Goal/Aim of the Rules:The goal for this forum is to be a place for civil discourse about our favorite sports and teams. Conversations here should be no different than you'd have hanging out at the local sports pub. As such, disagreements that degrade to name calling, pushing and shoving, and fisticuffs at the pub won't be tolerated here any more than they'd be there. This is a sports forum, not life and death, no topic should ever be treated as such.
Posting Guidelines:(not rules to abide by, just ideas to bear in mind to keep the level of discourse at a high level and perhaps avoid unnecessary misunderstandings)
1. Put thought into your posts. Make yourself clear from the start and it could save pages of back and forth trying to clarify.
2. Be prepared to defend your posts. If called on something, be prepared to back yourself up and make your case. Your say-so isn't always enough to justify a prolonged argument.
3. Be mindful of grammar, tone, and presentation. It is a black and white media...the more clearly a post is written, the easier it will be to read and understand.
Rules for Posting:1. No personal or derogatory attacks against other users will be tolerated. Disagreements are inevitable and are truly the lifeblood of a vibrant sports discussion forum. Attack the
ideas you disagree with, not the
person who presents them. No one will be warned/suspended/banned for posing a differing opinion
if they are presented in a civil and reasoned manner.
2. No trolling will be tolerated. From the wikipedia definition:
An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.3. No use of multiple identities. The only reason one could have for using multiple log-in identities is to cause trouble. There are many ways for administrators to discern when multiple identities originate from the same place. If discovered, all but the original created identity will be immediately deleted and blocked, and the remaining identity will be disciplined accordingly.
4. Remember the agreement that EVERY user had to agree to upon registering for this forum, specifically the following passage:
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned
5. Abide by the Terms of Service of our service provider (freeforums.org). Failure to do so could result in a deletion of the entire forum, without warning, without return. Specifically, users must be mindful of these restrictions:
Forums MAY NOT contain any of the following, including but not limited to:
-Adult Content / Obscene Content
-Harassment
-Illegal Drugs
-Terrorism
-Piracy, Hacking, Viruses
-Racism/Hate/Derogatory/Slanderous
-Promotion of or distribution of copyrighted materials which includes but is not limited to, the following:
-links to download pirated movies, software, games etc from megaupload, rapidshare, and other such hosts/FTP/private servers
-Malicious software
-Non FreeForums.org sponsored ads
Process for Dealing with Rules Violations:"Level 1" applies to the first three instances in which a user violates a rule, each subsequent offense after the third will result in moving up one level on the scale.
Any offense occurring during a probation period results in skipping a level in the process. (i.e. committing an offense while on Level 3 probation means moving to Level 5 punishment)
Level 1 = mod edit of offending material, official warning
Level 2 = mod edit of offending material, official warning, one week probation
Level 3 = mod edit of offending material, one day ban, one week probation following ban
Level 4 = mod edit of offending material, one week ban, one month probation following ban
Level 5 = mod edit of offending material, one month ban, one month probation following suspension
Level 6 = mod edit of offending material, three month ban, one year probation following suspension
Level 7 = mod edit of offending material, one year ban, one year probation following suspension
Level 8 = mod edit of offending material, PERMANENT BAN, no return
A record of all users sanctioned will be kept below, editable by mods and visible to all. The list will detail level of offense, status of the user, and reason for sanction.
Admin/Moderator Responsibilities:Moderators reserve the right to use the PM function to casually (unofficially) warn users of potential violations. It is recommended that users heed advice when they feel it is warranted, but they have the right to petition for additional input from another moderator before any official action can be taken, because...
No moderator will act unilaterally on any formal actions. The moderator group will use group decisions in dealing with official sanctions on rules violations and questionable materials.
As such, the moderators reserve the right to temporarily lock any questionable threads and/or move any questionable materials to a hidden moderator section in order to make a group decision. This will allow for any materials which are decided to not be in violation of rules to be re-opened or replaced to their original location.
The admins and moderators of the forum also reserve the right to modify and alter these rules and penalties as needs arise. No such changes will be made unilaterally by any individual and all changes will be announced in advance to the users at large.
Any questions, suggestions, complaints or otherwise for the moderators should be directed to any or all of them via PM. Action is more likely to come from direct interaction than from a post or series of posts within the forums.
Permanently Banned Accounts:Name -- Date of ban -- Reason for ban
1. r-d-s-o-x-0-8 -- day 1 -- troll from old JAB forum (name is permanently censored on this forum)
2. N-E-W-E-N-G-L-A-N-D-F-A-N -- day 1 -- troll from old JAB forum (name is permanently censored on this forum)
3. bean3party -- 3/4/08 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #1)
4. MattLightMaine -- 5/28/08 -- attacks, harassment
5. Free Agent -- 11/8/08 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #1)
6. MaineRaysFan -- 3/30/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
7. anti jabanga -- 6/30/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
8. antijalbs -- 6/30/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
9. Imsorry -- 7/1/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
10. Arbitron -- 8/18/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
11. TBJWEWU -- 9/16/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
12. RadioKaraoke -- 9/22/09 -- multiple identities, user previously banned (see #4)
