Strength Indicator

1. Keep it legal

We are all bound by law, and we cannot host material that contravenes the law. This means we cannot, amongst other things, host material that is obscene, that constitutes harassment, that promotes terrorism, that is racist, or that constitutes a breach of copyright.

This forum is interested in promoting building discussions, and there are other places that are better suited for testing the limits of free speech. If the moderators fear a post might approach the limits of what is legally allowed, they will not seek legal advice to determine whether it has actually overstepped the boundary, they will simply judge that the post is too close to the boundary for comfort, and prohibit the post (and, in persistent cases, the poster).

2. Keep it friendly

Do not use insulting, aggressive, or provocative language.

If you feel another user is using insulting language, seek to calm things down, or if that fails, report the matter to the moderators. Under no circumstances should you seek to trade insults, or make accusatory remarks to that, or any other, forum user.

Show respect to other users. In particular, there are times when users might post about delicate personal issues. Please refrain from trivializing or making inappropriate remarks, or remarks that might embarrass the poster.

3. Keep it safe.

Do not post personal phone numbers, email addresses, or contact addresses to the discussions.

Nothing that a user should post to the discussion, should seek in any way to misrepresent the user who is posting or sending, or to knowingly misrepresent any other person or to misrepresent any facts in their communications.

4. The moderators are the final arbiter.

If a moderator requests that a user change a post that they have submitted to the discussion, or that they alter the nature of future posts, then a failure by the user to abide by the request made of them will itself be regarded as a serious breach of the rules, and could lead to the user being suspended or banned from the discussions forthwith.

A moderator may choose, where they feel it appropriate for the good order of the discussion, that they should themselves edit or delete a post submitted by a user. If the user has a problem with this action, they should contact the moderator and explain why they believe the change the moderator has made is inappropriate, but they should not seek to reverse that change themselves without first obtaining the consent of the moderator to do so. Any attempt to reverse such a change without such authorization will itself be regarded as a serious breech of the rules, and could lead to the user being suspended or banned from the discussions.

Any user that substantially violates the discussion rules on their first post will be banned from the discussions immediately.

Any user who is a regular poster, and has never previously violated the rules, will normally first be issued with a warning. If, after receiving a warning, the user continues to act in contravention of the rules, the moderators will normally suspend or ban the user from the site. If, upon receiving a warning, the user heeds that warning immediately after having received the warning, but subsequently breaks the rules again, the moderators will seek to assess whether the user is acting in good faith, in which case they will seek to help the user stay within the rules; but if the moderators judge that the user is acting without good faith, the user may be suspended or banned forthwith.

In all matters, the moderators' judgment is final.

Finally, the moderators are merely volunteers trying their best, and while we will do the best we can, we cannot be everywhere all of the time, and we cannot get everything right all of the time, so we would appreciate your understanding if maybe things don't happen with the perfection you might desire.