Political forum discussion and planning

[Triple Zero]

I checked.  .edu is only for accredited institutions, and ownership is strictly enforced.

I was about to say ... if you can grab a .edu, fucking go for it, those things are pagerank magnets.

[Salty]

Okay, everything is up and running like a meth-laced cheetah.

Of course, none of you should reg just yet. I am going to take a bath now, perhaps a nap a well.
Release ad something clever sometime stuff chupacabra.

[Cain]

Whee.  I can haz cheezburger admin now.

I'll be working on the site for the next few days, so expect no miracles in the next 24 hours/

[Placid Dingo]

Okay, everything is up and running like a meth-laced cheetah.

Of course, none of you should reg just yet. I am going to take a bath now, perhaps a nap a well.
Release ad something clever sometime stuff chupacabra.

I got excited and registered before I read this comment.

[The Johnny]

could you guys post the link when the forum is ready? im confused as to what was the final choice

[Salty]

You'll receive the link written on a piece of paper from a man in a tan leather coat. He will scratch his nose once and you will smack yourself in the junk until he leaves.

[The Johnny]

You'll receive the link written on a piece of paper from a man in a tan leather coat. He will scratch his nose once and you will smack yourself in the junk until he leaves.

id rather keep him than smack myself, can i keep him?

[Salty]

You'll receive the link written on a piece of paper from a man in a tan leather coat. He will scratch his nose once and you will smack yourself in the junk until he leaves.

id rather keep him than smack myself, can i keep him?

No.

[Cain]

I'm going to look at some themes for the forum, but it might require Alty to install them, because *server stuff*

[Cain]

Can I haz feedback?

Obvious Rules

Don't break the law.

This should be fairly uncontroversial.  Do not contravene local, national or American law in what you post.  While we at DirtyPolitics do not accept legal liability for members who post illegal content, Alty and I really don't want to have to deal with any more tedious legal issues than we really have to, so please don't try and add more to our already busy schedules.

What this breaks down to, in practice, is more or less this:

Do not post material that is prohibited by law, such as certain images.
Do not link to pirated material.
Do not post libellous or defamatory comments.
Observe "fair use" when it comes to online articles.

Those would be the most obvious violations, as far as I can see.  Violations will be dealt with in accordance to severity of the particular incident, but it can result in a permanent ban.

Spamming and related

Spamming, hacking or attempting to alter the workings of the board will result in a permanent ban.

One account per member

Registering more than one account per member may not result in a ban, but your alternate identity will be revealed at a really embarrassing moment.  Equally, asking a member to post on your behalf, if you have been banned, will result in the deletion of the thread and other sanctions, should repeated attempts be made.

NSFW

If you are posting material which could be considered Not Safe For Work, then link to it instead, with a clear NSFW tag before said link.  Linking to pornographic material is banned.

Hate Speech

Any willful wording intended to ridicule, debase, degrade, intimidate, or incite violence and/or prejudicial actions against a group of people based on their race, gender (including transgendered), ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability will not be tolerated.  Repeated incidents of this will result in a permanent ban.

Harassment of members

Unsolicited attempts to contact members, once they have made it clear they do not wish to be contacted, will result in severe penalties, up to and including permanent bans.  Examples of harassment would include repeatedly PMing someone, attempting to contact them via a personal email or phone number, following them to other sites for the purpose of harassment and other actions.

This rule applies both to behaviour on the forums and behaviour by forum members elsewhere.



Non-obvious rules

Advertising

You may advertise a personal blog in your signature and/or profile.  Anything else will have to be approved by the admin team before being posted.  Violations of this will result in the posts in question being deleted. 

Privacy

All members of the forum are entitled to privacy.  Divulging information about a poster, such as their name, address, place of work or contact details without their permission will not be tolerated and will be considered harassment.

Trolling and Flaming

Neither of these are acceptable or to be tolerated.  You know what both are by now.  Don't do them.  If you want more clarification, check the "Recommendations" thread.

English Language Forum

While we have members who can speak and read other languages, and welcome members from non-English speaking countries, English is the forum language.  Threads which are not in English will be deleted.  Note: of course you can still link to foreign-language media and in fact I highly encourage this, but if you are going to do so, a translation will be required.

I'm going to include a Recommendations section, of things like posting style ("call ideas stupid, not people" etc) and general good tips ("quote posts when referring to them in an argument"), but as for actual rules, how does this stand up?  Are there any I'm missing?  Is there a loophole or unfortunate implication I'm not seeing?

[Doktor Howl]

I like it.

As far as the recommendations, make a few of them rules.  Someone says, "that argument is ridiculous and unfounded", okay.  "You're a dumbass", probably not okay.

[Cain]

Yeah, I might just rewrite the trolling and flaming one to say just that.

[Triple Zero]

Looks good. Clear. I can't think of anything to add, I'd cross-check with some of our rules threads (in meta-forum etc) to see if there's anything obvious missing that you might want to copy, but you probably already did that.

[Cain]

Yeah, and half a dozen of the more tolerable internet forums as well!

An extra set of eyes never hurts, though.

[Cain]

Updated section:

Trolling and Flaming

Neither of these are acceptable.  You know what both are by now.  If you have a disagreement with someone, you can still do it in a respectful manner.  As such, personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated.  For example, you cannot say "John Q. Smith is an idiot."  You can say [X political ideology]" is stupid, of course.  Attack the idea, not the person.

Trolling is purposefully trying to derail conversations or upset others using diversionary tactics.  Genuine dissent or difference of opinion is not trolling.  However, those whose sincerity is doubtful may find themselves suspended until they can learn to play nice with others.