(Last updated: July 24, 2018)
Welcome to our hybrid of forums and comments. We've revised our community guidelines down to the bare bones. They'll change over time, and we hope you'll enjoy participating in a more creative environment.
TL;DR
• Be cool. Don't post or encourage insulting, bullying, victim-blaming, racist, sexist, violent, or homophobic remarks.
• Do not make assumptions as to anyone’s mental state, race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, group affiliation or sexual orientation without corroboration.
• Stunt accounts and throwaways may live, but sock puppets, astroturfers and spammers will die.
• Stay on topic. Don't hijack threads, repeat yourself, post walls of text, or generic talking points.
• Constructive criticism is welcome. Hostile, whining hand-wringers will be censored by elitist hypocrites.
• Assume good faith and like the good. However, flag the bad, and avoid contentless comments.
• Don't post e-mail addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, URL-shortened links that obscure the target, porn, or gore.
• We politely insist you do not post stuff you do not have the right to post.
• We have the right to delete an account or content at any time for any reason. Remember to export your data right after making dodgy comments.
• Enforcement may be lax or draconian as befits the whims of the Entity. The rude will be eaten first.
• Be sure to read our exciting Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Rules lawyering will fail.
This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules, merely aids to the human judgment of our community. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the discussion or might detract from its usefulness, think over what you want to say and try again later.
The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Please spend some time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But, remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
• Name-calling.
• Ad hominem attacks.
• Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content.
• Knee-jerk contradiction.
Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.
Your Participation Counts
The conversations we have here set the tone for everyone. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.
Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: favorites, bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.
Let’s try to leave our park better than we found it.
If You See a Problem, Flag It
Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts in any way; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.
Always Be Civil
Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness.
• Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
• Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
• Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
• Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things.
This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.
Keep It Tidy
Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up.
• Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
• Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
• Don’t post no-content replies.
• Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
• Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed,” use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in
a radically different direction, use Reply as a New Topic.
Post Within Your Rights
You may not post anything that you don’t have the rights to make available or have a well-reasoned belief that your republication of the work is a “fair use.” We are creators and this is very important to us. Please do not post stuff that you do not have the right to post.
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
We must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws.
