Posted: Jan 29, 2011 8:16 am
by starr
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.