Site Etiquette

The ‘norms’ for behavior on the GID forums has been created by:

  1. 1)Specific guidelines from Glock

  2. 2)Specific suggestions by members endorsed by Glock

  3. 3)Over time gradual consensus


The following guide will draw from all three sources to provide a set of ‘Official’ and ‘Un-official’ guides to etiquette.


Unlike many forums, Glock ID has a single forum ‘feed.’  This has the advantage of encouraging members to learn from each other and about each other across a single feed of question posts.  However, this does make it more difficult for members only interested, for instance, in product reviews to navigate the feed for content of interest.  Additionally, as the Answer feed only shows 15 questions (in the Answer tab, or to the side of a specific question) Each question will ‘push’ the 15th question out of sight and out of mind.  Keeping this in mind and spacing out your posts to not ‘flood the board’ is generally considered good etiquette.


Glock’s Community Guidelines (will sporadically ‘pop’ up when you log into the site.  This included a statement on content and language that targets others with abuse, or contains violence or nudity.  Additionally, information on bringing such a GID member who is doing such behavior to Glock’s attention is contained in this message (you can also use the ‘Flag’ feature (see How-to) to bring specific instances to Glock’s attention).

Note: Glock does review and remove content but often a business day after such a post, and this it may seem that action is not being taken as the originally flagged post is likely no longer easily findable in the feeds.


This was further supported by a post from Glock in 2014


Full post can be found at:   http://id.glock.com/answer/question/view/id/119519


Glock posted a list of appropriate question topics and life feed pictures in 2014:  Anything not on the list would be considered an “Off Topic” post (see further below). Note Glock did clarify that for the Glock Live Feed “Modestly clothed models with firearms are acceptable”


Full post can be found at:   http://id.glock.com/answer/question/view/id/119534


Glock has specifically stated that each member can post one (1) Off-Topic post per day.  The general convention is to clearly label your Off-Topic post by starting the question title with “OT: QUESTION TEXT…”

Note: though not stated by Glock, many GID members adhere to the philosophy that “just because you can post one OT post a day, shouldn’t mean that you do.”  Such daily OT posts will likely spark at least some debate on the value of such posts. 


Full post can be found at:   http://id.glock.com/answer/question/view/id/136765


Whining is not an approved topic and if done should be labeled Of-Topic (OT: )



Though “Un-official” many GID members (though not universal) ascribe to the “Praise in public, correct in private” especially for behaviors violating norms or guidelines of new members.  Here is the original post discussing this issue.

Note: Glock did not comment on this issue.


Full post can be found at:   http://id.glock.com/answer/question/view/id/218654


Further Suggestions on posting.  The “Would I want an anti-gun activist to get ahold of this transcript” test.  Also note that anything posted on GID is saved, is searchable, and could be found as part of the discovery phase of legal action if you are ever involved in a defensive shooting.  Just like any other social media if you wouldn’t want it found or shared by others, don’t post it.



Agreed upon norms of behavior:

Here are some of the things that have been discovered to be smiled upon or frowned upon by Glock and GID Users.  Keep in mind this is just the advice gathered from the members that have had direct interaction with Glock at conventions, in email, over the phone, or on GID.  Some were even given the wonderful Mendax Patch (see Patch List: No longer used).  These lists are being passed on to help all the new members get up to speed with the way things are done in the GID community. 

Smiled upon behavior:

1- Upvoting.  You can upvote as much as you want to.  Upvote everyone in every question if you would like to.  The more upvoting the better. However, it is your choice on what your own personal rules for upvoting is.
2- Using the search feature before posting a Question.  Make an effort to see if it has been asked before. More importantly, make sure if it is a current event or current ‘hot topic’ (example new Glock being released) that your question is not already in the current feed (check the feed to the right on an open question)
3- Being friendly and respectful
4- Replying to your own Questions (The convention is to immediately reply to your own question as soon as it is posted with further details allowing others to upvote your “question” through your answer).
5- Interacting with those that answer your question through comments
6- Upvoting those that answer your question
7- Posting cool pics to the live feed (though please keep it classy)
8- Joining in the community
9- Asking questions, though note a good rule of thumb is to only have a few questions at any time in the recent feed.
10- Helping others
11- Posting things in the live feed.  those posts though should only consist of Guns, Team Glock, Clothed people with guns, gun show pics, pro shooters (clothed), shooting competitions, GLOCK related items, Shooting related pics, and other on topic related pics
12 - 1 Off Topic post per day (maximum) per member

Frowned upon behavior:

1- Flooding the board with several questions in a row (spread them out.. preferably no more than one in the current right side feed)
2- Gaming (definition below) the system for points
3- Putting a "+1" or any other single word reply in every answer to a question.  This is referring to when you post a reply to every answer to a question with nothing more then a "+1"  or something similar in the response and has nothing to do with upvoting .  If you are going to reply to every answer at least be original and do not make it look like you are doing it for nothing more than the extra points.
4- Never asking a questions that are gun related
5- Upvote parties:  This can be a OT post that specifically is aimed at just getting everyone to comment for the upvotes (i.e. the post has no other reason that points to exist) or working in conjunction with a group of other GID members to always upvote each other regardless of the quality of the answer and to not upvote others. 
6- Begging for upvotes: any direct request to get more upvotes for yourself
7- Posts about how many points you have left till you rank up (see milestones below)
8- Good morning or good night posts
9- Repeated posts on the same topic (use the search feature)
10- Don't be a troll (definition below)
11- Asking more than four questions in a day (unless they are really original)
12- Posting things in the live feed other then Guns, Team Glock, Clothed people with guns, gun show pics, pro shooters (clothed).
13- Posting nude or mostly nude (highly suggestive) pics in the live feed
14- Continually posting about things like a poll, training, or other things not being added to GID as fast as you would like them to be, or anything else
15 – Posting non-milestones (read the how to post on milestones below)
16 - Countdown posts (be it time till something, points till something, upvotes till something, etc..)

What is a Milestone and what should I post as one.


Glock’s official word on Milestones:


“GID Achievements- Reaching a new level, getting a patch, been a member for a year (these are things to be celebrated)”


Full post can be found at:   http://id.glock.com/answer/question/view/id/119534

Here are the GID accepted ‘norms’ for Milestone posting building on Glock’s official statements:


Milestones/ achievements that should be posted:
- Ranking up (once it has happened, not before)
- Getting a new patch (Note, newer members may get several patches in the same day, a suggestion would be to either post one question announcing multiple patches, or spread the announcements out throughout the day or days to avoid ‘flooding the board’
- hitting upvote marks using the following guidelines 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000, 75,000, 100,000, 125,000, 150,000 and every 25,000 upvotes thereafter.
- Being a member of GID for a year (also a 1 Year Anniversary Patch), then at the 5 year mark and every 5 years thereafter
- When you get a round in your mag once you are AT LEVEL 24 ONLY. Once you get there and have to put in the time to get 35,000 points without the help of most patches you will realize what a milestone/achievement this really is.

Milestones/achievements that should NOT be posted:
- About to rank up
- Countdown till I rank up
- Almost have X amount upvotes
- If I get x more upvotes I will have x upvotes
- Posting every 500 or 100 upvotes
- Points totals. (with the exception of the rounds in the level 24 mag) This is pretty much just a rehash of ranking up. The important milestones in the points world are all the levels/ranks you hit
- Anything that is not listed in the approved category
- Posting milestones/achievements that are not yours. If a member wants to post that they made an achievement/milestone they will and you can congratulate them there. Some people do not like to post their milestones/achievements or they would like to post them on their own and I think that should be respected

Some people feel that answering questions should be considered a milestone as well. If you would like to post those as milestones stick to the same guidelines as for posting upvote totals. Posting them at the 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000, 75,000, 100,000, 125,000, 150,000 and marks and every 25,000 answered there after.

Posting milestones for Ranking up VS Point totals. Some people have mentioned that they prefer to post point total milestones vs posting when they rank up. Just pick one or the other. So EITHER post point totals as a milestone or post when you rank up. The recommended totals for point totals would be every 50,000 points (so post at 50,000, 100,000, 150,000) until you reach level 24 then the level 24 suggestion should be followed.

The purchase of a new GLOCK is always a reason to celebrate. Please do post when you get a new GLOCK.



What is an Internet Troll


(From Wikipedia)
A troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. This sense of the word troll and its associated verb trolling are associated with Internet discourse, but have been used more widely. Media attention in recent years has equated trolling with online harassment.



What is Gaming?

Gaming is the behavior that internet trolls use to maximize the number of points that they can earn by doing things that are not accepted by the community as a whole.  Examples of this behavior include but are not limited to flooding the board with posts that no one cares about, posting things that were just posted again, putting a +1 reply to every comment in a question, posting random letters like "m' on the live feed, etc...  This behavior is frowned upon by Glock.  Proof that this behavior is frowned upon is in the Mendax patch that was awarded by Glock to members for such gaming the system.  Many of the patches are also on the honor system (attending events, Glock training, owning multiple Glocks, range time and target uploads).  Gaining points dishonestly is also gaming.