Membership Agreement

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Membership Agreement

#1  Postby LIFE » Feb 25, 2010 6:28 pm

Membership Agreement for rationalskepticism.org


Members of rationalskepticism.org agree to:

    1.1 only register one account with rationalskepticism.org and not allow anyone else to use your account.

    1.2. not cause harm or disruption to the forum or other members, for example please don't:
      a. post criminal content

      b. post racist, sexist, homophobic content (and no Holocaust denial)

      c. post personal attacks or insults towards other members

        d. i. start threads outside of Feedback that are critical of the forum habits and/or behaviours of another member

        d. ii. start threads that discuss the opinions, positions and/or arguments of another member without permission from that member
      e. attempt to inflame or provoke another member(s)

      f. post multiple copies of your posts

      g. try to take threads off-topic

      h. post personal information about another member(s)

      i. share Private Messages (PMs) without the member’s permission.

      j. send harrassing PMs to any other member(s)

      k. edit your posts substantially if others have responded to them.

      m. quote mine, plagiarise, or otherwise misrepresent information

      n. post about disruptive actions against external sites

      o. quote another member in your signature or on your profile without their permission.

      p. post, or offer to post, on behalf of members who have been banned or suspended.

    1.3. not discuss personal sexual issues and not post (or link to) anything pornographic

    1.4. use NSFW tags and appropriate warnings for anything that is not suitable for all ages or for viewing at work

    1.5. not preach

    1.6. not spam or solicit

    1.7. accept and follow the directions outlined in Appendix 3. Legal and Other Issues.


Please Note:
Last edited by The_Metatron on Jul 14, 2012 9:44 am, edited 33 times in total.
Reason: Corrected one set of list tags which was indenting paras 1.1 and 1.2, but not the rest of the list.
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Re: Membership Agreement

#2  Postby starr » Jan 29, 2011 8:16 am

Appendix 1. Membership Agreement - Explanatory Notes

By registering on the rationalskepticism.org Forum you agree to abide by this Membership Agreement and any directions made by the Moderation Team. This Agreement may be amended and altered by rationalskepticism.org at any time and by continuing to post here you accept any such alterations.

The Membership Agreement is a guide to what you can and cannot do here and it is not meant to be a complete list of everything that is allowed and not allowed on the Forum.

The consequences for breaching the Membership Agreement will be based on the seriousness of the offence, and this judgement will fall entirely on the moderators' discretion.

If you are unsure whether something you wish to post is in breach of this agreement you can send a private message to a member of the moderation team to request clarification.

Members of rationalskepticism.org agree to:

    1.1 only register one account with rationalskepticism.org and not to permit any person (other than an agent acting on your behalf and subject to your supervision) to use your account on rationalskepticism.org without express permission of rationalskepticism.org administration.

    1.2. not post or transmit defamatory, abusive, threatening or illegal material, or any other material with the intent to purposely mislead or harm others or infringe on the ability of others to enjoy rationalskepticism.org. This includes but is not limited to:

      a. posting or linking to anything that can be considered to be criminal or that threatens or incites criminal activity. This includes posts or links that contain malware, child pornography or incitements to violence.

      b. posting or promoting hateful, abusive or disparaging content about people's race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender; or denying the Holocaust (either implicitly or explicitly).

      c. personally attacking, insulting or threatening other members of rationalskepticism.org. You may robustly criticise the content posted by other members but may not direct criticism towards the members themselves.

      d.
      1. start threads outside of Feedback that are critical of the forum habits and/or behaviours of another member. Please note that all Feedback threads are still subject to moderator review under sections 1.2 e and others of the Forum Users' Agreement.

      2. start threads that discuss the opinions, positions and/or arguments of another member without permission from that member. This permission is required to guard against such threads being employed as covert vehicles for the harassment or "calling out" of members.
        An exception to this requirement is when the member in question has materials published in the public sphere, i.e. outside of RatSkep but publicly available. Nevertheless, any such threads remain subject to moderator review under the relevant sections of the FUA, including, but not limited to, sections 1.2.c and 1.2e.
      e. posting content to purposely provoke or inflame another member(s) of rationalskepticism.org.

      f. posting multiple copies of your posts either across the Forum or within a thread, although you may post links to them or include quoted sections where relevant.

      g. deliberately attempting to derail or hijack threads and take them off topic.

      h. posting personal information about another member(s) unless it is both publicly available and is relevant to the ongoing discussion.

      i. sharing Private Messages (PMs) without the member’s permission. An exception to this is where staff might need to disclose PMs from members to other staff.

      j. sending PMs to members that contain illegal propositions or are otherwise intended to harass or insult that member (including sending unsolicited pornographic content or sexual suggestions).

      k. editing posts to such an extent that it substantially alters posts to which others have responded

      m. quote mining, plagiarising, or otherwise purposely misrepresenting content from other members or external sources.

      n. posting about disruptive actions you have taken or intend to take against external sites and/or encouraging others to disrupt external sites (this includes the trolling of external sites).

      o. quoting another member in your signature or profile without permission from the quoted member. Spaces such as signatures or profiles are not areas for veiled or covert discussion of other members.

    1.3. not post (or link to) anything that is pornographic and you may not discuss personal sexual issues, experiences, desires, or problems on the Forum. This includes images, descriptions or discussions of explicit sexual acts. Images containing nudity may only be posted in relevant topics if they are established works of art or are in a medical/scientific context. All such images must be posted within NSFW (not suitable for work) tags.

    1.4. use NSFW tags and appropriate warnings about any image or other content you post that is not suitable for all ages and/or for viewing at work. One example, of such content would be depictions or graphic accounts of extreme violence or abuse. Such content should only be posted if it is relevant to the discussion and should not be posted gratuitously.

    1.5. not engage in theistic preaching, proselytising and/or witnessing either on the forum or via PM. If you are a theist you are freely permitted to discuss religion and your religious faith but you may not purposely harass or pressure other members to convert or to accept the ‘truth’ of your theistic beliefs and/or doctrine. In particular you may not overtly or covertly imply that other members are sinners or that they are likely to experience religious or other supernatural consequences for their thoughts, words, or actions.

    1.6. not engage in spamming or soliciting. This means you agree not to use any part of rationalskepticism.org, including Private Messaging, to:

      a. promote any business or other website. This includes advertising or soliciting anyone to buy or sell products or services without explicit permission and/or having a Supporting Vendor status with rationalskepticism.org. Any frequent posting about or linking to a commercial website or other business will be deemed to be inappropriate promotion and/or marketing, subjecting the poster to removal, with or without warning.

      b. gather member email addresses or other contact information for the purposes of spamming (ie sending bulk unsolicited messages).

    1.7. accept and follow the directions outlined in 3. Legal and Other Issues.
Last edited by THWOTH on Nov 12, 2012 1:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: reformatted list tags
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Re: Membership Agreement

#3  Postby starr » Jan 29, 2011 8:17 am

Appendix 2. Forum Moderation

2.1 Reporting
The Forum is a discussion forum and the Forum Moderation aims to encourage and support reasonable and rational discussion. Forum discussions often involve strong emotions and opinions which can result in heated exchanges. Forum Moderation will not protect you from having your opinions and ideas challenged and this may even be done in a direct or confrontational manner. However, Forum Moderation does aim to protect members from personal insults.

The Moderation Team consists of volunteers and it is not intended that they monitor all posts on the Forum. The moderation of the Forum relies on the support of the Membership and we ask Members to use the report button to report posts they believe breach the Membership Agreement. Please do not publicly state that you have reported a post since that tends to achieve nothing more than further derails and bickering.

The report button may also be used to make requests for "housekeeping" such as editing titles, and in general for bringing things to the attention of the Moderation Team.

Reports are considered confidential communication between a member and the Moderation Team. Reports should be civil and should not to be used to make attacks against other Members.

2.2. Moderation
The consequences for breaching the Membership Agreement will be based on the seriousness of the offence, and this judgement will fall entirely on the moderators' discretion. The Moderation Team use a range of strategies to address breaches of the Membership Agreement. These include:
    • Moderator Advice
    • Warnings
    • Suspensions
    • Banning
When possible and when appropriate, Moderator Advice and Warnings will be issued publicly, usually in the thread where the breach occurs. The Moderation Team may also use private messages and emails if they feel it is more appropriate to do so.
Threads or posts that breach the Membership Agreement may be removed from view at the discretion of the Moderation Team.

2.2.1 Moderator Advice
Moderator Advice may be issued within Modnotes as general advice to all members or may be directed to particular members. If a member is given Moderator Advice they will be notified via PM and a record will be made on their profile. There is no minimum or maximum number of times a member may be issued Moderator Advice before a stronger action (such as a warning) is taken.
Unlike Warnings (see below), Moderator Advice does not accumulate to result in suspensions.
Advice is posted in blue modnotes.

2.2.2 Warnings
In most instances, staff will advise posters to post according to the terms in the Member Agreement. If a poster ignores this advice then breaches of the Member Agreement may result in a Warning, which will remain active for 6 months.
When deciding whether to issue Moderator Advice or a Warning for a breach, the Moderation Team consider the:
    • member’s posting history;
    • history of previous Moderator Advice issued to the member;
    • context of the breach; and
    • severity of the breach.
Warnings are posted in red modnotes.

2.2.3 Suspensions
If a poster accrues warnings, they will lead to suspensions as follows:
    3rd active warning - 1 week suspension
    4th active warning - 1 month suspension
    5th active warning - 6 month suspension
After 6 months, the poster can return with a clean record but will have a probationary period of 6 months. During the probationary period, warnings will lead to suspensions as follows:
    1st active warning - 1 week suspension + 1 month extension of probationary period
    2nd active warning - 1 month suspension + 1 month extension of probationary period
    3rd active warning - 1 year suspension + 1 year probationary period

2.2.4 Banning
Bans from the forum are permanent and are issued at the discretion of the Moderation Team for:
    • Spammers (members who register to advertise or promote a business or to solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services without explicit permission and/or having a Supporting Vendor status with rationalskepticism.org.)
    • Sockpuppet accounts (see below for further information)
    • Trolls (members who the Moderation Team consider have registered with an intention to engage in trolling behaviour and/or whose forum posting history predominantly comprises trolling behaviour with relatively minimal constructive content).
    • Members who have engaged in extremely inappropriate behaviour either on the Forum or via PM.

2.2.5 Consequences for registering a sockpuppet account
All sockpuppet accounts are banned upon detection. Registering a sockpuppet account will lead to suspensions or banning as follows, depending on the member status of the primary account holder:
    • current member - 6 month suspension
    • deactivated member - 6 month suspension from the time they request re-activation
    • suspended member – extension of suspension by 6 months
Any member, whether current, deactivated or suspended, who creates a second sockpuppet account will be banned from the forum.

2.3. Appeals & Complaints
If you have been subject to moderation you can formally appeal that action and the Moderation Team is obligated to respond to all such appeals. To make a formal appeal you can:
    • Send a PM to a member of the Moderation Team to state you wish to make a formal appeal. Preferably, in the first instance, a PM would be sent to the moderator who issued the action and then if the member isn't happy with the outcome they may choose to PM a Global Moderator and/or the Senior Moderator;
    • Start a ‘Formal Appeal’ thread in the Feedback Forum.
    Members who have been suspended or banned can appeal moderation actions by emailing info@rationalskepticism.org.

Discussion of moderation issues and Forum management issues, whether you agree or disagree with them, should take place in the Feedback Forum.

2.4 Housekeeping
These are additional actions that the Moderation Team may take that are not intended as punitive towards any Member. They are intended to help ensure that the Forum is easy to use, navigate and to keep discussions flowing. These actions are undertaken at the discretion of the Moderation Team and include but are not limited to:
    • moving off-topic posts to new threads or removing them from view. Members can request for derails to be split to a new thread.
    • moving threads posted in the wrong section to a more appropriate forum.
    • Corrections and alterations. Members have 24 hours in which to edit or make corrections to their posts, after this time all editing is done by the Moderation Team.
    Since titles of threads in most sections are visible to non-Members, titles may be changed to ensure they are appropriate for public viewing. Moderators may also correct spelling errors, typos or other mistakes however this will usually only be done on request.
    • Duplicate posts may be removed from view. Members can alert staff to duplicate posts using the report function.
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Re: Membership Agreement

#4  Postby starr » Jan 29, 2011 8:18 am

Appendix 3. Legal and Other Issues

3.1 Right to Access
rationalskepticism.org retains the right to deny access to anyone, for any reason, including negligent or wrongful conduct. The "Right to Free Speech" does not apply to private forums or rationalskepticism.org.

3.2 Circumventing Denied Service.
Creating new or additional accounts, or accessing the site from a cloaked or proxy account, after being denied service, constitutes negligent and/or intentional interference with rationalskepticism.org contractual rights and can subject the violator to criminal and/or civil liability.

3.3 Legal Disclosure
Use of rationalskepticism.org acknowledges your awareness of this Membership Agreement . By posting on rationalskepticism.org, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless rationalskepticism.org, its affiliates and their officers, volunteers, directors, employees, agents, licensors and/or suppliers from and against any/all losses, expenses, damages and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from any violation of this Membership Agreement, or any activity related to your account (including negligent or wrongful conduct) by you or any other person accessing your account.

3.4 Accuracy
You are solely responsible for the material you post and rationalskepticism.org does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting, regardless of whether the posting comes from a user, from a celebrity or "expert" guest, or from a member of our staff. Any advice posted is used at your own risk. There is no substitute for healthy scepticism, doing your homework and using your own good judgment.

3.5 Personal Discussion
rationalskepticism.org provides a large, close-knit community where people can share their joys and their troubles. It cannot, however, provide a formal counselling service. People who are in need of such services are strongly advised to seek professional counselling services. rationalskepticism.org reserves the right to limit such discussions, remove them from sight, and request that members initiating such discussions continue them with someone who can provide qualified care.

3.6 Use of Materials
Although we make rationalskepticism.org freely accessible, we don't intend to give up our rights, or anyone else's rights, to the materials appearing on rationalskepticism.org . The materials available through rationalskepticism.org are the property of rationalskepticism.org or its licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. You are free to display and print for your personal, non-commercial use information you receive through rationalskepticism.org but you may not otherwise reproduce any of the materials without the prior consent of the owner. You may not distribute copies of materials found on rationalskepticism.org in any form (posting on other websites, by email or other electronic means), without prior permission from the owner. However, links to rationalskepticism.org are always appreciated and welcome.

3.7 Content rights
rationalskepticism.org does not claim ownership or rights to any content, photos, videos, audio or other works of authorship posted on this website by its members. After posting content on rationalskepticism.org, you will continue to hold all ownership rights to your posted content, as well as all rights to use your content in any way, shape or form according to your discretion. On this site, such content must be within the limitations of prohibited content as deemed by our Membership Agreement. By posting content on this site, you are hereby granting rationalskepticism.org a limited license for using, altering, duplicating, publishing, republishing or reproducing their work through rationalskepticism.org services and linking, in its entirety or as rationalskepticism.org sees fit, in perpetuity. As a limited license, this means that your content is subject to global reach via the internet, is royalty free (not subject to fees imposed on rationalskepticism.org) and that you are free to post and license the same content to other parties outside of rationalskepticism.org (non-exclusive). This limited license does not expire and is upheld for as long as rationaskepticism.org sees fit.

Posted user-submitted content remains visible on rationalskepticism.org at all times, even after suspension, ban, deactivation or deletion of associated user accounts. Upon posting content, you hereby warrant that you are the owner of the content or have rights to grant a limited license on said content. You also warrant that any content posted by you is not in violation of copyright laws, contracts, privacy rights, publicity rights, and you also agree to pay fees and fines associated with infringements of any content protection laws.

3.8 Proprietary Rights
The Internet allows people throughout the world to share valuable information, ideas and creative works. To ensure continued open access to such materials, we all need to protect the rights of those who share their creations or information with us.

rationalskepticism.org expects that you will not use the service to violate anyone's copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights. By submitting material to rationalskepticism.org, you are representing that you are the owner of the material; are making your submission with the express consent of the owner; or have legal authorisation and/or rights to submit any non-owned property.

In the interests of transparency, the maintenance of a high standard of debate and compliance with copyright law:
    a. All quoted texts must be presented as such and attributed to a source to avoid confusion over authorship. Therefore, you must provide links to online sources or list author, title, and edition copyright when quoting from printed literature. The onus is on you to ensure that you have copyright permission to copy text from articles, in situations where fair use does not apply.
    b. You may not post "copyrighted" material in its entirety or large amounts of material that is available from other sites.
    c. You may not "hotlink" unless it is explicitly allowed by the website.

3.9 Disruption of Service
Any attempts to disrupt rationalskepticism.org via the site, server, features or resources will be investigated, documented and recorded by our security team. A suspected security violation will result in the documents, logs and other communication exchanged between parties (including e-mails, Private Messages or recorded phone calls), used as evidence to support criminal prosecution and/or civil action(s). rationalskepticism.org will work in conjunction with Internet Service Providers; local, state or federal law enforcement and our attorneys, to identify any persons using cloaked or proxied IP's in an attempt to access and disrupt the site anonymously. Along with all evidentiary materials, offending parties will be identified and reported to authorities. Legal remedies for any/all damages will be vigorously pursued.
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Re: Membership Agreement

#5  Postby starr » Jan 29, 2011 8:30 am

Appendix 4. Previous Forum User's Agreement.
Replaced 29 January 2011



LIFE wrote:FORUM USERS' AGREEMENT

Initial Information
The purpose of this forum is to encourage discussions on topics related to reason and science. rationalskepticism.org wants to encourage an open exchange of information and ideas but we cannot and do not review every posting made in the forums and other public posting areas. You can expect these areas to include information and opinions from a variety of individuals and organisations other than rationalskepticism.org.

Responsibility
Responsibility for what is posted in the forums and other public posting areas on rationalskepticism.org lies with each user: you alone are responsible for material you post. By using rationalskepticism.org, you agree not to post or transmit any defamatory, abusive, threatening or illegal material, or any other material with the intent to purposely mislead, harm or infringe on the ability of others to enjoy rationalskepticism.org .

You may edit posted material for up to 24 hours after it is initially posted, but you may not edit posts to such an extent that it substantially alters posts to which others have responded.

You may challenge and criticise posts robustly but personal attacks on other members are not permitted.

You may not:

  • Start critical threads about other members. The exception to this is where the member is in the public sphere (for example if they are famous or if they have a blog) then members are free to start threads that are critical of those behaviours or ideas but are not free to start threads where the primary content comprises personal insults about that member;
  • Share PMs (private messages) without the member’s permission. The exception to this is where staff might need to disclose PMs from members to other staff re: complaints or questions of forum policy;
  • Make multiple copies of your posts in more than one thread, although you may post links to them or include quoted sections where relevant;
  • PM members or moderators with illegal propositions or questions;
  • Troll i.e. posting disruptive and/or inflammatory content. These posts can include -but aren't restricted to:
    1. broad generalizations and personal accusations about specific people or groups that incite hatred towards these people or groups and/or provoke emotional responses from members;
    2. misrepresenting the words or opinion of another member after being corrected;
    3. posting off-topic content after being asked by staff to stay on-topic.


rationalskepticism.org will not foster or support racist, homophobic or sexist bigotry. Therefore, you may not post hateful, abusive or disparaging content about people's race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender, as this creates an environment that is hostile to the reasonable exchange of views. This also includes the promotion of racist, homophobic or sexist propaganda, political or otherwise.

Posting blatantly racist, sexist or homophobic content may result in an immediate and permanent ban from the forum. Offences judged less serious by the staff will be dealt with under the warning and suspension system outlined under moderation below.

rationalskepticism.org will not support Holocaust Denial. Therefore, you may not explicitly or implicitly deny the Holocaust in your posts.

The consequences for breaking these rules will be based on the seriousness of the offence, and this judgement will fall entirely on the moderators' discretion.

Forum Organisation
Please read the descriptions for the forums and sub-forums before posting and choose the most appropriate place. Don't hijack threads and take them off topic. Staff may move/split/merge posts or threads which are deemed to be better placed elsewhere (which, in cases of deliberate hijacking or trolling, might include being removed from public view).

Preaching/proselytising/witnessing
rationalskepticism.org is a forum for rational, clear thinking, and does this by encouraging debate and the exchange of different points of view. You are free to discuss religion and your religious faith but members should be able to take part in debate free from religious harassment or from being pressured to convert. The behaviours that are prohibited, other than as examples within legitimate discussion, include preaching, dogmatic presentation of material from religious books, witnessing used as evidence, telling members that they are sinners, or threatening them with any kind of religious or other supernatural consequences for their thoughts, words, or actions.

Welcoming New Members
This part of the forum is a chance for newbies to introduce themselves and for community members to welcome and know something about them. It is not the place to start trying to get newbies to sign up to your particular way of looking at the world, nor is it the place to start sermonising (see above).

Soliciting
You agree not to use rationalskepticism.org to advertise, excessively promote a business or to solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services without explicit permission and/or having a Supporting Vendor status with rationalskepticism.org. Any frequent posting (or Internet link to a commercial website) by an individual(s) concerning a particular business will be deemed to be inappropriate promotion and/or marketing, subjecting the poster to removal, with or without warning.

Spamming
Occasionally, users post their email addresses in our forums and other public posting areas. You agree not to gather these email addresses for purposes of spamming i.e. sending unsolicited email. You may not use any part of rationalskepticism.org, including Private Messaging, to send SPAM or to promote a business(es) or other website(s).

Sex and Nudity
Discussions on sexuality are limited to professional scientific studies and topics. No discussions of personal sexual issues, desires, or problems. No images, descriptions or discussions of sexual acts. Images containing nudity are limited to established works of art or in a medical/scientific context, posted in relevant topics and must be suitable for all ages/safe for viewing at work. All threads or posts containing or linking to material which contravenes the above will be removed from the site immediately.

Identity and Access
You may not register more than one account on rationalskepticism.org without express permission of rationalskepticism.org administration. You may not permit any person (other than an agent acting on your behalf and subject to your supervision) to access, using your account, any features of rationalskepticism.org that may require registration.

Accuracy
We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting, regardless of whether the posting comes from a user, from a celebrity or "expert" guest, or from a member of our staff. Any advice posted is used at your own risk. There is no substitute for healthy scepticism, doing your homework and using your own good judgment.

Personal Discussion
rationalskepticism.org provides a large, close-knit community where people can share their joys and their troubles. It cannot, however, provide a formal counselling service. People who are in need of such services are strongly advised to seek professional counselling services in real life. rationalskepticism.org reserves the right to limit such discussions, remove them from sight, and request that members initiating such discussions continue them with someone who can provide qualified care.

Monitoring and Disclosure

rationalskepticism.org does not and cannot monitor all the postings in the forums and other public areas. However, rationalskepticism.org reserves the right (but assumes no obligation) to delete, move or edit any postings that come to our attention that we consider unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or any other reasons. We will not, in the ordinary course of business, review Private Messages (PMs) that are not addressed to rationalskepticism.org, or members of its staff. However, rationalskepticism.org will comply with any applicable legal requirements regarding disclosure of such messages to others, including law enforcement agencies. We will provide the contents of applicable Private Messages to our attorneys for pending legal actions.

Right to Access
rationalskepticism.org retains the right to deny access to anyone who we believe has violated any of these terms or any other term of this agreement, whether an actual violation has occurred or not. Note: the "Right to Free Speech" does not apply to private forums or rationalskepticism.org. Your right to post on rationalskepticism.org is a privilege granted by rationalskepticism.org and can be revoked at will.

Circumventing Denied Service
We retain the right to deny access to rationalskepticism.org to anyone, for any reason, including negligent or wrongful conduct. Creating new or additional accounts, or accessing the site from a cloaked or proxy account, after being denied service, constitutes negligent and/or intentional interference with rationalskepticism.org contractual rights and can subject the violator to criminal and/or civil liability.

Disruption of Service

rationalskepticism.org takes any disruption of rationalskepticism.org and its interests very seriously. Any attempts to disrupt the site, server, features or resources will be investigated, documented and recorded by our security team. A suspected security violation will result in the documents, logs and other communication exchanged between parties (including e-mails, Private Messages or recorded phone calls), used as evidence to support criminal prosecution and/or civil action(s). rationalskepticism.org will work in conjunction with Internet Service Providers; local, state or federal law enforcement and our attorneys, to identify any persons using cloaked or proxied IP's in an attempt to access or disrupt the site anonymously. Along with all evidentiary materials, offending parties will be identified and reported to authorities. Legal remedies for any/all damages will be vigorously pursued.

Use of Materials
Although we make rationalskepticism.org freely accessible, we don't intend to give up our rights, or anyone else's rights, to the materials appearing on rationalskepticism.org . The materials available through rationalskepticism.org are the property of rationalskepticism.org or its licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. You are free to display and print for your personal, non-commercial use information you receive through rationalskepticism.org but you may not otherwise reproduce any of the materials without the prior consent of the owner. You may not distribute copies of materials found on rationalskepticism.org in any form (posting on other websites, by email or other electronic means), without prior permission from the owner. However, links to rationalskepticism.org are always appreciated and welcome.

Content rights
rationalskepticism.org does not claim ownership or rights to any content, photos, videos, audio or other works of authorship posted on this website by its members. After posting content on rationalskepticism.org, you will continue to hold all ownership rights to your posted content, as well as all rights to use your content in any way, shape or form according to your discretion. On this site, such content must be within the limitations of prohibited content as deemed by our Terms of Use and our Forum Users' Agreement. By posting content on this site, you are hereby granting rationalskepticism.org a limited license for using, altering, duplicating, publishing, republishing or reproducing their work through rationalskepticism.org services and linking, in its entirety or as rationalskepticism.org sees fit, in perpetuity. As a limited license, this means that your content is subject to global reach via the internet, is royalty free (not subject to fees imposed on rationalskepticism.org) and that you are free to post and license the same content to other parties outside of rationalskepticism.org (non-exclusive). This limited license does not expire and is upheld for as long as rationaskepticism.org sees fit.

Posted user-submitted content remains visible on rationalskepticism.org at all times, even after suspension, ban, deactivation or deletion of associated user accounts. Upon posting content, you hereby warrant that you are the owner of the content or have rights to grant a limited license on said content. You also warrant that any content posted by you is not in violation of copyright laws, contracts, privacy rights, publicity rights, and you also agree to pay fees and fines associated with infringements of any content protection laws.

Moderation
This is a moderated forum and staff monitor posts to ensure reasonable compliance with the Users' Agreement. Staff are grateful that members often assist us by reporting posts which don't comply. There is a report icon in every post and when a member clicks on the icon, staff receive notice and can decide how to proceed.

Members of this forum usually post in accordance with the Users' Agreement but when this doesn’t happen, staff use a range of strategies to address this. Depending on the situation, the strategies include advice; suggestions; requests and warnings. Warnings are always recorded and the member is informed of a warning via Personal Message (PM) and (usually) within the thread too. In most instances, staff will guide and advise posters to post according to the terms in the UA. If a poster ignores this advice / guidance then any clear breaches of the UA will result in a warning, which will remain active for 6 months.

If a poster accrues warnings, they will lead to suspensions as follows:

3rd active warning - 1 week suspension
4th active warning - 1 month suspension
5th active warning - 6 month suspension

After 6 months, the poster can return with a clean record but will have a probationary period of 6 mths. During that time, warnings will result in:

1st active warning - 1 week suspension + 1 month extension of probationary period
2nd active warning - 1 month suspension + 1 month extension of probationary period
3rd active warning - 1 year suspension + 1 year probationary period

If someone on suspension uses a sockpuppet account then their suspension period will be extended by 6 months. If they use a second sockpuppet account while suspended, they will be banned along with any future sockpuppets created.

Bans will still be used for spammers and trolls.

When it is unclear whether to issue a warning, staff will discuss the situation and reach an agreed decision.

If a member wishes to appeal against a sanction, s/he should send a PM to the moderator who issued it and discuss the matter. If the moderator isn't online for a while or if the member isn't happy with the outcome of the PM discussion, the member may send a PM to the Senior Moderator or start a thread in the Tech Support Forum. Staff decisions (including bans) can also be appealed against by emailing info@rationalskepticism.org.

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rationalskepticism.org expects that you will not use the service to violate anyone's copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights. By submitting material to rationalskepticism.org, you are representing that you are the owner of the material; are making your submission with the express consent of the owner; or have legal authorisation and/or rights to submit any non-owned property.

In the interests of transparency, the maintenance of a high standard of debate and compliance with copyright law, all quoted texts must be presented as such and attributed to a source to avoid confusion over authorship. Therefore, you must provide links to online sources or list author, title, and edition copyright when quoting from printed literature. The onus is on you to ensure that you have copyright permission to copy text from articles, in situations where fair use does not apply.

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Use of rationalskepticism.org acknowledges your awareness of this User's Agreement . By posting on rationalskepticism.org, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless rationalskepticism.org, its affiliates and their officers, volunteers, directors, employees, agents, licensors and/or suppliers from and against any/all losses, expenses, damages and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from any violation of this User's Agreement, or any activity related to your account (including negligent or wrongful conduct) by you or any other person accessing your account.
stijndeloose wrote: A wise decision that anyone can make: if you feel tempted to attack a RatSkep member, take a break.

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