Rule Changes + New Restrictions
November 7, 2013 at 6:59 pm
(This post was last modified: November 12, 2013 at 2:09 pm by Tiberius.)
The staff have had lengthy discussions behind the scenes concerning a couple of rules that have bothered some of us for some time. The result of these discussions was a decision to repeal the two rules and enact three more that we hope will lead to a more balanced and better community.
As of this post, the following rules are repealed:
Before you all start posting quotes from your chosen religious text or calling another member every name under the sun, be aware that the following rules are now being enforced:
1. 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.
2. No Flaming
Flaming is the repeated use of insults and/or threats against a member, and is not allowed. Generally speaking, the occasional insult thrown at a person will not result in a violation of this rule. However, insults that are used again and again, especially if they make up a large portion of a post, will be treated as flaming and may prompt staff action. Threats are strictly forbidden, and any post that is considered a threat will only be exempt from punishment at staff discretion.
2. 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.
3. 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.
We feel these new rules give our community more freedom to express themselves, but still allow the staff to ensure that things don't get out of hand. If you are religious, you can now share your beliefs without having to work out whether your post is "preaching" or not. However, be mindful that expressing your own ideas does not mean copy / pasting someone else's from another website you visit, unless of course you are adding your own comments and contributing to a discussion. The point of these forums is to promote the exchange of ideas and beliefs, so as long as you act with that in mind, we welcome your input!
The personal attacks rule was large and hard to understand, so we have broken it down into "No Flaming" and "No Trolling". We don't want to censor speech, even the nasty kind, but if you appear to be insulting a person repeatedly for no reason, or we suspect you are being purposefully provocative, we will take action. Threats are still strictly forbidden, though we will take into context any threat we see (e.g. a "threat" of hell is not a violation of this rule, whereas a direct threat to personally hurt someone is).
New Restrictions
We have also implemented a couple of new restrictions, mainly aimed at allowing staff to better moderate discussion. For various reasons recently, we have discovered a number of members who had placed staff on their ignore lists. Obviously this prevents these staff from getting in contact with this members, and sets the entire team back when trying to uphold the rules.
To that end, we have now (with thanks to Moros Synackaon) disabled the ability to add staff members to ignore lists, and also made it impossible to turn off the PM system, which is used to issue warnings. If you are receiving PMs from people you'd rather not talk to, then add them to your ignore list and they should not be able to send you PMs anymore.
Edited to add: There were about 6 members (who shall remain nameless) who had at least one member of staff on their ignore lists, and these members of staff have now been removed from those ignore lists.
We hope these new rules and restrictions are accepted by the community, and we hope they enable better discussion for everyone.
- Atheist Forums Staff
Update (12th November 2013): For clarification, we have re-worded the "No Flaming" rule so that hopefully it is a little more clear what the purpose of the rule is, and how a member can violate it.
As of this post, the following rules are repealed:
- No Preaching
- No Personal Attacks
Before you all start posting quotes from your chosen religious text or calling another member every name under the sun, be aware that the following rules are now being enforced:
1. 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.
2. No Flaming
Flaming is the repeated use of insults and/or threats against a member, and is not allowed. Generally speaking, the occasional insult thrown at a person will not result in a violation of this rule. However, insults that are used again and again, especially if they make up a large portion of a post, will be treated as flaming and may prompt staff action. Threats are strictly forbidden, and any post that is considered a threat will only be exempt from punishment at staff discretion.
2. 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.
3. 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.
We feel these new rules give our community more freedom to express themselves, but still allow the staff to ensure that things don't get out of hand. If you are religious, you can now share your beliefs without having to work out whether your post is "preaching" or not. However, be mindful that expressing your own ideas does not mean copy / pasting someone else's from another website you visit, unless of course you are adding your own comments and contributing to a discussion. The point of these forums is to promote the exchange of ideas and beliefs, so as long as you act with that in mind, we welcome your input!
The personal attacks rule was large and hard to understand, so we have broken it down into "No Flaming" and "No Trolling". We don't want to censor speech, even the nasty kind, but if you appear to be insulting a person repeatedly for no reason, or we suspect you are being purposefully provocative, we will take action. Threats are still strictly forbidden, though we will take into context any threat we see (e.g. a "threat" of hell is not a violation of this rule, whereas a direct threat to personally hurt someone is).
New Restrictions
We have also implemented a couple of new restrictions, mainly aimed at allowing staff to better moderate discussion. For various reasons recently, we have discovered a number of members who had placed staff on their ignore lists. Obviously this prevents these staff from getting in contact with this members, and sets the entire team back when trying to uphold the rules.
To that end, we have now (with thanks to Moros Synackaon) disabled the ability to add staff members to ignore lists, and also made it impossible to turn off the PM system, which is used to issue warnings. If you are receiving PMs from people you'd rather not talk to, then add them to your ignore list and they should not be able to send you PMs anymore.
Edited to add: There were about 6 members (who shall remain nameless) who had at least one member of staff on their ignore lists, and these members of staff have now been removed from those ignore lists.
We hope these new rules and restrictions are accepted by the community, and we hope they enable better discussion for everyone.
- Atheist Forums Staff
Update (12th November 2013): For clarification, we have re-worded the "No Flaming" rule so that hopefully it is a little more clear what the purpose of the rule is, and how a member can violate it.
