Extra rules (updated 9/13/06)

[Ted]

Section 0: Preface

Read these rules. They are marginally different from the previous version, and almost all of it is still common sense, but read them anyway. If, when the universe is imploding in the until-then theoretical Big Crunch, it turns out that doing this proved in absolutely no way enlightening, I shall donate the 120 seconds it took you to your rapidly fading life from my own.

Note that all of these rules are in reinforcement of and in addition to the basic rules of the board itself, located here.


Section I: Topics

The Ring is for a particular type of topic. We have discussed topics as benign as marching band and as controversial as incest in the past, and such things will no doubt arise again. If you are going to join us, understand that no topic will be held back on unless we have actually manage a consensus that it should not be discussed- in all honesty, this will never happen. If you don't want to hear about something, don't read the topic. If you do insist on reading it, discuss it maturely - if you feel like having a hissyfit, it should probably stay in your mind (or, failing that, Your Mind).

In other words, while you have a right to any feeling about any position, topic, or member, we only want to hear about it if it is logically defensible. If the last word in your argument is "because", don't even bother posting it.

This does swing both ways. Feel free to raise any serious topic, and if we're all mature about it, things will turn out just fine for everyone.

Before making a new topic, please scroll through the active ones and make sure the issue is not already being discussed. Duplicate topics just makes work for us.

A topic is considered dead after one week of inactivity. Do not post in dead topics unless you have something truly revolutionary, and even in that case you may be better off just restarting the topic from scratch.


Section II: Posts

Subsection A: Language
While we haven't the slightest doubt that you're already familiar with this thanks to the close and careful read you gave the board rules before you signed up, we would like to remind you that all posts should be devoid of:

*any Internet shorthand, including 1337(substitution of other characters for letters) and AOLspeak(abbreviations such as ur, omg, wtf, etc.).

*gratuitous spelling and grammar mistakes. Your English doesn't need to be perfect, but it should be something that you could hand in to a teacher without much revision.

*more ellipses (...) than there are atoms in the universe. We have a thing about this. Just don't use them much if at all.

Subsection B: Content
General guidelines:

*Use proper debating technique to the full extent of your knowledge of it. Granted, this may not be too great, but make an effort. There are lots of people here who are very experienced; learn from them. Ask questions. This is for your benefit as much as it is for our collective sanity.

*Technically part of the previous bullet, but many of you will not get this any other way – you should never make a post that boils down to “I think x.” Double damnation if it's simply “I agree with y.”

*Same deal up to the last hyphen – if you post, follow up on it. You are probably going to have your position attacked, and people will want a response of some nature.

*Assuming you have an IQ above 80, you probably noticed that the whole of The Ring has a [sw] tag on. Our current policy on curses and other “bad words”  is that you may say what you want, but if  it interferes with your meaning, you are already breaking another rule. Common sense is your friend.

*Try to avoid saying “Well, we'll never agree, so let's stop.” This is against the spirit of the entire place, and is just plain annoying. If you really can't take it, politely excuse yourself or never get involved in the first place.

*Your opinion is not worth its weight in gold just because it's yours. We don't want to discourage you from getting your idea out there, but, please, if seventeen and one-half people have already made your point in the exact same way, we don't need to hear it from you again. If you never interrupt a chain of discussion to just randomly say what you will or to make a blanket statement of others' points, this should never be a problem.

There's no better place to put this, so here: If you are reading a topic and someone who you are ignoring via the spiffy ignore button has posted, you must unignore them long enough to read what they've said. The why should be pretty self-explanatory for this one.


Section III: Possible actions

We will enforce the rules with reasonable regularity (though the odd thing maybe slip through, and we have our lazy streaks). When rules are broken, we will try to rectify the situation with the least disruption necessary (though we can not guarantee this for repeat offenders). The actions we may take include, but are not limited to, editing, moving, locking, deleting of posts and/or threads, bans from this specific board, and appeals to Higher Powers.

Section IV: Miscellany

If you participate in topics in The Ring, you may not use the ignore users feature. It's probably not a good idea, since not seeing posts makes it nearly impossible not to break some of the other rules.

<this space for rent>

Section V: Conclusion

Did that hurt? Much? Not that we care about your pain, but thank you for reading the rules. If you have any question at all, feel free to pm someone. Preferably a mod.

P.S.: There is no Section IV. If you don't 'get' this, you probably aren't familiar with older versions of these rules.