This set of rules are for the interactive areas of the site, which includes the forums, article comment system, wiki, and any other place on the site where users may submit messages/information and/or respond to messages/information. This set of rules is actively enforced.
There is another set of rules, the Site Protocol, which some refer to as the "terms and conditions of usage" or the "user agreement", which encompasses the entire website. You are not only expected, but *required*, to have read, understood and accepted it at registration. If you have not done so, you should go back and review it. If you do not do so, apart from being the subject of an inside joke, your account will be suspended after a grace period, and eventually deleted.
If you are unable to accept these rules, simply do not use the interactive areas of the site. Many register and elect to abstain from the forums. This is perfectly fine. But if you do make a post, you are expected to fully comply with this set of rules. If you have time to read and respond to a bunch of threads, you have the time to read and comprehend this set of rules. "Too Long; Didn't Read" is not an excuse.
Werelist is maintained as safe and neutral territory. The object is to make it a place where as many people as possible are accepted, and as few as possible turned away. People come here to make friends, get information, and participate in the community, not to see people fight or play head-games. Don't make it unsafe, or biased. That means no fighting, no name-calling, and no doing anything that makes others feel unwelcome or afraid to use the Werelist's services.
This site is for the community as a whole, not any one part of it. That means that sometimes someone might say things you don't agree with, or believe things that you don't believe. If you disagree with someone, even passionately or violently, you still need to act like a mature and rational adult when you state your disagreement, and you may not call names or make personal attacks.
Keep any bigotry to yourself. The members of this board hail from many different races, creeds, religions, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, spiritualities, etc. There are christians, atheists, pagans, heterosexuals, gays, whites, blacks, purples, and all other sorts of critters here. You may disagree, or even dislike someone, but you must remain courteous during your Werelist visits. Don't attack others or denigrate their beliefs, and don't rub your beliefs in people's faces in an aggressive or impolite way that will make them feel they must respond.
If you have a problem with this board, or a user on it, take it up with a Forum Moderator or Admin. If you feel you must respond in a way that doesn't fit here, do it privately or elsewhere. While people as young as 14 are allowed to use this board, everyone from 14 to 140 is expected to communicate like a mature, rational adult.
Use your best punctuation, spelling and grammar. You are expected to communicate in a legible, readable, mature fashion. Try to use standard business English. While you will not be leaped upon for a little glitch or typo here and there, if there is a pattern of unreadability to your posts, you will be asked to fix them. If you don't, and the problem continues, your posts may be deleted. The helpstaff will offer assistance in improving your business English skills if you need it for any reason.
The official language for these boards is English, but we understand that people for whom English is not a first language will not be as fluent. Please just make your best effort. Part of why we want people to use good English is because there are many members for whom it is a second language, and slang, bad spelling, lack of punctuation, etc. make it much more difficult for them.
In chat rooms, and on some places on the internet, people are expected to use certain abbreviations, or take shortcuts so they can respond more quickly. But here on Werelist, you are expected to take your time and type as clearly as you can. Chat-slang and messaging short-forms like "lol", "brb", "how r u" and so on are NOT acceptable.
Unnecessary, few-line, fun-type posts to threads in areas for proper discussion are inappropriate, sometimes even disruptive, and may be removed on sight.
You may use language in any way but to offend. IE: You may use curse words, but you may not call people names or insult them. It's okay to say "Fuck". It's not okay to say "Fuck you". The same goes for loaded words like "idiot, fool, stupid, etc." We don't normally believe in censoring language, but if there are a lot of complaints about cursing, we may ask people to tone it down a notch.
Don't post anything illegal, obviously. That includes not posting links to pirated software or movies. While posts are the responsibility of users, and we take no responsibility for someone else posting something naughty here, It's still against the rules.
It's possible to put links to images in your posts, but there are restrictions. Don't post enormous things that make the screen go wonky or take forever to load. 640x480 is large enough. Don't post pornographic or erotic material so that it appears directly on this site.
Guidelines also exist on signatures and avatars. Read them before uploading or linking to one. Signature files can be a maximum of 100 X 400, and avatars 120 X 120.
Be mindful that there are minors who use this board. Explicit material belongs in the Mature forum, and even there, we ask that you do not post pornography or erotica. If you are the author and want to share your work, or if for some reason such a work is relevant to a serious discussion, you may post a link in the Mature forum only.
Minors: Please don't lie about your age just to get into the Mature forum. It's not worth it. We don't have a way to prevent people from lying to us over the Internet, but if we find out you are in there, we may have no choice but to ban you. We don't do this because we're mean or even because we agree that minors should be denied access to information about sex, but because it only takes one pissed off parent filing charges to cause catastrophic problems for the entire site, and indeed for the entire therian community if the issue is made public.
If you see a problem somewhere, or think someone is violating a rule, contact an admin. This board has moderators for that reason, and it is our job to handle problems. Only rarely will a moderator change or delete a post. Generally, we will simply request an end to whatever the problem is, and trust our users to be responsible adults about it.
It is against moderator policy to generally infringe on the privacy of user PMs. However, if a complaint is received - and you can make complaints to the mods if necessary - or sufficient evidence is presented of illegal or seriously unpleasant activity being conducted on our site via PM, the moderators reserve the right to investigate.
It's okay to politely point someone at the rules if you think they are unaware of them, or make a polite reminder, but if you are at all in doubt about your ability to keep it simple and courteous, get an admin to do it. If you see that an admin, or even another user or two has already said something to someone about a rules violation, don't gang up on them. Twenty people telling someone "Stop spelling bad! Don't you read the rules?!?" is going overboard. If someone's been told about a rule, and a problem continues, get a moderator to handle it.
One of the surest ways to get kicked off is to give the mods a hard time. If you want to give someone a hard time, be prepared to receive a hard time as well. Please do your best to live up to the trust and respect we have for you as a responsible adult user of this community resource.
To avoid heated arguments, some discussion topics (specifically p-shifting) are only allowed in specific areas - Spirituality and Belief, and Discussion and Debate. You may discuss those things in those places, as long as you understand that wild claims are not acceptable under any circumstances. It is okay to say you believe physical shifting is possible, or that you'd like it to be possible, or even that you think it may happen. It is not okay to claim that you physically transform into something else, unless you are able to prove it, and you'd better provide proof first.
Ultimately, no lying. If you lie, and that includes outright roleplaying, you may be banned. If you know it's not true, don't say it. And if you think we're going to be fooled by ridiculous claims, think again. We have seen every permutation of play-pretend, adolescent-angst, media-influenced or mental-illness-induced story in that vein already and we'd really prefer not to see any more. Werelist is a place for adults to talk, not for children to play.
As for other sites, and discussing what goes on there: I'd rather it didn't get done in the forum, unless it's something positive. The Web Links section allows you to comment on the various links. Use that area to offer opinions on various therian sites, but you are still expected to be polite, even if you have something bad to say.
You are, of course welcome to post links to other sites in the Links area, and to mention them. Just don't start flamewars or fights. Remember, neutral territory. There will probably be people from those other sites on this forum too, and they have just as much right to be here, unmolested, as you do.
If you have managed to get through all that, thank you for taking the effort to read and understand.
Welcome to the Forums.
|
|
