Atheist Forums reserves the right to enforce the following rules as the staff sees fit. This disclaimer is for the sake of allowing the spirit of the rules to trump any literal interpretation of the rules. The wording of these rules is chosen to decrease the number of misinterpretations. However, they do arise and it is left to the staff to determine how to interpret the rules. Nonetheless, discussion of potential changes to these rules is always welcome and encouraged.
The Purpose of Atheist Forums
These forums were created for the purpose of providing friendly discussion and debate between atheists and other like-minded individuals, as well as theists. Theists are more than welcome to join and enter into discussion but please bear in mind the nature of this community and take a few moments to read the 'Important Information for Theists' thread before contributing.
We believe in freedom of speech / expression, which means you can discuss your ideas without fear of censorship or limitation, provided you are not breaking the rules & guidelines below. In the interests of communication, we ask that you do not diverge from definitions of words that are found in the dictionary(s), unless a thread's specific purpose is to discuss various alternative definitions.
General Forum Rules
The following rules will be enforced to maintain a civilised and congenial atmosphere within the forums, insofar as possible. Disagreements do occur.
- This is a discussion forum.
This means that members should interact with each other in a proper discussion, and not purposely / repeatedly evade rebuttals made to them. Whilst members are not forced or required to answer every post addressed to them, ignoring them all and continuing to post similar content will fall in line with our "No Spam" rule. This includes posting links / copy-pasted content / scripture verses repeatedly, without adding your own comments or being relevant to the thread.
This is our primary rule and all other rules fall in line with this concept. The staff reserves the right to analyze each case in the spirit of this rule if said case doesn't violate the exact wording of other rules.
- No Spamming
This not only refers to blatant attempts to advertise but to any post that is not an attempt at discussion. Depending on the severity of the spam, a warning or a ban will be administered. We consider spam to be any of the following:
- Multiple postings of the same topic.
- Threads which are posted to advertise products / links unrelated to this forum.
- Responses to existing topics which are completely unrelated to the subject.
- Hit and run postings of a trollish or otherwise inappropriate nature.
- No Flaming
Flaming is where a person makes a post that is either entirely or mostly made up of insulting language towards another member, and does not form part of a discussion between those members. Generally speaking, the occasional insult thrown at a person will not result in a violation of this rule, as discussions based around certain subjects tend to get heated for those involved and the use of insults is forgivable (and sometimes expected) in these situations. Additionally, staff will take into consideration the context surrounding the insult when making a decision. This rule is intended to prevent people from using the forum just to attack other members, or to bully opponents into submission. Members that have previously demonstrated that they are here to participate in civil conversation may be shown leniency if they run afoul of this rule. Punishments for violating this rule are verbal warnings, regular warnings, and varying lengths of bans, depending on the severity of the flaming and whether the member has violated the rule before.
Threats and threatening language are strictly forbidden, and any post that is considered a threat will only be exempt from punishment at staff discretion.
- No Trolling
Trolling is where a person makes a deliberately provocative posting with the aim of inciting an angry response, and is not allowed. As discussions can at times get heated, not all provocative posts will get classed as trolling. However, if a member is found to be making multiple such posts, or appear to only be using the forum to provoke people, they will be in violation of this rule.
- No Advertising
Any advertisements in posts will be removed immediately. If you want to promote a product, service, or website then please contact one of the
administrators or moderators
by private message first. This also applies to people conducting research, surveys or asking for members to sign petitions or join causes. Whilst most in the community would be glad to help with such projects, we still would like you to get permission from the staff before posting.
- 30/30
In addition to the No Advertising rule, there is also the 30 days and 30 posts requirement. New users must accrue 30 posts and be a member for 30 days before they are allowed to post external content, such as links, images or videos. This is to ensure that advertising is not your sole purpose on this forum. Any posts where the sole intention is to link to external sites/videos may also be removed at the discretion of the staff. Once you have met the 30/30 requirements however these particular rules no longer apply.
- 30/30 Exception
One very important exception to the the 30/30 requirement is when external links/videos/images are used within discussion or with the intention of discussion. While we would generally advise new members who haven't met the 30/30 stipulations against posting threads with the sole intention of linking to an external site (whether advertising or not) or starting your own discussions based on external content, we do of course allow you to link to external sources when it is warranted. For instance you can post external content if using it as evidence in a discussion or you can post a YouTube video if it is relevant to an ongoing discussion.
- No Pornography
Any pornographic content will be deleted immediately. This includes pictures, videos and links. Discussion of pornography is fine, but for legal reasons we cannot display pornographic material, even if it is hosted on another site. Remember, this means anything pornographic. Just because it is a cartoon or it is funny does not make something any less pornographic.
There is an exception to this rule. The adults only area is dubbed "Area 69." Atheist Forums allows adult material in this forum. For that reason, we prefer any discussion that is explicitly sexual and does not address any other topic to take place here as well. In order to gain entrance to this area, members must go to the area and request entrance. Please take a photo of a picture ID and your member name written on something in the same photo. You can black out all identifying features of the ID, except the photo itself and the year of birth.
- No Sockpuppets
Each individual member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts (sockpuppets) is not allowed. Since IP detection is used to find users with multiple accounts, this may result in us suspecting innocent members with the same IP (for instance, two users living in the same house). To avoid suspicion, please contact a member of staff if more than one person in your home is a member of Atheist Forums.
- Disrupting Forum Activity
Trying to disrupt or disable forum activity, through any means possible (e.g. blanking posts, attempting hacks, threatening members), is strictly forbidden. This activity will very quickly attract the attention of the forum staff and will almost certainly result in a warning and possibly a ban.
- Member Access
Attempting to gain access to any area of the forum that is not immediately accessible to you through permissions by an admin or moderator is strictly forbidden.
- Uploading Files
The upload of illegal or dangerous material (e.g. malware) to the site is strictly forbidden.
- Ignore Lists
Members are not permitted to add any member of staff to their ignore list. Doing so will result in a warning and persistent offenders will be banned.
- Protecting Rule-breakers
If you are aware of a member breaking the rules, you are obligated to report them to the staff, either via the Report System or by sending one of the staff a PM. Protecting rule-breakers (especially sockpuppets of currently banned members) will not be tolerated, and anyone caught doing it will be warned and possibly banned as a result. All instances will be carefully considered by staff to determine if this was willfully done.
- No Calling Out
Do not any create threads that call out a specific member. Calling out is whenever someone creates a thread that is aimed at a specific member in order to insult him, complain about him, and/or to put him in a awkward position such as by challenging his views or even by asking him questions. This type of attack is sometimes accompanied by a display of a member's username in the title of a thread as well, and that is not allowed either. Any such posts or titles will be edited by the staff as soon as they are brought to our attention.
Even if there is no malicious intent for calling out someone, it might be a little troubling for the other person because he or she may be unwilling to post a reply. To avoid such a problem, you should send a PM to that member if there is something that you want especially him to answer or address in the public area of the forum. If he agrees to engage with you, then you may start the topic that you wished to create, but, again, without calling him out.
Calling out will be allowed only for the purpose of announcing special or important things about another member (such as to announce someone's birthday, for example, or something that you think others might be concerned about). It will not be allowed for supporting anything negative or offensive about any member of this forum. If you feel that it is something that we, the staff, should know about regarding another member, then it is best to discuss the issue with us via the PM system.
- Quoting Others Accurately
When using the quote function to quote other members, you may quote in whole or in part, but may not change the quoted text in any way. Breaking this rule may result in staff intervention. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the misquote(s), you may be warned, banned, or have your post edited to indicate the violation and / or amend the misquote. Adding to the quoted text for clarification (i.e. bolding, numbering, italics, etc.) is okay provided you indicate that the additions are yours and not the quoted member's, and provided it doesn't change the meaning of the quoted text. Use of textual alteration for the purpose of parody may be allowed, provided it is clear that the changes have been made to the original quote. In the case of ambiguity, staff will err on the side of preserving the author's original words rather than preserving your artistic license. If in doubt, include the phrase "Changes made to original quotation." at the top of your post. Staff reserve the right to consider misquotations on a case-by-case basis, weighing context and additional factors.
Specific Forum Rules
In addition to the rules above, certain forums have rules that are specific to that forum. These are found at the top of each forum:
Forum Guidelines
The following are guidelines intended for the smooth running of the forums and as such are not as strictly enforced as the above rules.
- Quoting Large Posts.
Creating long posts is absolutely fine (as long as they are your own work), but when you are replying to one try to avoid the temptation to quote the whole thing. Instead, simply quote small sections that you are replying to, as otherwise it tends to make the thread quite difficult to read. An alternative might be to wrap up large sections using the hide tag, such as:
Code:
[hide]Large section of text[/hide]
- Pasting From Other Web Sites.
This is a common forum problem and can be quite annoying for other members. By all means copy and paste the odd piece of text or small paragraph if it adds weight to your post, but for anything larger, please provide a link to the material instead by using the url tag:
Code:
[url]http://www.someplace.com/somesite.html[/url]
[url=http://www.someplace.com/somesite.html]Click Here[/url]
- Do Not Necropost.
Necroposting is the act of posting a new reply to a thread that hasn't seen activity for a long period of time. Our specified limit in terms of necroposts is 30 days. That means if you post a reply to a thread that hasn't had any replies for more than 30 days, you are necroposting. We appreciate that checking the last reply date is hard, so you will see a warning notice whenever you try to reply. If you think you can make a new thread out of your reply, please try to do that instead.
- Do Not Plagiarize.
When quoting from a source other than yourself give credit where credit is due. Use citations, links, names, etc. when possible. Academic integrity is important to many of the members here and it's only fair to give credit where it is due. It is also the legal thing to do, in most cases. Adding your opinion alongside cited text will not only improve the quality of your post but is encouraged.
- Right to Privacy.
Although we cannot be responsible for private information you choose to reveal in your posts. Members, moderators, and administrators are not allowed to make public the personal information of other member either on this forum or elsewhere. Personal information includes any identifying information or information of a private nature. This means real names, birth dates, medical information, financial information and anything else that can be used to find a member or that is essentially no one's business. Anyone caught posting another person's private information without proper consent will be banned immediately. In the spirit of this rule, members should be careful not to disclose their personal information to other members without proper caution.
- Usernames
Due to the need to maintain clarity and consistency when reading through threads, members are limited to only one username change per year. Members may change their username for any reason, but it is recommended that great consideration is taken when doing so.
While usernames are not heavily regulated, it is advised that members begin their usernames with regular keyboard characters (i.e. characters that are easily
typed on an English keyboard), and include some portion that can be pronounced in the English language. Not only is this just good forum etiquette, but it allows for functionality of the site, easier searches, and clarity for the readers. Staff reserve the right to reject a username on the grounds of clarity and / or functionality.
Reporting Posts
It is not appropriate to make a public thread to complain about another user.
If you feel a user has violated the rules, the best thing to do is to report the post in which they have done so. Doing so brings the matter to the attention of the moderators/admins almost immediately and action, if deemed necessary, is taken soon after.
Another method of dealing with complaints is to PM a moderator/admin. While it is still private and acceptable, the report system is better since it makes every moderator/admin aware and permits a quicker response time if the person you PM is not online.
In either case, it's important that these matters be dealt with privately and no longer in public threads. If you create a public thread complaining about another member, it will be removed.
In some cases, staff will make actions public in the Staff Log. This only includes banning and the reason for banning. Staff action taken against existing members will not be logged in that thread.
Copyright
Whilst you own the copyright to your posts, by posting them here on the forums, you agree to allow the site owner to publish these posts, and to edit or delete them in any way we see fit.
The standard legal stuff...
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “Atheist Forums” is hosted (France) or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP addresses of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions.
You agree that “Atheist Forums” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user, you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, "Atheist Forums" shall not be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
Finally...
These rules and guidelines are still a work in progress, so, any suggestions please feel free to contribute in the Questions & Feedback
forum. |