Community Values
As a community:
We value independent thought, critical thinking and logical arguments that provide unique insight.
We value a plethora of viewpoints. All are welcomed except those based on negativity in collectivist mindsets that view humans as members of groups rather than as individuals. Sexism, racism and anti-semitism are the antithesis of our values.
We value the sharing of news and information relevant to our Mission.
We value the development of wisdom though a high level of community discourse.
We value a focus on debating issues while being civil, on-topic and avoiding personal commentary on other members.
We value an understanding that name-calling of any person or group proves nothing and has no worthy intellectual foundation.
We value efforts and attitudes that build fellowship and an effective community. We encourage the personal development, success and individual enrichment of our members, as well as the welcoming of new members.
We value efforts to achieve success within our Mission.
Community Guidelines
In order to effectively achieve our Mission the site's Community Guidelines must be followed, which apply to forum posts, reputation comments, blogs, private messages and all other forms of site content.
Critical Guidelines Focus
The following guidelines are of critical concern with little to no tolerance of deviation from the staff:
Operate within morally sound laws. Promoting violence, theft or other illegal activities will not be tolerated.
Respect others' copyrights, intellectual property and contracts, per legal standards. Limit fair-use posting of copyright material to the lesser of four paragraphs or a quarter of the writing.
Posts should not promote negativity in collectivist mindsets that view humans as members of groups rather than individuals. Such forms of collectivism include sexism, racism and anti-semitism; they will not be tolerated here.
No insulting, antagonizing or personally attacking other users.
Do note disrupt Mission-supporting activism efforts.
The Community Guidelines are as follows:
1) Be ethical.
Be honest and truthful.
Operate within morally sound laws. Promoting violence, theft or other illegal activities will not be tolerated.
Respect others' copyrights, intellectual property and contracts, per legal standards. Limit fair-use posting of copyright material to the lesser of four paragraphs or a quarter of the writing.
Posts should not promote negativity in collectivist mindsets that view humans as members of groups rather than individuals. Such forms of collectivism include sexism, racism, anti-semitism; they will not be tolerated here.
Work to promote a peaceful, freedom-loving, compassionate society.
2) Treat others with respect.
Do not make accusations, declarations on others' character, question their motives, be judgmental, assign them to a group or make any other negative personal commentary of members.
No insulting, antagonizing or personally attacking other users.
Do not suggest that other members should leave or that they otherwise don't belong here.
Do not publicly discuss which site members you don't like, who is on your ignore list or similar.
No misquoting other members when debating, such as with "fixed it for you."
Be respectful of others' religion or lack thereof.
No posting of anyone's personal contact information or members' personal details.
See the "Being Respectful" section below for more details.
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Being Respectful
Maintaining a proper decorum is essential for any group, and is critically important for online political forums. Being respectful of others is an important part of that and required by the Community Guidelines. Here are some examples of being respectful vs. not:
"You're an idiot for thinking that." -- not respectful since the statement is based on an insult.
"Your delusional thinking" -- not respectful since your statement is based on an insult.
"Here are the problems with your line of thinking..." -- respectful, you don't have to agree and can present logical counter-arguments.
"Troll" -- calling other members a troll is not respectful and implies you know the intent of the member.
Religious context: See this special instructional thread.
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Dealing with Conflict and Guideline Violations
If you see a problem with a specific post violating the guidelines you can report it to the site staff with the use of the report option grouped with that post.
If you see another member's behavior driving down the level of site discourse, not contained to a single message, you can report it to the site staff.
If you take issue with another member:
Do:
Debate the issues. Attack bad ideas and questionable information.
If a user keeps rehashing the same debate, call for a "Site Issue Evaluation" debate thread on the issues in accordance with our "Site Issue Evaluations - Managing Contentious Issues" policy. Message the staff for details if needed.
Put the user on your ignore list.
Don't:
Do not call other members names such as idiot, troll, liberal (unless self-labeled) or other names.
Do not antagonize other members by calling them out in thread titles.
Do not hunt down random posts by a user to apply negative reputation points.
Do not use PMs or rep messages as a backhanded way to break the guidelines.
Do not attempt to rally a negative campaign against the member.
Do not accuse others of violating the guidelines.
Do not retaliate if attacked; refocus the discussion to the topic, call for the discussion to be kept civil or do not respond.
