New Forum Rules

To all sciforums members:

I, wellcookedfetus (co-moderator) would like to say that if you have any problems, questions, advice or ideas for improving things here in these 2 sub-forums please PM me, I am more then willing to listen and help. Moderators will revise and improve the rules and Regulations so always check on this thread for changes.

Rules and Regulations (written and modified by Goofyfish, CounslerCoffee and Wellcookedfetus) Version 1.1

1. General

The following rules and guidelines for posting in the Politics forum exist to create and maintain a high standard of interesting and informative debate, whilst abiding by relevant laws and general standards of civility and common sense. These guidelines are informed by the desire to create an atmosphere of respect for the different opinions of the many posters to this forum.

Moderation may include editing, moving, and deletion of posts or threads. Whilst moderation takes place according to these guidelines, posts and threads are treated on a case-by-case basis, in an effort to create a balance between competing points of view and to treat all posters fairly, given all the circumstances. However, in posting here you accept that the Moderators have the final say, and can moderate your posts for any reason they think fit. No arguments will be entered into regarding moderation.

If a thread serves no objective purpose or promotes unintelligent conversation, it is moved to The Cesspool. Moderators may determine which threads need to be moved on a case by case basis.

In general, posters will not be informed that their posts have been moderated. However, a reason for editing or deleting a post will usually appear with the relevant post in a thread.
If more information is required, please contact the moderator via a private message.

2. Personal comments

Posts which attack a person rather than his or her views will be edited to remove the unnecessary personal remarks.

Examples of acceptable posts include:
· You are wrong to say that Islam is a violent religion, because ...
· You obviously don't understand the situation, because ...
· Saying what you said clearly displays your ignorance of ...

Examples of unacceptable posts include:
· You are a stupid liberal, because you say Bush is wrong.
· You're just another DubyaTard who doesn't know anything about foreign relations.
· Anybody who'd write what you wrote must have severe psychological problems.

3. Stereotyping and name-calling

Be careful of assigning character features to another poster because of his or her membership of a group (such as a particular religious belief system – or place of residence). It is acceptable to point out similarities between members of groups, but only as long as this is backed up by some kind of argument or evidence. Posts which resort to name-calling will be edited or deleted.

Unacceptable posts include:
· People like you are nothing more than blind followers of authority.
· All Jews want to rid the world of the Palestinian people.
· Muslims (like you) are mindless fools who don't believe in the real God.

4. Goading, flaming and trolling

Posts which, in the moderator's opinion, serve no purpose other than to attempt to provoke an angry reaction from another poster, will be deleted.

5. Religious and ethnic hatred / Threats

Avoid posts which promote hatred among different religions, ethnic groups or nations.

All racial slurs will be deleted.

Any post threatening another poster in any way will be deleted, and an effort will be made to ban the poster from sciforums.

6. Gratuitous comments and images

Obscene, sexually-oriented or violent material will, in most cases, be removed. This is particularly applicable in the case of images.

7. Language

Cursing is tolerated. Excessive use of vulgar language will initially be edited. Posts that continue this trend will be deleted.

8. Cutting and pasting / plagiarism

a. General
Posting large verbatim extracts of text from other sites is undesirable for several reasons:
· It uses up storage space on SciForums.
· It duplicates information that is easily accessible elsewhere.
· It can disrupt the flow of a thread, because posters have to scroll through large amounts of text that they may not wish to read.
· It may breach copyright laws.
Therefore, we ask that posters abide by the following guidelines:
· All quotes from other sites must be attributed (e.g. by posting a link to the site).
· Quoted text should be restricted to a few lines or a paragraph unless the poster is quoting the text along with his or her, own detailed analysis (interspersed with the text).
· Avoid verbatim reproduction of entire posts of other posters (e.g. from earlier in a thread). If you want to dissect a post, it is fine to split it into different parts, but do not simply quote the entire post and then add a one or two line comment.

Posts which deviate from these guidelines will be edited or deleted.

b. Plagiarism
Plagiarism consists of copying another person's writings and passing them off as your own. If you post something somebody else has written, you must name the author, and preferably also reference the source. Posts which include material from elsewhere that is not properly acknowledged in this way will be deleted.

9. Off-topic posts

Posts that interrupt a serious thread with inane comments that in no way, shape, or form relate to the original topic, will be deleted.

10. Repeated posts and topics

Topics which are mere cut-and-pastes from previous thread topics may be deleted or merged with a previous thread. Similarly, cross-posting of the same message in multiple threads will result in the deletion of one or more of the repeated posts.

11. Interfering with moderation

Changing a moderator's edit for any reason may result in your immediate banning from sciforums.

12. Repeat offenders

The moderators here are not paid for their work, and have limited time. We do not look kindly on posters whom we have to watch continually for breaches of the forum rules. If we find that your posts are requiring continual moderation attention, you will first be warned by personal message. If the inappropriate posts continue, you will be banned.

13. Freedom of speech

You are free to post or not to post on sciforums. However, posting here is a privilege, not a right. As such, by posting you agree to abide by the forum rules. Yes, this restricts your freedom of speech to a certain extent. If you cannot accept the restrictions which are in place, our advice is to find an alternative forum which suits you better, or start your own site.

14. Advertising or Spamming

Placing post to advertise for a site, placing personal information below every post and/or posting information for your own benefit that has no relevance to the thread is called “spamming” or “spam”. Spam is not acceptable here and will be edited or deleted out.

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We hope that you will enjoy your time on the World Events forum. The quality of your posts make this forum what it is.