Terms and rules

Forum Operation

1. The forum will be open for posting Monday-Friday. Saturday and Sundays will be administrative days.
2. Membership requirement: None. Everyone from all persuasions can join.

General rules (applies to all forum areas):

  1. Be respectful. No name calling, no insults, etc.
  2. No spamming
  3. No profanity. The only exception is if you are quoting someone but please use coded language for the obscene words (e.g. ****).
  4. No posting of obscene content, such as images of graphic violence, sexual content, etc.
  5. No posting of private messages and personal information in the forums.
  6. No proselytizing. This not only applies to religion but also proselytizing for a philosophy and politics.

    -The trolls or those who are proselytizing for a religion or a political party will have expedited restrictions, suspensions, or even bans.

  7. Do not comment on someone breaking the rules. Simply use the "report" feature to report rule violations.
  8. Do not comment on moderator intervention in the forum. Please contact moderator through PM for any questions/concerns about moderator actions.
  9. No illegal activity
  10. An author or creator of a discussion topic should not continue posting on his or her topic if no one else responds (you can post up to 5 posts, but no more after that until someone else responds to one of your posts). This is not a blog site.

Debate Rules

  1. Please post a clear debate question when starting a topic.
  2. Stay on topic.
    3. - To maintain a fair-and-balanced or non-partisan standard, please keep rhetoric and personal commentary at a minimal in Debate sections (Discussion sections allows for personal commentary, opinions, etc). This standard is in place because too much rhetoric/personal commentary may come from mostly one side and can create a partisan/polarizing environment, like CNN or Fox News. Most of the discussion in Debate sections should be on offering logic and evidence for and against a position that deals with the debate topic.
  3. No ad-hominems - address the argument and not the person.
  4. Support all of your claims with evidence.
    5. - If a claim has been refuted, do not continue to assert it unless you present more or other evidence to support it.
    - If evidence is from a website, do not simply post a link but also cite the relevant information from your source.
    -- Opinions are allowed just as long as a member specifies that it's an opinion.
    - The Bible can only be used as an authoritative source to support a theological claim or topic.

On reporting rule #4 violations

- If a member makes an unsupported claim, then request that they support their claim. If the member continues to make the claim without support then report the post.
- When reporting the post, please cite the claim.
- If a member reasserts a claim and evidence that has been debunked, then also report it. In the report, include the exact claim, and the evidence that debunks it. If the matter is not clear-cut case, then moderators may lean towards not intervening.

Private Messaging Rules

  1. All of the posting rules apply
  2. Do not post information from PMs in the forums.
*Rules are subject to change but with prior notification, of course.
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