Forum FAQ - Posting Guidelines

The following guidelines are intended to maintain the Forum as an environment in which all members can feel secure. All subscribed members must abide by all of these points at all times.

If you feel that another member of the Forum is flouting these guidelines to such an extent that it is seriously affecting your enjoyment of Forum membership, you should consider taking the steps described in the Grievance Procedure. Note that the first step should always be to attempt to resolve the matter amicably between yourselves.

  1. Think twice, post once. Take care regarding the content of your posts. The scope of discussions on Forum is broad, but all posts should be "work safe" (ie. you could reasonably expect there not to be a problem with people viewing the message at work), and suitable for a semi-public space that includes younger members. The same should apply to any web links quoted, unless there is a very good reason for their inclusion in the debate and they are clearly labelled accordingly. Racist, sexist, homophobic and other illegal comments are not acceptable. Please also respect the impact your posting has on others: frank discussion is fine, but don't make the space unnecessarily uncomfortable for others. Overt and repetitive sexualisation of conversations is unacceptable behaviour for this reason.
  2. Do not make ad hominem arguments. Ad hominem literally means taking the argument "to the person": when things get personal, they often also get heated, so attack the issue not the person. It's easy to slip into ad hominem unwittingly: the Wikipedia entry may be useful in providing examples of different forms of ad hominem arguments.
  3. Respect that the Forum is a broad community. The Forum is open to anyone and includes a wide range of people: members should respect this diversity. Remember that you will not know who is on Forum and what their individual histories are, so tread carefully. If someone posts something that raises your blood temperature, don't reply in haste. There is no absolute minimum age limit, but younger members should be aware that discussion is sometimes robust and may legitimately include "adult" topics.
  4. Respect that the Forum is a broad church. The Forum includes people from a wide range of faith positions and those of none. Blatant proselytising is prohibited.
  5. Don't crusade or troll. The Forum is a discussion space, not a place for you to crusade on your favourite subject or stir things up for your personal amusement.
  6. Don't dominate the space. Whilst some members will always be more active than others, no single member should dominate the space either in terms of length or number of posts. Posting frequency fluctuates on a daily and seasonal basis, but no individual's posting rate should be significantly in excess of other regular posters, and certainly not average out over a number of months to more than about 3 posts per day.
  7. Don't spam or advertise. Letting others know from time to time about events or items that are likely to be of interest to Forum members is fine, but spamming or excessive advertising about matters of self-interest are not permitted. Please also think twice before forwarding material to the Forum: ask yourself whether it is reliable and likely to be of interest to Forum members. Endless forwarding of jokes, open letters or homilies makes for a very dull space.
  8. Follow Forum Etiquette. The Forum is a plain text based list and attachments are not permitted. Good "netiquette" is also required when replying, which includes such matters as "snipping" and not "top-posting". Further guidance on formatting and replying is available elsewhere in the FAQ. Please note that these matters are not just optional suggestions to be ignored when inconvenient, or if your email program makes them difficult to follow, or if you are simply more used to an alternative style of writing elsewhere: all members who wish to send messages to the Forum are expected to comply at all times.
  9. Take care with how you express yourself. Email can be a difficult medium for comprehension; the writer should take good care to consider how their posts will come across. Careful wording, consideration of tone and appropriate use of emoticons ("smileys") can help, as can a readiness to patiently re-explain if misunderstandings occur. Please also remember that you are speaking to a wide audience and several members use text-to-speech software, so aiming for concise, plain English is appreciated.
  10. Giving offence/Taking offence. The Forum is a community of individuals with a wide range of personal histories and circumstances. Everyone holds views and opinions that may at some point conflict with and/or contradict another's views. Sometimes a post may be taken as offensive when these views are articulated. In any event the best way forward is usually a gentle query clarifying what was meant. Most things are resolved on forum in this way, or through the debate process. In the same way, all members should be mindful of the diversity of the space, be respectful of each other's sensitivities and never needlessly make the space threatening or unduly uncomfortable for others. Before clicking the "send" button, it is always good policy to re-read what you're about to post, and to check first whether what you were about to say has already been posted by somebody else.
  11. Self-moderate. The Forum is primarily a self-moderating space. Members should take responsibility for their own behaviour and gently where necessary moderating each other's. A small Panel of long-term members is in place to help the List Owner manage the Forum and implement the later stages of the Grievance Procedure, but will only get involved in rare and exceptional circumstances where self and mutual moderation is seriously failing.
  12. Choose your identity with care, and don't sock-puppet. The Forum is a community, and often remembering that real people are at the receiving end of posts helps people write in a positive manner. Accordingly, real names are used by the majority of members and are encouraged. However, identities on the Internet are inherently uncertain and hence there is no formal requirement for posters to use their real names if they do not wish to.
    Members must however stick to a single identity: sock-puppeting (using more than one identity with the deliberate intent of appearing to be more than one person) is unhelpful and is specifically forbidden. If for whatever reason you need to post from more than one address (eg. from home and from work), make it clear that these addresses are all the same person. If you change your display name or email address please consider posting a comment to the Forum to make sure everyone is aware of what you have done.
  13. Confidentiality and off-Forum communication. The Forum is a semi-public space and members should be mindful of this in their posting; however copying or forwarding on of Forum material without permission is specifically forbidden. Off-Forum communication between members is common, but should only be undertaken if it is mutually agreeable to all parties: do not use privacy as an excuse to say anything offensive that you would not say in public. Lifting of member's email addresses for spamming purposes is also expressly forbidden.
  14. Above all respect the space and the community. The Forum is a place for discussion and debate. It is not a place for behaving anti-socially, acting like an idiot, or looking to get therapy. Post responsibly, and respect your fellow Forum members and those who host and manage the space.

Back