These are intended as guidelines for intelligent people rather than as comprehensive programming for industrial robots.
Conduct on this forum should be approached in the same manner as conduct in any other social situation.
Use your common sense and make allowances for your fellow human beings.
This forum is run by humans for humans. What this means is that in practice things will never be perfect.
Somebody has to run the place and this responsibility falls on the staff. Their decisions are to be regarded as binding.

This does not mean that no questioning will ever be allowed, but it should be done via the "Questions, Problems & Suggestions" sub-forum rather than being taken all over the forum in general. The staff will consider any reasonably presented request for reconsideration of a decision, but once the decision has been reconsidered and a ruling given no further discussion will be entered into. Continuing to spam a topic after the staff have given a considered ruling will be taken as being trolling and therefore subject to official warnings.

As none of the staff have balls made of crystal we reserve the right to alter these rules or add to them as necessary.

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1/ Discussion of Islamic beliefs.
This is allowed, and indeed encouraged, subject to certain restrictions.

If you are going to state that something is Islamic you must be prepared to back your statements by quoting authorities and/or texts.
If you cannot back your statements with a reputable source and your statements are deemed inflammatory you may be given a "smite".
In other words, make sure you know what you are talking about and how to phrase it in the most reasonable fashion.

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2/ Personal attacks (including insults).
These are frowned upon, and the use of them may result in a warning from the staff.
We realise that some of the issues discussed here are emotive for some people and
we don't expect everyone to be perfect angels all the time, but we do expect you to make an effort.
If the warning is ignored and more personal attacks follow, the person making them will be given a "smite".
It is fine to attack a person's ideas but not the person themselves.
Using people's life experiences as a weapon to beat them up is particularly frowned on.
We cordially suggest that you refrain from trying this little trick.

If you get involved in a flame war with another member or members the staff will not be interested in "who started it".
If you want the staff to be sympathetic to your position please try to refrain from responding to abuse with more abuse.
Another thing to note is that this forum has an "Ignore" feature. If you don't like someone's posts there is no need for you to read them.
There is also no need for you to make a point of telling everyone who you are ignoring. They can see for themselves.

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3/ Calls or support for genocide or for the deaths of innocents.
No warnings will be given for this offense. A smite will be issued immediately.
This includes, but is not limited to, death threats to other members and promoting things like "honour killings".

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4/ Rape victims.
Under no circumstances will suggesting that rape victims are responsible for the actions of a rapist be tolerated.
Once again, it is grounds for an instant smite. No advance warnings will be given.

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5/ Support for racial supremacist groups.
Under no circumstances will the propagation of - or apologism for - neo-Nazi or other racial supremacist views or groups be tolerated.
We're well aware that some people will equate pushback to these groups with the acts of aggression these groups perpetrate. We are unsympathetic to such arguments, and would urge those minded to make them to do so elsewhere.
Breaking this rule will result in an instant smite. There will be no prior warning.

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6/ Trolling and other inflammatory behaviour.
This can be hard to strictly define in words, but most people claim to be able to recognise it. In general, refrain from posting anything that can be construed as sexism, racism, homophobia, or any kind of discriminatory content. The line can be blurry sometimes, but take the word of Moderators and Admins when they ask you to step back from it and modify your behaviour on the forum.
If a staff member asks you to stop trolling, goading or whatever then please take their advice.
It is ultimately up to the staff to decide what is and is not acceptable behaviour on this forum.
If in doubt err on the side of reasonableness and politeness. It won't cause the end of the world.
Also note that opening multiple accounts is considered trolling. No appeals will be entertained.

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7/ Disclosure of personal information.
We recommend that you carefully consider what you will and will not disclose about yourself on this or any other public forum.
Bear in mind that you will basically be broadcasting it to the entire world.
Respect other posters' privacy. Do not post personal information of other posters or speculation about such information on this forum unless they have already volunteered such information on this forum and have not retracted it since. Such information may include their real name, address, private and business email and employer.
This list is not definitive. Posting other personal information could also be considered a violation of someone's privacy.

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8/ Triggering (topics and/or posts)
"Triggering" threads may be moved to the private "Shelter" forum at the discretion of the Moderators.
Triggering threads are those that may encourage, promote or lead any one reading the thread to harmful behaviours, including self-harm and suicide. The Mods understand the need to vent and discuss such issues, but since this forum is not designed to be a space for "triggering" behaviours, such issues may only be discussed in the private Shelter forum.

Please note, that the Mods, Admins, and members of this forum are not qualified to give medical or legal advice. If you are experiencing self-harm, you will be asked to contact a local support group and/or medical authority, or you may be redirected to online resources for others in similar situations.

We take issues of self-harm very seriously. When we suspect, or are made aware of, any of our members being at risk for self-harm or suicide, we are obligated to notify CEMB head office of the situation, and/or refer the matter to external professional resources.
Click here to read more about confidentiality regarding this issue.

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7/ Signatures and avatars.
Generally we're pretty tolerant. Occasionally we may remove a sig or avatar, either because it is unnecessarily offensive or because it links to a site we do not want advertised on this forum.
The person affected will be notified by PM.
Such actions by the staff are not subject to appeal and a smite will be issued if the offending content is re-posted.

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8/ Smites and banning.
If you receive two smites you will be rewarded with a ban. Generally members will be given warnings before being given smites, but there may be times when the behaviour is regarded as so extreme that a smite will be issued without warning. This also applies to banning.
Bans may be temporary or permanent. These decisions will be made at the discretion of the staff.

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9/ PM's and Privacy.
Private Messages are not to be posted on the open forum without the permission of the sender.
This includes PM's from mods and admins. Posting a PM will result in at least a warning.

Any instance of any member using Private Messages to abuse, stalk or harass another member could result in removal of the sender's PM privileges and/or a public warning or a forum ban. If you receive an unsolicited message that you feel is abusive, or involves stalking or harassment, use the "Report to Admin" link in the PM.

The mods and admins do not read your PM's unless you use the report function, in which case the reported PM will obviously be quoted to the staff.

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10/ Edit/Deletes.
Mass editing/deleting of posts is not allowed. If you choose to leave the forum your posts will stay behind. Exceptions can be made for personal blog threads.

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