What are the General Guidelines and Rules for Posting to the AppleVis Website?

If you have arrived here after receiving an email from one of our Editorial Team, then please read this page carefully. After that, if you still feel that your post has been edited or removed unreasonably, then please contact us.

We try to avoid overt moderation, but if people stray outside the reasonable requests listed below, then their postings will be removed by our Editorial Team. Those who persistently offend will be banned from using the website.

The AppleVis Editorial Team consists entirely of volunteers who generously contribute their time for the betterment of the community. The maintenance of the AppleVis website requires considerable time and effort, and moderating posts or resolving disputes detracts from other essential responsibilities. Accordingly, please take a few minutes to read and respect the guidelines posted below.

  1. All content must relate directly to the use of Apple hardware, software, or services, or to third-party apps or accessories that can be used with Apple hardware. For the non-Apple technology forums, content may relate to the usage and accessibility of those platforms/technologies, even if not directly involving Apple products.
  2. Before starting a new forum topic, we would recommend that you use the site’s search facility to check if a similar topic already exists or if the question that you are about to ask has previously been asked and answered.
  3. Please use clear and descriptive subject lines for your forum posts. Doing so will significantly increase the likelihood that others will read your post and answer any questions that you may have asked.
  4. Please only post questions about a single topic in any new post to the forum. For example, do not ask a question about using an iOS app and another question about Bluetooth keyboards in the same post. This will improve your chances of getting appropriate and helpful answers and also make discussion easier to follow.
  5. When contributing articles, guides, reviews, or other written content to AppleVis, we request community members refrain from relying solely on AI tools like ChatGPT to generate this content. While these tools can be useful for some tasks, the generated text often contains inaccurate, misleading, or impractical advice when discussing accessibility tools and features. By writing original content based on your own perspectives grounded in lived experiences with visual impairments and Apple products, your articles will provide reliable and practical advice to readers. If you do choose to utilize AI tools as part of your writing process, please make sure to verify the accuracy of any instructions or technical details generated.
  6. Please do not post replies which add no value to the existing discussion. For example, if somebody has asked for information on a specific app, replying to say that you have not used that app is of no value and only serves to get in the way of what might be helpful answers. Additionally, if someone asks a question about how to do a particular task, replying to the post and saying to do an internet search to find the answer is not at all helpful.
  7. Please stay on topic. Always stick to the original topic that was stated by the person who started the forum thread. If you have a suggestion or comment that is on a different topic, please start a new thread.
  8. Please be polite. The AppleVis forum is designed to build a positive, thriving community. Please give the same consideration and tolerance to others that you would like to receive from them. It is perfectly okay to have a differing viewpoint from someone else; please remember, though, to express your views in a respectful manner. Posts that are deliberately insulting to other members of the AppleVis community will be edited and/or removed.
  9. No flaming. Flaming is the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting. These types of posts are absolutely not allowed and will result in the immediate removal of the offending post.
  10. No trolling. Examples of this type of behavior include:
    1. Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums.
    2. Causing disturbances in forum threads, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, insulting other posters.
    3. Making non-constructive posts.
    4. Excessively communicating the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish.
  11. Please do not post inappropriate or offensive content. This includes posting messages with insults or profanity; or messages which are religiously, racially, or sexually offensive. These types of posts will result in the post being edited or removed and could also lead to your posting privileges being revoked.
  12. Please do not spam. Repeated posting of a message (or very similar messages) multiple times is considered spamming and is not welcome here. When making a post, please post it only one time in the most appropriate forum category that fits the topic of your post. Multiple posts will be unpublished or deleted, and continued abuse of this guideline may result in having your posting privileges revoked.
  13. No advertising. The AppleVis Forums are not to be used for trading/swapping or selling/advertising products or services. If you wish to post information about a product or service that you believe would be of interest to our community and falls within the scope of the website, please contact us beforehand for our approval.
  14. Discussion of crowd-funding campaigns is permitted, but any posts must satisfy the specific guidelines set out here.
  15. Please do not use AppleVis to promote or discuss your own website, podcast, YouTube channel, mailing list or other online resource.
  16. Please do not post press releases unless the intention is to inform or contextualize a new or existing discussion; and the press release is only part of your post. A press release posted to do nothing more than promote a product or service will be removed.
  17. Please do not post illegal content. For example, no posts about the illegal use of licensed software.
  18. To keep your identity and personal information safe and to keep from being added to a spam distribution list, it is recommended that you not include email addresses or other personal information in your posts.

If you have a question about any of the above guidelines or whether a post would be appropriate for AppleVis, please ask first using the Contact form.

Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions for additional information about your use of AppleVis and more details of some of the above rules.

Last Modified: March 19, 2024.