CEPS Forum Guidelines

[marsmellow]

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​ CURRENT EVENTS, POLITICS & SCIENCE FORUM GUIDELINES​ ​

GENERAL PHILOSOPHY - This forum ("CEPS") exists to provide Bluelight members with an interesting, enjoyable, and welcoming medium to discuss current events and politics in a manner consistent with Bluelight's harm reduction mission. To this end, discussions and topics are moderated firmly and as sparingly as possible. For the most part, members are free to discuss what they wish and how they wish. Posts can range from piquant jokes to elegant essays, and thread topics may span from the satirical to the unabashedly earnest. However, to preserve and enhance the value of CEPS for the members of Bluelight, certain rules have been formulated, as enumerated herein, and must be followed. CEPS thrives as a result of the contributions of Bluelight members, and we endeavor to enable all Bluelight members to benefit from and enjoy the various discussions. It is therefore for you that we set these Guidelines.

1. DON'T RESORT TO PERSONAL ATTACKS - Lesson: If you are challenged by the opinion of someone else in a particular matter, go after the opinion and not the opponent. This is otherwise known as an ad hominem fallacy, that poor debaters use because they can't mount a proper response. We want to maintain respect for each other in this forum.

2. ON-TOPIC POSTS - Remember that each individual thread has a specific topic. Although some threads can be fairly broad in nature due to the topics discussed, they are not all encompassing off-topic social threads and the content of your posts should remain on-topic to contribute to the discussions contained therein.

3. VIOLENCE - You may not threaten violence against or wish serious harm or death upon an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence against people who were targeted on the basis of their race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, political affiliation, age, disability, serious disease, etc., in alignment with BLUA 4.

Violation of this guideline will result in the immediate editing or deletion of the post containing inappropriate content and disciplinary action if applicable.

4. SEARCH ENGINE - Please use the search engine before posting a new thread. Some topics, such as legalization of drugs or gun control, have (multiple) prior threads.

4a. As a corollary, when possible, try to reply to current topics rather than posting a new thread.

5. VIDEOS - If you are going to post a video, please reply to the CEPS Video Sharing Thread rather than posting a new thread. Not only does this reduce overall clutter, but some videos are 'perennial favorites' (or alternately annoying repeats), which already reside in the CEPS Video Sharing Thread.

6. PREJUDICE - This forum can conduct productive and illuminating discussions about race, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping.

6a. These and any other topics of discussion can be had without racial/ethnic insults between members; or in such a way to discourage statements about a racial/ethnic group having negative characteristics relative to the rest of the human race, i.e., solely because of race/ethnicity and without regard for individual characteristics.

6b. While race and ethnicity were used in the above example, the guideline also extends to sexual preference between consenting adults, people of a certain nationality, and people of a certain religion.

6c. Posting contempt of prejudice through sarcasm is allowed, however please make it clear that you are being sarcastic--such intentions can easily be mistaken for prejudice. If in doubt, use emoticons to help make your point.

6d. If you really don't like a certain group of people, e.g., if you don't like black people or Muslims or whoever, please keep it to yourself. Really, that kind of shit is as old as bacteria and will be removed and the poster warned or infracted.

7. SOURCES/LINKS - Please provide links to all articles, either at the top following the headline and publication, or preferably at the bottom. If possible, remove ads and other irrelevant detritus from the article for ease of reading.

8. REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE - Present your ideas as clearly as possible and as succinctly as possible. View your post not just as a writer, but also as a reader.

9. TAKE IT EASY - Don't take shit too seriously. While it's good to be passionate about what you believe, in CEPS no one knows your real name, knows what you look like (unless you post in the nudie threads in The Lounge), and chances are you'll never physically meet (trying to keep the murder statistics down, y'know?).

So if you find yourself getting too upset or overly emotional about someone's response to your post--sit back, relax, and remember that it's probably a better thing to make your mark in real life than in here. Just don't become one of our news stories...

10. REPORTING POSTS - If you see personal attacks, spam threads, racial slurs, articles without links, inappropriate images, etc., use the REPORT feature. It's the little "exclamation point" in the lower left corner of each post. Please don't abuse this feature, for example to complain that someone disagrees with you so they must be an idiot. Use common sense.

10a. Given that our mods do not have infinite available time to read this forum, reporting posts that break these guidelines--and/or the BLUA--is the best way to ensure an environment conducive to quality discussion.

11. CONSPIRACY THEORIES - You are free to discuss conspiracy theories in CEPS, but the moderators ask that you please discuss them in the alternative theories mega-thread. If you post these on the main forum, they will be moved or deleted without warning. The reason for this is that they clutter the forum and quickly get very tiring to anyone who is not a conspiracy buff.

12. MODERATION IN GENERAL - Notwithstanding anything else in these Guidelines, CEPS may be moderated in any way to further the purposes of Bluelight and to enhance the value of CEPS to its members.