Rules and Guidelines
Posting rules We prefer that you moderate yourselves than make us do it.1) This is a support board. Use the golden rule and treat others as you expect to be treated. No flaming. You can disagree, but keep it civil. Personal attacks are not tolerated. Please remember that harassment and threats of violence may be prosecuted legally.
2) No trolling. A troll is usually a new poster who posts an inflammatory comment which is deliberately designed to cause an uproar on a forum. In this case, it would probably be something derogatory about those in squalor. If you spot a trollish post, report it to the moderators so it can be deleted. Don't respond in any way. They thrive on reactions. Don't feed the troll!
2A) As of January 2018, posting political content anywhere but the blogs board (with the clear permission of the person who started the blog) is considered trolling.
3) No spamming. Inappropriate links will be removed. If you spot spam, report it. Don't click their links.
4) The moderators reserve the right to decide what is spam or troll spew and delete it. Those who become members to troll or spam will be banned without warning or recourse.
5) Don't post copyrighted material. This is stealing, a violation of TOS (which can get our forum deleted without notice), and can subject one to legal proceedings. Use links to the webpage instead. Copyrighted material may be deleted without warning or recourse.
6) Don't "hotlink" images (by using the image button or image BBCode to link directly to the image on another website) that you don't own or have permission to use. Again, this is stealing (both the image and bandwidth, in this case) and could result in legal problems. Hotlinks will be deleted if it is suspected that it is done without approval.
7) Do not post sexually explicit or adult content (language or graphics) or link to it in either the forum or chat room. This is against ProBoards TOS and could get the forum deleted. As a guideline, assume that anything not permitted in a Disney teen movie would be disallowed.
8) No private information about others is to be given out without their consent (their name, email address, phone number, address, photos, etc.).
9) If you suspect abusive practices regarding Terms of Service by the moderators, you may report the abuses to ProBoards with the link at the bottom of every forum page.
Forum ConventionsThese procedures are generally accepted on all forums, including this one.Although forum staff attempt to provide fair and peaceable solutions to problems, forums are
not run as a democracy. Decisions made by moderators cannot please everyone. If you use the forum, you are expected to abide by the rules and obey the moderators even if you disagree with them. If this is unacceptable to you, leave.
Members can cancel their membership at any time. (It is at the bottom of the 'Settings' tab in 'Modify Profile'.)
Bannings, warnings and deletions are determined by the moderators and their decision is final.
Moderators don't discuss specific bannings, warnings or deletions with anyone except the person directly involved.
If someone re-starts a thread locked by the moderators, they will get a warning and the new thread will either be locked or deleted.
The creation of sock puppet accounts (duplicate account with the connection to the original identity hidden) in order to debate, create controversy or flame other members is forbidden. Likewise, impersonating other members, particularly forum staff, is a ban-able offense.
Forum servers
must follow the laws in the locality of their headquarters or they may be subject to legal action from law enforcement and injured parties. To protect themselves, most forums have a Terms of Service which users
must agree to uphold before they get an account (usually an "I Agree" button). The terms specifically state unacceptable behavior. If a user breaks their contract, the user can be banned by administrators. (Our host, ProBoards, is in the USA and is therefore subject to US laws regarding copyright, adult content, privacy, harassment, and the protection of children online, among others. If you are a member of 'Stepping Out of Squalor', you've
already agreed to abide by these rules when you signed up. If it is any comfort, the moderators must also abide by them. Unlike you, the moderators are required to enforce the TOS on behalf of ProBoards or the forum itself can be deleted without warning.)
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Corrective actions to be taken:Our procedures for infractions.Any offending material on the forum may either be deleted or locked, and a warning sent. Further infractions could result in either probation or lifetime ban at the sole discretion of the moderators. Probation consists of a "warning" graphic on the member's profile visible to themselves and the moderators and losing chat privileges. Any further violations would result in a permanent ban which will appear on their profile.
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If you have any questions about the above information (definitions, examples, etc), please email the moderators.___________________________
GuidelinesGrammar and style suggestions for easier reading.We all have different writing styles, and no one is grading for spelling or grammar. Having said that, the more effort a reader has to spend figuring out what a post is saying, the less energy that person will have for a reply. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and paragraph breaks - these all help - particularly for those members whose native language is not American English.
Chat, IM and text abbreviations/terms are difficult for newbies (and some oldies) to understand, so try to limit their use. There
are a few abbreviations utilized for the sake of brevity in Stepping Out of Squalor's chat room. You'll find their explanations if you click
here. If you come across other mysterious terms and character combinations, here are a few good resources to check out:
Chat/Text/IM abbreviations,
Wikipedia list of emoticons,
Chat Abbreviations and
Acronyms.
And remember ... be kind to the trout.
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