Forum RulesReporting violationsDo not respond to violations of the rules, especially personal criticism. Report it instead via personal message. If it is in a member run board, report it to the board moderator first. Otherwise, report it to a global moderator. Include a quote and a functioning link to the specific post (not just to the page). If you fail to do this your complaint will most likely be ignored. Using the quote button is the easiest way to do this, however trim the post down to the offending material if it is more than a few lines, or use the highlight function.Personal criticismDo not post personal criticism of other members. Do not respond to personal criticism of yourself or other members. This is the biggest problem on OzPolitic. Too many members are easily baited into off-topic personal exchanges. If you participate in any kind of flame war you will be suspended, regardless of who started it or who you think ‘deserved it’.Member run boardsDo not use a member run board if you do not accept the standards applied by the moderator. While the rules outlined here apply to the entire forum, moderators of member run boards may go beyond them and be as strict, biased, vague, or whatever, as they want. Diversity of moderating style is encouraged rather than conformity to universal standards. If you have a problem with the moderation, please take it up with the moderator via PM or on their board. If you do not get a satisfactory resolution, cease using the board. Do not post complaints about moderation on the feedback board. This will result in your suspension from the feedback board and/or the member run board in question.PrivacyOzPolitic values the privacy of all members. Do not post personal information about other members without their explicit permission. This includes the contents of personal messages and emails, photos, names, IP addresses, phone numbers, locations etc. This includes information that can be found online and instructions on how to find information about specific members. Such behaviour is considered stalking.PornographyDo not post pornography. In some cases it may be difficult to judge what is pornographic. We will judge images based on the context and whether they are gratuitous (ie if an image involves nudity, is it necessary to get a point across, and is the nudity 'real' or more like a porn shot?).RacismDiscussion of racism and race related political issues is encouraged. However, politically correct language should be used when making criticism of racial policies or groups. Racism will be judged in a similar way to pornography – that is, is the criticism necessary to get a point of view across, or is it a gratuitous attack on a racial group? Note that race is treated differently from religion, which is a matter of choice and is open to the same criticism as political ideology.SwearingWe have a swear word filter activated. If you would like to have specific words removed or added to the filter, please raise the issue on the feedback board.SuspensionsIf you break the rules, you will be suspended. Warnings are rarely given. If it is your first offence, it will probably be for approximately 1 day. Do not send and email asking why you were suspended. Do not create additional profiles to circumvent suspension. Wait until your suspension is removed, then view your recent posts. It should be obvious why you were susended. In 95% of cases it is for insulting other members. Please take the opportunity to learn from your mistake. If you are still not sure, send a personal message to the moderators via the forum. Do not start a thread on feedback asking why you were banned. If more than one person uses the same computer to post on OzPolitic, let the admin know as soon as you are suspended, otherwise it may be assumed that you are using multiple profiles. If you believe that your suspension has lasted for longer than it should, contact an administrator by email. Be nice to new members.Signatures and avatarsNo external links or URLs are allowed in signatures. Please avoid the use of large images in signatures as they slow the site down. Also, be careful when linking to an externally hosted picture for an avatar. Avatars are small and the image file should take up no more than 10kb, otherwise it will also slow the site down, especially for people on dialup. Please ask for help on the feedback board if necessary. The easiest way to reduce an image size is with the stretch function in MS paint or similar software.Additional informationDiscussion on the feedback boardAd Hominem |