News - New Sobforum Rules

[NPF Administration]

Thread creation

Start your threads with good, informative, long posts. People should be able to open your thread and have all the material you want to present right there. As laid out in the general rules about low-effort threads, you should quote liberally from articles you link, and provide links to articles you quote, or otherwise cite sources, and provide your own take on the issue in more than two or three general sentences. Remember, if you don't make a serious effort starting a thread, no one else can be expected to make a serious effort in replying.

Avoid starting threads that someone has to watch a youtube video or the like to understand. Write a summary or transcribe it or find a text-based substitute, but do include a link to the video as well.

Participation

Please assume that everyone is making a serious effort to have a rational, level-headed discussion, and respond in kind. Don't ignore the work someone else did in their post - if someone goes to the effort of writing a long detailed analysis with numerous sources, don't respond with a two-line mischaracerization and a wacky gif.

This is still valid in the event that someone clearly doesn't do any work in their posts. We don't require all posts, arguments and viewpoints to be treated as equal or even legitimate, but we do expect everyone to keep a civil and respectful tone when you pick a terrible argument apart. Replies that take the form of flippant one-liners or image macros are not on period. When in doubt, report the post and let the mods handle it.

Clarification: this is not a flat "no gifs" rule, if you want to illustrate your lengthy explanation of why someone's terrible argument gives you a headache with the guy from Scanners whose head explodes, go ahead. A funny image (or one-liner, etc.) can certainly be a component of a good post, but should never be used as the only reply to either complete posts or single points.

Back up your points with good sources. Good sources include serious news websites, literature, or generally things that involve experts on the subject. Wikipedia is a good source if what you're quoting is sourced on there, so cut out the middleman whenever possible and cite the same source wikipedia uses. Again, if your source is on the internet, include a link, if not, cite the source in a way that enables everyone else to find it.

Moderating

We will be moderating as usual when it comes to the general forum rules. For discussion-specific rules, we will be proactive in moderating OPs and strictly reactive in moderating everything else. Meaning if you spot something that is bad discussion behaviour, report that shit to make sure the entire mod staff becomes aware of it. We can't closely follow every thread in here, and we'd rather get 50 unnecessary reports and 1 justified one than let things deteriorate. The usual reporting policies apply.

Remember that a report is not a guarantee that we take any action, however, but don't be afraid to report a post. We will follow up every report that doesn't generate any obvious moderating actions with a PM to the reporter to explain our decision.

Punishments for discussion-specific rules transgressions will consist of liberally handed out temporary bans for this subforum alone that will not be tracked with infractions. 1-2 days for minor offenses, weeks or months for major or repeated offenses. Permanent discussion bans are unlikely to happen because people tend to change their behaviour and it wouldn't be fair to lock someone out for life.