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Thread: The Political Forums Rules and Regulations

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    The Political Forums Rules and Regulations

    Members,

    Thank you all for your contributions to The Political Forums.

    After extensive discussions with the moderator team, we have created a new set of standards that all posters will be expected to abide by. Please take a moment to familiarize yourselves with rules set out below. With your help and support, we will continue our efforts to make tPF the best forum it can be.

    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 consistently 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. Members are advised that the posting of other members Twitter, Facebook, business, personal, Tik-Tok, Reddit etc. links and/or identifying information without the pre-posting consent of said member will be seen as a violation of the anti-doxing provision of Rule 2. 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. Mild snark and chippiness is fine, but it should not be excessive or a distraction from the topic at hand. In the event that it does become a distraction, moderators will request that civility be restored.


    5. 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.


    6. 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.


    7. No spam posts. Links to personal blogs (other than tPF blogs) should be in personal profiles only.


    8. 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. Links must be identified by source and subject matter. Blind links will be removed from the open forum.


    9. 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.


    10. Threads marked tPF allow the thread creator to thread ban members for what they feel are violations of any of the above listed forum rules, and only for those reasons. It will still be moderated as any other part of the forum based on the above listed forum rules, so tPF will be removed if the opening post violates any of those rules. The theme is still to try to develop a place for serious discussion. By serious discussion we mean making meaningful contributions to the topic at hand free of flamebait trolling, off-topic distractions and personal attacks. Here is How to create a tPF. Note: TPF thread ban requests will not be given automatic bans upon request. Any OP requesting a ban must state a reason for the request, and reference a rule that the OP claims is violated. The mods will review the ban request for appropriateness, while giving some deference to the OP's request. Furthermore, if the Mods feel that the tPF function is being abused in a thread or series of threads (i.e. personal hatred, for example), the Mods reserve the right to strip the tPF function from the thread. Moreover, if the Mods feel that the thread is in a wrong sub-forum and should be moved to a sub-forum that is non-tPF, the Mods reserve the right to do so. If the OP bans someone or requests a ban of someone but quotes, mentions or heckles them (directly or indirectly) after the requested ban, the mods will consider stripping the "tpf" from the thread and reinstating all previously tpf banned members. Finally, threads moved to a non-tpf sub-forum lose their tpf status. For example: threads posted as 'latest happenings' that are deemed to be rants, will lose their tpf status when moved to rants.



    11. "On the Serious Side" is intended for serious discussion free of flamebait trolling, off-topic distractions and personal attacks. Somewhat like tPF, OP reports will carry added weight to forum rule moderation, but moderators will decide when and how to act. Most likely such actions will be at minimum to thread ban the poster and remove the distracting post, but additional action could be taken, and frequent violators will be infracted.

    12. "The Hole" is intended as a free-for-all area generally free of standard moderation. The Hole, however, will be moderated for negative or derogatory attacks, comments and/ or insinuations about members' families. Reports from The Hole violating this rule will bring moderation and moderators will decide when and how to act. Most likely such actions will be at a minimum to thread ban the poster and a warning infraction. Starting a thread attacking, mentioning or referencing a member's family will not be tolerated. LEAVE FAMILIES OUT OF THE HOLE.


    Moderators are not permitted to post in The Hole. Therefore:

    a. There is to be no calling-out or 'calling to the Hole' through mentions "@" of Moderators in the Hole.
    b. Excessive and repeated personal criticism directed at specific moderators that becomes malicious and/or abusive will result in action being taken.


    10-26-17: With great regret, it has become necessary for intervention in the Hole based on increasingly and extremely reprehensible behavior by a few members. Some of the comments and behaviors go far beyond what would be considered “bad faith” and as such, the moderation team feels the need to intervene.

    Examples of behavior that fall under “extremely reprehensible behavior” include celebrating suicide, advocating violence, harassment, attacking family members, and anything else that goes beyond the pale. To use a legal definition this will be applied to behavior, "that (goes) beyond all possible bounds of decency and that it can be considered as utterly intolerable in a civilized community."

    13. As implied in the name, PM's (Private Messages) must be kept private. They are not to be shared, quoted or summarized on the public forum. If it is believed that a PM, or series of PMs, is over the line (threats, harassment, name-calling, etc.), the PM should be reported and moderators will decide when or how to act. Questions regarding if a decision has been made may be brought to moderators through PM. Posting PMs on the open forum will lead to infractions.


    14. Reports may not always be acted on immediately. There are a limited number of moderators, each with personal lives. If you feel that action was not taken in appropriate amount of time, you may contact a moderator to inquire about the status of the report. Reporting the same post multiple time does not speed decisions. Concerns about this should not be taken to the open forum. Repeated and continuous reporting of frivolous matters is considered bad faith.

    15. The Moderation Team reserves the right to change thread titles if the Advisors or Moderators believe that a title might negatively impact the site's Google (Search Engine) rights or status. No thread content will be changed and no warning or notice will be given if a thread title is changed. If your thread title is changed and you have questions or concerns, please use the report function and a member of the Moderation Team will contact you.


    If you feel a post has violated any of these rules, please report it - don't respond. It is the general practice of the moderation team to take no action on reports concerning content to which the reporting party has responded. 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. Posts not timely reported are likely to be disregarded unless the moderators find it to be egregious.


    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.


    22 May 2019 - Inserted link to The Hole announcement.
    15 April 2020 - Inserted note at end of Rule 10
    20 August 2020 - Created Rule 15 in response to Announcement relative to same.
    29 November 2021 - Added Rule 12 language re Moderators.
    04 January 2022 - Modified Rule 10 - Removing previous Rule 10 language: Note: Generally speaking, the Mods do not substitute their judgment for that of the OP as to whether a rule has been violated and will initially defer to the OP - and inserting language reflecting TPF-Thread rule change.
    06 February 2022 - Tweak Rule 2 to insert: Members are advised that the posting of other members Twitter, Facebook, business, personal, Tik-Tok, Reddit etc. links and/or identifying information without the pre-posting consent of said member will be seen as a violation of the anti-doxing provision of Rule 2.

    05 April 2022 - Added '
    don't respond. It is the general practice of the moderation team to take no action on reports concerning content to which the reporting party has responded...' to paragraph 2 of rule 15.
    03 August 2023 - Added: Links must be identified by source and subject matter. Blind links will be removed from the open forum. - to Rule 8
    Last edited by DGUtley; 08-06-2023 at 03:02 PM.

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    Admiral Ackbar (09-02-2019),Agent Zero (02-05-2020),Alyosha (09-14-2014),AZ Jim (06-08-2019),bdtex (09-16-2021),Bethere (09-02-2016),Captain Obvious (09-15-2014),CenterField (05-27-2020),Chloe (09-14-2014),Chris (09-14-2014),Don (09-14-2014),FindersKeepers (02-27-2016),gamewell45 (09-23-2015),Green Arrow (09-14-2014),Gypsy (11-11-2015),KC (09-14-2014),MisterVeritis (10-30-2019),montana (12-06-2021),nic34 (09-15-2014),NoisyBoy (04-22-2021),OGIS (05-19-2015),OPJQ (09-26-2023),Orion Rules (12-31-2018),Peter1469 (09-14-2014),PolWatch (09-14-2014),Quark (02-23-2024),Redrose (09-14-2014),Retirednsmilin308 (06-20-2019),TheLiquidGuy (09-05-2021)

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