ATTENTION: TEH RULEZ

[Pappa]

FORUM RULES:

• Play nice, please . Those who intentionally harass other members, openly or via private correspondence, will be subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy. Intentional malicious trolling and use of offensive language, images or jokes, with the intention of harassing, intimidating, tormenting or persecuting another member, or in the knowledge that such posts are likely to cause widespread general offense, will not be tolerated. The response will depend on the severity of the infraction, the context of the post and will be decided upon via staff discussion.
  Please note: Offensive language, images and jokes are not in themselves disallowed, merely their application to intentionally harass or cause widespread offense. Also, if a member wishes to post an image which is relevant to the discussion but they believe there is a chance it may cause upset or offense, they are requested to spoiler the image and add a clear warning in red. Members who persist in posting potentially upsetting or offensive images without spoilers and warnings will be subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy. Context will always be considered and staff reserve the right to remove images we deem inappropriate.
• No personal attacks. If you don't agree with someone, debate their argument, behaviour or beliefs, do not attack their person. Attacks may be direct ("You are a cunt.") or indirect ("Somebody with that view is stupid."). The initial response for a first personal attack will usually be a reminder or warning - however the choice of response will depend on the severity of the attack and will be decided upon via staff discussion. Attacks made in jest (with the understanding of both/all parties - tacit or otherwise) are allowed. In the first instance, staff will attempt to ascertain if an attack was in jest. Staff will discuss the attack with both parties where possible and then decide what action to take.
• No pornographic images or links to porn. NSFW nude images may be posted in the NSFW subforum. NSFW is accessible by joining the NSFW usergroup. Before posting in the NSFW subforum, please read the forum specific guidelines thread posted there.
• No disclosure of any private details relating to other members (including all forms of correspondence, physical meetings, details of relationships, photographs, anonymised recounts or stories, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.
• Sock puppets are ostensibly against the rules. The penalty for sock puppetry is banning of the puppet. However, puppetry should be regarded as 'decriminalised', and the staff will usually allow it to continue while it's funny (or adds something worthwhile to the forum). Puppeteers are not required to inform the staff of their intentions.
• Sock puppets created with malicious intent; to skew the results of polls or attack other forum members (for example) will be banned immediately and the puppeteer dealt with in a way appropriate to any further rules they may have broken. However, the puppeteer's account will not be banned.
• Spammers will be banned on sight. Forum members are however free to tout, promote and discuss their own products, creations and achievements in threads they start about them or threads in which they feel their input is relevant. They should not feel discouraged from doing so. However, forum members who persist in spamming their book/website/birthday party purely for reasons of advertising, will be politely asked to stop, and subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy if they continue.
• Permanent bans will only be issued to spammers and malicious sock puppets (see above). It is currently our policy that permanent bans will not be an option for other forms of rule breaking.
• Members may also request temporary account suspensions due to family/work pressures etc..
• Our reminder/warning/suspension policy: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to staff issuing a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (24 hours and upwards, but no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice in this series will depend on the severity of the breach and will be decided upon by staff discussion.
  Please note:
  Reminders are simply informal reminders of the rules.
  Warnings are issued to members in the form of a warning of imminent suspension if the member continues their behaviour. An example might be, "Please stop doing that or you will be suspended for 24 hours". Board warnings (using the forum software) are never used as part of our reminder/warning/suspension policy. They are only ever issued in jest... mostly for bad puns or other fucking about.
  Suspensions are regarded as a means of allowing members who have breached the forum rules time to cool off and reflect - as well as removing them temporarily from the source of discord (i.e. the forum). Members should be aware that this is not a system whereby warnings accrued will lead to a ban.
  PM Reports - The forum software allows the reporting of post and PMs to the Staff for the purpose of bringing possible rule-breaking to their attention. (Please note that as this makes the contents of the PM visible to staff to deal with the complaint, obvious abuse of this feature will be regarded as a breach of our "No disclosure of private details" rule and will be dealt with using our reminder/warning/suspension policy.)

IMPORTANT PRIVACY INFORMATION:

• All attachments, including those sent via private message are stored and viewable to admin via the Administration Control Panel. Also, be aware that attached files are NOT SECURE and can potentially be viewed by anyone.
  If members wish to remove their attachments from private messages they can do so via their User Control Panel and 'manage attachments'.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES:

• Take responsibility - if you are uncomfortable with actions directed towards you or others, then voice your objections, either directly to the offending person/s or to staff/a staff member.
• Members ought to be aware that not everyone has the same standards; even if it is normal behaviour for you, other members might not be comfortable with it.

These new rules were issued on 20th July 2009.
Amended: 24th July 2009 to add "Deletion Request" rule.
Amended: 29th July 2009 (Au CST) to reduce the cooling off period for member requested account deletion from 30 days to 48 hours
Amended: 8th August 2009 to remove deactivation and deletion rules.
Amended: 1st September 2009 to modify non-disclosure rule.
Amended: 11th March 2010 to include specific reference to PM harassment and to change the note on the reminder/warning/suspension.
Amended: 4th May 2010 to include specific reference to reporting of PMs to staff after the forum software upgrade included the new feature.
Amended: 14th August 2012 reflect changes in the way members join the NSFW group and to clear up lingering discrepancies since modding policies changes 2 years ago.

If anyone wishes to contact rationalia admin via email our address is rationalia@googlemail.com

[Pappa]

Old rules: depreciated 20th July 2009

IMPORTANT PRIVACY INFORMATION:

All attachments, including those sent via private message are stored and viewable to admin via the Administration Control Panel. Sending attachments via private message does not mean the files are completely private.

Although admin have expressly stated we will not view the stored attachments, if members wish to remove their attachments from private messages they can do so via their User Control Panel and 'manage attachments'.

FORUM GUIDELINES:

• Play nice. We're all human beings and all deserving of respect.
• No ad hominem attacks (ie. no personal attacks). If you don't agree with someone, attack their argument or beliefs, not their person.
• Take responsibility - if you are uncomfortable with actions directed towards you, then voice your objections, either directly to the offending person/s or to staff/a staff member.
• Members ought to be aware that not everyone has the same standards; even if it is normal behaviour for you, new members (or even existing ones) might not be comfortable with it.
• No pornographic images or links to porn. Post NSFW nude images in the NSFW subforum. NSFW is accessible to forum members aged 16+ and by request only (by contacting an administrator). Please read the NSFW guidelines thread posted in that forum.
• No disclosure of private correspondence (PM, phone, email, morse code, photographs, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.
• Sock puppets are ostensibly against the rules. The penalty for sock puppetry is banning of the puppet and an informal warning issued to the holder of the puppeteer account. However, puppetry should be regarded as 'decriminalised', and the staff will usually allow it to continue while it's funny (or adds something worthwhile to the forum). Puppeteers are not required to inform the staff of their intentions.
• Sock puppets created with malicious intent; to skew the results of polls or attack other forum members (for example) will be banned immediately and in the puppeteer dealt with in a way appropriate to any further rules they may have broken.
• Spammers will be banned on sight. Forum members who persist in spamming their book/website/birthday party will be politely asked to stop, informally warned, then formally warned if they persist.
• Permanent bans will only be issued to spammers and malicious sock puppets (see above). Permanent banning will not be an option for other forms of rule breaking.
• Members' account may be deactivated by request of the member concerned. Deactivated accounts can be reactivated by the request of the member concerned at any time. Deactivation will never be used as a penalty.

* Edit: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to embarking on a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice of penalty in this series will depend on the severity of the breach. *


If anyone wishes to contact rationalia admin via email our address is rationalia@googlemail.com

[Pappa]

Rules amended: 24th July 2009 to add the following rule in response to this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3202

• A member's account may be deleted only by request of the member concerned. The member must make a formal request to the staff, followed by a further confirmation message separated by a minimum of 30 days.
  Please note: Account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone and the member's posts will remain on the forum. People who have had their accounts deleted are free to register with a new account and participate in our forum at any time.

[charlou]

Guidelines amended July 29 (Au CST) to include the reduction of the cooling off period for member requested account deletion from 30 days to 48 hours.

[Pappa]

Amended: 8th August 2009 to remove deactivation and deletion rules as per the results of this poll:
viewtopic.php?t=3606

The removed rules were:

• A member's account may be deactivated only by request of the member concerned. Deactivated accounts can be reactivated by the request of the member concerned at any time.
• A member's account may be deleted only by request of the member concerned. The member must make a formal request to the staff, followed by a further confirmation message separated by a minimum of 48 hours.
  Please note: Account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone and the member's posts will remain on the forum. People who have had their accounts deleted are free to register with a new account and participate in our forum at any time.

[Pappa]

Amended: 1st September 2009

Non-disclosure rule changed from:

No disclosure of private correspondence with other members (PM, phone, email, physical meeting, morse code, photographs, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.

to:

No disclosure of any private details relating to other members (including all forms of correspondence, physical meetings, details of relationships, photographs, anonymised recounts or stories, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.

[charlou]

Guidelines updated to include the following (red bolded section in quote):

*Play nice, please . Those who intentionally harass other members, openly or via private correspondence, will be penalised. Intentional malicious trolling and use of offensive language, images or jokes, with the intention of harassing, intimidating, tormenting or persecuting another member, or in the knowledge that such posts are likely to cause widespread general offense, will not be tolerated. The penalty will depend on the severity of the infraction and will be decided upon via staff discussion.

[Pappa]

Updated to change the note on the reminder/warning/suspension policy from this:

• Our reminder/warning/suspension policy: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to staff enforcing a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (24 hours and upwards, but no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice of penalty in this series will depend on the severity of the breach and will be decided upon by staff discussion.
  Please note: Suspensions are regarded as a means of allowing members who have breached the forum rules time to cool off and reflect - as well as removing them temporarily from the source of discord (i.e. the forum). Members should be aware that this is not a system whereby warnings accrued will lead to a ban.

to this:

• Our reminder/warning/suspension policy: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to staff enforcing a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (24 hours and upwards, but no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice of penalty in this series will depend on the severity of the breach and will be decided upon by staff discussion.
  Please note:
  Reminders are simply informal reminders of the rules.
  Warnings are issued to members in the form of a warning of imminent suspension if the member continues their behaviour. An example might be, "Please stop doing that or you will be suspended for 24 hours". Board warnings (using the forum software) are never used as part of our reminder > warning > suspension policy. They are only ever issued in jest... mostly for bad puns or other fucking about.
  Suspensions are regarded as a means of allowing members who have breached the forum rules time to cool off and reflect - as well as removing them temporarily from the source of discord (i.e. the forum). Members should be aware that this is not a system whereby warnings accrued will lead to a ban.

[Pappa]

Updated to include specific reference to reporting of PMs to staff after the forum software upgrade included the new feature.

PM Reports - The forum software allows the reporting of post and PMs to the Staff for the purpose of bringing possible rule-breaking to their attention. (Please note that as this makes the contents of the PM visible to staff to deal with the complaint, obvious abuse of this feature will be regarded as a breach of our "No disclosure of private details" rule and will be dealt with using our reminder/warning/suspension policy.)

[Pappa]

Various minor wording changes to remove some discrepancies that have been hanging around since we changed our modding policy two years ago, specifically to remove references to "penalty". Also, the section about how to join the NSFW group was corrected, as it's been out of date for about 2 years too. As with all rule changes, feel free to discuss them and suggest anything you like in the Technical Stuff / Site Suggestions forum.

From this:

FORUM RULES:

• Play nice, please . Those who intentionally harass other members, openly or via private correspondence, will be penalised. Intentional malicious trolling and use of offensive language, images or jokes, with the intention of harassing, intimidating, tormenting or persecuting another member, or in the knowledge that such posts are likely to cause widespread general offense, will not be tolerated. The penalty will depend on the severity of the infraction and will be decided upon via staff discussion.
  Please note: Offensive language, images and jokes are not in themselves disallowed, merely their application to intentionally harass or cause widespread offense. Also, if a member wishes to post an image which is relevant to the discussion but they believe there is a chance it may cause upset or offense, they are requested to spoiler the image and add a clear warning in red. Members who persist in posting potentially upsetting or offensive images without spoilers and warnings will be subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy. Context will always be considered and staff reserve the right to remove images we deem inappropriate.
• No personal attacks. If you don't agree with someone, debate their argument, behaviour or beliefs, do not attack their person. Attacks may be direct ("You are a cunt.") or indirect ("Somebody with that view is stupid."). Personal attacks will not be tolerated. The initial penalty for a first personal attack will usually be a reminder or warning - however the choice of penalty will depend on the severity of the attack and will be decided upon via staff discussion. Attacks made in jest (with the understanding of both/all parties - tacit or otherwise) are allowed. In the first instance, staff will attempt to ascertain if an attack was in jest. Staff will discuss the attack with both parties where possible and then decide what action to take.
• No pornographic images or links to porn. NSFW nude images may be posted in the NSFW subforum. NSFW is accessible to forum members aged 16+ and by request only (by contacting an administrator). Before posting in the NSFW subforum, please read the forum specific guidelines thread posted there.
• No disclosure of any private details relating to other members (including all forms of correspondence, physical meetings, details of relationships, photographs, anonymised recounts or stories, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.
• Sock puppets are ostensibly against the rules. The penalty for sock puppetry is banning of the puppet. However, puppetry should be regarded as 'decriminalised', and the staff will usually allow it to continue while it's funny (or adds something worthwhile to the forum). Puppeteers are not required to inform the staff of their intentions.
• Sock puppets created with malicious intent; to skew the results of polls or attack other forum members (for example) will be banned immediately and the puppeteer dealt with in a way appropriate to any further rules they may have broken. However, the puppeteer's account will not be banned.
• Spammers will be banned on sight. Forum members are however free to tout, promote and discuss their own products, creations and achievements in threads they start about them or threads in which they feel their input is relevant. They should not feel discouraged from doing so. However, forum members who persist in spamming their book/website/birthday party purely for reasons of advertising, will be politely asked to stop, 'reminded of the rules', then issued with a warning and potentially temporarily suspended if they continue.
• Permanent bans will only be issued to spammers and malicious sock puppets (see above). It is currently our policy that permanent bans will not be an option for other forms of rule breaking.
• Members may also request temporary account suspensions due to family/work pressures etc..
• Our reminder/warning/suspension policy: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to staff enforcing a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (24 hours and upwards, but no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice in this series will depend on the severity of the breach and will be decided upon by staff discussion.
  Please note:
  Reminders are simply informal reminders of the rules.
  Warnings are issued to members in the form of a warning of imminent suspension if the member continues their behaviour. An example might be, "Please stop doing that or you will be suspended for 24 hours". Board warnings (using the forum software) are never used as part of our reminder > warning > suspension policy. They are only ever issued in jest... mostly for bad puns or other fucking about.
  Suspensions are regarded as a means of allowing members who have breached the forum rules time to cool off and reflect - as well as removing them temporarily from the source of discord (i.e. the forum). Members should be aware that this is not a system whereby warnings accrued will lead to a ban.
  PM Reports - The forum software allows the reporting of post and PMs to the Staff for the purpose of bringing possible rule-breaking to their attention. (Please note that as this makes the contents of the PM visible to staff to deal with the complaint, obvious abuse of this feature will be regarded as a breach of our "No disclosure of private details" rule and will be dealt with using our reminder/warning/suspension policy.)

IMPORTANT PRIVACY INFORMATION:

• All attachments, including those sent via private message are stored and viewable to admin via the Administration Control Panel. Also, be aware that attached files are NOT SECURE and can potentially be viewed by anyone.
  If members wish to remove their attachments from private messages they can do so via their User Control Panel and 'manage attachments'.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES:

• Take responsibility - if you are uncomfortable with actions directed towards you or others, then voice your objections, either directly to the offending person/s or to staff/a staff member.
• Members ought to be aware that not everyone has the same standards; even if it is normal behaviour for you, other members might not be comfortable with it.

These new rules were issued on 20th July 2009.
Amended: 24th July 2009 to add "Deletion Request" rule.
Amended: 29th July 2009 (Au CST) to reduce the cooling off period for member requested account deletion from 30 days to 48 hours
Amended: 8th August 2009 to remove deactivation and deletion rules.
Amended: 1st September 2009 to modify non-disclosure rule.
Amended: 11th March 2010 to include specific reference to PM harassment and to change the note on the reminder/warning/suspension.
Amended: 4th May 2010 to include specific reference to reporting of PMs to staff after the forum software upgrade included the new feature.

If anyone wishes to contact rationalia admin via email our address is rationalia@googlemail.com

To this:

FORUM RULES:

• Play nice, please . Those who intentionally harass other members, openly or via private correspondence, will be subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy. Intentional malicious trolling and use of offensive language, images or jokes, with the intention of harassing, intimidating, tormenting or persecuting another member, or in the knowledge that such posts are likely to cause widespread general offense, will not be tolerated. The response will depend on the severity of the infraction, the context of the post and will be decided upon via staff discussion.
  Please note: Offensive language, images and jokes are not in themselves disallowed, merely their application to intentionally harass or cause widespread offense. Also, if a member wishes to post an image which is relevant to the discussion but they believe there is a chance it may cause upset or offense, they are requested to spoiler the image and add a clear warning in red. Members who persist in posting potentially upsetting or offensive images without spoilers and warnings will be subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy. Context will always be considered and staff reserve the right to remove images we deem inappropriate.
• No personal attacks. If you don't agree with someone, debate their argument, behaviour or beliefs, do not attack their person. Attacks may be direct ("You are a cunt.") or indirect ("Somebody with that view is stupid."). The initial response for a first personal attack will usually be a reminder or warning - however the choice of response will depend on the severity of the attack and will be decided upon via staff discussion. Attacks made in jest (with the understanding of both/all parties - tacit or otherwise) are allowed. In the first instance, staff will attempt to ascertain if an attack was in jest. Staff will discuss the attack with both parties where possible and then decide what action to take.
• No pornographic images or links to porn. NSFW nude images may be posted in the NSFW subforum. NSFW is accessible by joining the NSFW usergroup. Before posting in the NSFW subforum, please read the forum specific guidelines thread posted there.
• No disclosure of any private details relating to other members (including all forms of correspondence, physical meetings, details of relationships, photographs, anonymised recounts or stories, etc.) without the permission of the other party/ies involved.
• Sock puppets are ostensibly against the rules. The penalty for sock puppetry is banning of the puppet. However, puppetry should be regarded as 'decriminalised', and the staff will usually allow it to continue while it's funny (or adds something worthwhile to the forum). Puppeteers are not required to inform the staff of their intentions.
• Sock puppets created with malicious intent; to skew the results of polls or attack other forum members (for example) will be banned immediately and the puppeteer dealt with in a way appropriate to any further rules they may have broken. However, the puppeteer's account will not be banned.
• Spammers will be banned on sight. Forum members are however free to tout, promote and discuss their own products, creations and achievements in threads they start about them or threads in which they feel their input is relevant. They should not feel discouraged from doing so. However, forum members who persist in spamming their book/website/birthday party purely for reasons of advertising, will be politely asked to stop, and subject to our reminder/warning/suspension policy if they continue.
• Permanent bans will only be issued to spammers and malicious sock puppets (see above). It is currently our policy that permanent bans will not be an option for other forms of rule breaking.
• Members may also request temporary account suspensions due to family/work pressures etc..
• Our reminder/warning/suspension policy: Breaching the above guidelines will lead to staff issuing a reminder ----> warning ----> suspension of increasing duration (24 hours and upwards, but no longer than six months) process of consequences. The initial choice in this series will depend on the severity of the breach and will be decided upon by staff discussion.
  Please note:
  Reminders are simply informal reminders of the rules.
  Warnings are issued to members in the form of a warning of imminent suspension if the member continues their behaviour. An example might be, "Please stop doing that or you will be suspended for 24 hours". Board warnings (using the forum software) are never used as part of our reminder/warning/suspension policy. They are only ever issued in jest... mostly for bad puns or other fucking about.
  Suspensions are regarded as a means of allowing members who have breached the forum rules time to cool off and reflect - as well as removing them temporarily from the source of discord (i.e. the forum). Members should be aware that this is not a system whereby warnings accrued will lead to a ban.
  PM Reports - The forum software allows the reporting of post and PMs to the Staff for the purpose of bringing possible rule-breaking to their attention. (Please note that as this makes the contents of the PM visible to staff to deal with the complaint, obvious abuse of this feature will be regarded as a breach of our "No disclosure of private details" rule and will be dealt with using our reminder/warning/suspension policy.)

IMPORTANT PRIVACY INFORMATION:

• All attachments, including those sent via private message are stored and viewable to admin via the Administration Control Panel. Also, be aware that attached files are NOT SECURE and can potentially be viewed by anyone.
  If members wish to remove their attachments from private messages they can do so via their User Control Panel and 'manage attachments'.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES:

• Take responsibility - if you are uncomfortable with actions directed towards you or others, then voice your objections, either directly to the offending person/s or to staff/a staff member.
• Members ought to be aware that not everyone has the same standards; even if it is normal behaviour for you, other members might not be comfortable with it.

These new rules were issued on 20th July 2009.
Amended: 24th July 2009 to add "Deletion Request" rule.
Amended: 29th July 2009 (Au CST) to reduce the cooling off period for member requested account deletion from 30 days to 48 hours
Amended: 8th August 2009 to remove deactivation and deletion rules.
Amended: 1st September 2009 to modify non-disclosure rule.
Amended: 11th March 2010 to include specific reference to PM harassment and to change the note on the reminder/warning/suspension.
Amended: 4th May 2010 to include specific reference to reporting of PMs to staff after the forum software upgrade included the new feature.
Amended: 14th August 2012 reflect changes in the way members join the NSFW group and to clear up lingering discrepancies since modding policies changes 2 years ago.

If anyone wishes to contact rationalia admin via email our address is rationalia@googlemail.com