain from posting, or post it on the “Off-Topic” forum. Similarly, before replying, ask yourself: “Does my reply offer meaningful advice or significantly contribute to the conversation?” If you can answer “yes” to this, then please reply. If you cannot, consider clicking Like, sending a private message, etc.
Respect the privacy of fellow members. Certain personal information is available on the online member database. Do not post additional contact or other personal information without permission. This includes information gleaned from Internet searches or aviation tracking sites.
When discussing public figures, e.g., actors in our ecosystem such as CFIs, vendors or air traffic controllers, accord them the same respect as you would a fellow COPA member.

Forum Moderation

Forum software allows readers to flag offending posts through the “Flag as Spam/Abuse” facility made visible by clicking on the gear symbol at the bottom of each post. Moderators may remove the offending language or the post or even the thread containing it, inform the originator of an offending post, ask the author to delete the post, or propose another conflict resolution approach
The light moderation performed by COPA volunteers is largely dependent upon member notification, and cannot be considered definitive or consistent. Prior posts that have not been deleted cannot be assumed to be in conformance with COPA policy, and do not establish a precedent with respect to moderation.
Discussion of COPA policy on moderation may take place on the COPA Organization or Website Help, Discussion forums. Reposting of material deleted or quarantined by moderators is not allowed.
Failure to comply with the guidelines, or a recurrent pattern of offenses may result in being banned from COPA. Members removed as a result of this policy shall have their most recent annual dues payment refunded pro-rata.
If you feel that you are being attacked or harassed, avoid retaliating, use the “Flag as Spam/Abuse” feature which automatically notifies the moderation team.

Your Identity

COPA policy requires that registered users and members accurately identify themselves by using their true first and last name, which will appear in all posts and in their profile, and their true address, which will be visible to others only as specified in the User Profile and in accordance with the Privacy Policy. The use of pseudonyms or “handles” is not permitted.

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

Name-calling
Ad hominem attacks
Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the New York Times.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
Don’t post no-content replies.
Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

Powered by You

This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.