Frequently-asked Questions

• What is this?
  This is the question and answer forum for Sirimangalo International and its community.
  
  It is a place for obtaining answers and advice about meditation, Buddhism and the monastic life as accords with our tradition and teachings, as well as contacting the staff of our organization.
  
  It is not an open forum; questions and answers unrelated to the activities or teachings of our organization may be removed.
• What kinds of questions can I ask here?
  Two types of questions may be asked on our forum:
  
  Private questions - questions that will be visible only to community experts and not subject to voting.
  Public questions - questions that will be visible to and answerable by the entire community. They may be voted on, and answers may be voted on by the asker.
  
  Most importantly, questions should be direct inquiries, looking for answers or adviceshould be relevant to our community.
  
  Before you ask, please make sure to search for a similar question. You can search for questions by their title or tags.
• What kinds of questions should be avoided?
  Please avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or not related to our tradition or teachings.
  
  If you are looking to discuss a topic, consider using our dedicated discussion forum at http://forum.sirimangalo.org/
• What should I avoid in my answers?
  Ask.Sirimangalo is a community-specific forum; whereas questions may be asked about various topics, answers are expected to conform, at least loosely, to the tradition and teachings of our organization. If you are unfamiliar with, or hold views or opinions contrary to, the teachings of our organization, we request that you refrain from answering questions on this site unless the answer is objective, technical, or in some other way unlikely to create confusion or argumentation.
  
  While it is not our intention to denigrate the teachings of others, our preference is towards a small, harmonious community of practitioners; many open Buddhist forums exist where a more broad scope of questions and answers may be found.
  
  Moreover, this is a question and answer site - it is not a discussion group. Please avoid holding debates in your answers as they tend to dilute the quality of the forum.
  
  If you are looking to discuss a topic, consider using our dedicated discussion forum at http://forum.sirimangalo.org/
  
  For brief discussion, or to thank someone for their answer, please post comments, not answers.
• Who moderates this community?
  The short answer is: you. This website is moderated by the users. Points system allows users to earn rights to perform a variety of moderation tasks.
• How does point system work?
  When a question or answer is voted up, the user who posted it will gain points. These points serve as a rough measure of the community trust in that person. Various moderation tasks are gradually assigned to the users based on those points.
  
  For example, if you ask an interesting question or useful answer, it will likely be voted up. On the other hand if the question is poorly-worded or the answer is misleading - it will likely be voted down. Each up vote on a question will generate 5 points, whereas each vote against will subtract 5 points. The following table lists points gained per activity:
  
  

  Posting a question:	+ 2 points
  Selecting an answer for your question:	+ 3 points
  Per up vote on your question:	+ 5 points
  Per down vote on your question:	- 5 points
  Limit from up votes on each question:	+ 25 points
  Limit from down votes on each question:	– 5 points
  Posting an answer:	+ 2 points
  Having your answer selected as the best:	+ 20 points
  Per up vote on your answer:	+ 5 points
  Per down vote on your answer:	- 5 points
  Limit from up votes on each answer:	+ 25 points
  Limit from down votes on each answer:	– 5 points
  Voting up a question:	+ 1 points
  Voting down a question:	+ 1 points
  Voting up an answer:	+ 1 points
  Voting down an answer:	+ 1 points
  Add for all users:	+ 1 points

  
  
  The following table lists point requirements for each type of moderation task.
  
  

  Voting on answers	5 points
  Voting on questions	10 points
  Vote on polls	15 points
  Vote on comments	30 points
  Voting posts down	50 points
  Flagging posts	50 points
  Create personal signature	100 points
  Create polls	100 points
  Recategorizing any question	500 points
  Editing any question	800 points
  Closing any question	1000 points
  Editing any answer	1000 points
  Editing any comment	1250 points
  Selecting answer for any question	1500 points
  Approving or rejecting posts	1500 points
  Hiding or showing any post	2000 points

• What are badges?
  Badges are awarded for various achievements on the site, for example, a high number of upvotes on your post, a significant number of posts edited by you, etc. For a complete list of badges available on this site, check out the badges page.
• How to include multimedia in my posts?
  This forum allows the inclusion of videos from several popular video sites; simply placing a link to the video in your post will cause the video to display in-line.
  
  The same goes for mp3 files and most images; though we don't host these files ourselves, you can insert links to remote images and mp3 files in your posts, and they will be displayed in-line as well.
• How to change my picture (gravatar), and what is gravatar?
  The picture that appears in user profiles is called a gravatar, which means globally recognized avatar.
  
  Here is how it works: You upload your picture (or your favorite alter ego image) to the website gravatar.com from where we later retrieve your image using a cryptographic key based on your email address.
  
  This way all the websites you trust can show your image next to your posts and your email address remains private.
  
  Please personalize your account with an image - just register at gravatar.com (just please be sure to use the same email address that you used to register with us). The default gray image is generated automatically.
• How to change the site theme?
  To change the site theme, log in or register, then visit your profile page.
• Still have questions?
  Please ask your question and help make our community better!