There aren't too many things which are forbidden in the forum and chat room. One would be extensive, gratuitous, personally directed obscenities - that will not be allowed and may result in you losing your posting privileges.
We value the free exchange of ideas. Behaviors in the forum or chat room that disrupt or inhibit such an exchange are discouraged, and in some cases may result in a loss of posting privileges. Those cases include:
- Extensive, gratuitous, or personally directed obscenities.
- Trolling. This consists of posting inflammatory claims or assertions for the sole or primary purpose of inciting emotional or negative responses, especially if the poster does not actually believe the claims or assertions. Other examples include using multiple accounts without telling others and impersonating regular members.
- Deliberate harassment, threats, or otherwise gratuitously abusive behavior.
- Spamming. This consists of multiple postings of basically the same message to several forums or to more than one thread in this forum and without substantive discussion as a follow-up. A post consisting of little or nothing more than advertising or links to another Web site is not considered substantive discussion. This is a discussion forum, not a lecture hall. Posting without intent to discuss the subject by responding to comments or questions from other posters is something we tend to treat as inappropriate.
- Copyright Violations. We also expect posters to comply with copyright laws. If you're not sure what they are, we have provided a summary with links to more detailed explanations.
In the chat room, we ask that people refrain from preaching. Preaching is defined as simply going on and on about one's religious beliefs without actually engaging others in a discussion by asking questions, answering questions, and showing that you are aware of what people have said earlier. Such behavior is boorish and rude, especially in an atheism chat where people should be able to expect that they won't have to endure it. In the forum it can be easier to tolerate because people can ignore the thread where preaching occurs, but in the chat room a single preacher can effectively "take over" the room, ruining it for others.
Other behavior that the administrators judge to be disruptive of the effective operation of the forum or chat room, or to be intended to cause such disruption, may also result in loss of posting privileges. A primary consideration in evaluating such cases will be preserving the sense of community maintained by the forum's regular membership.
In the forum, the option to delete your posts exists and cannot be turned off, but it is strongly discouraged. We realize that there will be times when you feel it is necessary, but we ask that you keep it to a minimum. When you delete posts in the middle of a conversation, it prevents others from figuring out what is going on, and this basically undermines the purpose of a forum. Massive deletions of posts, which butcher a thread, will be dealt with harshly and you will likely lose your posting privileges.
As far as editing goes, we only ask that when you do so, you try to add an explanation of what you have changed, especially if much time has passed since the post was first created. This helps people be sure that you aren't fundamentally changing the meaning of what you have said -- to do that, especially without noting it, isn't honest and we have had problems with that before.
Everything else will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If you are unsure about what you should do, feel free to ask.
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