The Rules and Regulations:
1. Members are expected to post in good faith. By this, we mean they are expected to engage in and contribute to discussion rather than detract from it. Examples of posting in bad faith include, but are not limited to: baiting members, going off topic outside of a natural progression, flooding the forum with threads of little or no content, and ignoring moderator requests. Members who violate this principle will be at risk of being banned.
2. Trolling a poster or a thread is against the rules. Trolling is defined by forum leadership as "deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them." Harassment, or the persistent targeting of a member across threads, will not be tolerated. Belittling members will not be tolerated. Calling members out in threads will not be tolerated. This includes doxing a member's private or identifying information. Threats of any kind against any person for any reason will be dealt with harshly and may be referred to a law-enforcement agency as necessary. This includes harassment via PM.
3. No racial or bigoted attacks (targeting gender, race, sexual preference, or religion).
4. No excessively vulgar, profane or potentially illegal content, to include nudity or pornography. This includes avatars and signatures as well, which should be in good taste.
5. Signatures cannot include the quote of a member without that member’s permission, and signature pictures are limited to a maximum size of 150 x 300 pixels. Including text, the maximum height of a signature is limited to 160 pixels.
6. No spam posts. Links to personal blogs should be in personal profiles only.
7. You must provide a link when quoting an article and follow fair use guidelines (you are permitted to copy and paste two to three paragraphs). In addition, do not alter another user's words when quoting them.
8. Do not question moderation on the public forum. If you have a question regarding moderation, please use the private message function to contact the moderator of your choice to discuss the matter. Moderator decisions require a consensus whenever possible, and are often based on information that is not publicly available to members. If you have an issue with a specific moderator, another moderator is available to hear your concerns.
If you feel a post has violated any of these rules, please report it. Our moderators are unpaid volunteers with offline responsibilities. They do not see every post, and we rely on membership to help ensure that these rules are followed.
Members are expected to read and fully understand these rules prior to posting. Common sense and decency apply, and because these rules are not all inclusive, the Administrator and Moderators will use their best judgment with regard to specific situations. Remember, this is our forum. Please help us help everyone.
