Raven-Moon: A Pagan Forum's community area (message board, chat, user blogs, etc.) is not a democracy, at best it is a benevolent dictatorship. Raven-Moon: A Pagan Forum's site hosts (past and present) have set the rules below for Raven-Moon community areas. Make sure you are familiar with them. Read them daily to remind yourself of them if you have to, because the host has given the community's staff the power to limit or deny access to those who insist on violating them.
Note: Numbering on rules is for ease of reference, and has little or nothing to do with the relative importance of the rules.
Executive Rules Summary
Many people complain that our rules and guidelines are very long. Here is an executive summary of our rules that will work for 90% of the people 90% of the time.
• Obey US Law in all activity on Raven-Moon.
• Do not be a jackass. Do not behave in a manner the staff or host might consider obnoxious (e.g. making personal attacks, arguing mod calls, advertising without approval, trying to moderate other members, don't use gratuitous obscenities or slur words, etc.)
• Post legibly and accessibly (e.g. use short paragraphs separated by blank lines, don't write in "netspeak", quote a small part of the message you are replying to, use standard English not jargon, etc.)
• You permanently and irrevocably grant Raven-Moon A Pagan Forum the right to use anything you post. (There are a few partial exceptions to this explained in the main rules, but this applies to the vast majority of the board.)
Our detailed rules and guidelines really just expand on these obvious basics. You still need to read the full rules, however -- as those full rules are the rules staff enforces.
THE "DO NOT" RULES:
1. DO NOT make personal attacks (name calling, hostile remarks, accusations, etc.) anywhere in our community (including posts, personal messages, reputation comments, etc.). In discussion, attack ideas and opinions, not the people who hold them. Note that an attack on your ideas and beliefs is not considered a personal attack under our rules even if you identify so closely with your beliefs and ideas that you personally consider an attack on those beliefs or ideas to be an attack on you.
2. DO NOT make blanket condemnations of religions, cultures, peoples, or classes/categories of people.
3. DO NOT post or attach content that is libelous, defamatory, pornographic, harassing, threatening, or hateful on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, etc.
4. DO NOT post advertisements or event announcements (commercial or non-commercial) without obtaining prior approval for the specific item from a Host or Senior Staff member. Note that all violations of these guidelines are considered "spamming". Spam will be deleted and spammers will be banned immediately.
5. DO NOT post more than a sentence or two of copyrighted material without obtaining specific permission from the current copyright owner to post the material on Raven-Moon: A Pagan Forum and posting that permission with the copyrighted material. Link to the material instead.
6. DO NOT use uncommon specialist jargon (technical, political, social justice, etc.) without explaining it in in plain language or providing a link to a place on the web where it is neutrally defined. Be especially careful of jargon, even commonly known jargon, that has a very different meaning in common usage (e.g. The word "theory" is commonly known science jargon. However, in science a "theory" is "a well-established and proven idea" where a "theory" in common usage is more like "my best guess").
7. DO NOT argue with, comment on, complain about, criticize, or otherwise discuss staff decisions on rules issues in public in Raven-Moon community areas. If you think a decision that directly affects you is incorrect, you may make an appeal in private in accordance with our Moderation Appeal Guidelines.
8. DO NOT attempt to moderate other members (i.e. tell them how to behave on the board). Leave the moderating to the forum staff and host. If you believe a forum post violates the rules in a major way, you may bring that post to the attention of the forum staff by reporting that message with the "Report to moderator" link. You can bring non-forum problems to the attention of staff by emailing a staff member via their profile.
9. DO NOT tell other members not to post to you. You can put non-staff members on "ignore" if you do not wish to read their posts.
10. DO NOT register multiple accounts without permission from the host.
11. DO NOT impersonate other members or otherwise pretend to be someone you are not.
12. DO NOT use community facilities of Raven-Moon: A Pagan Forum to violate US criminal or civil law.
THE "DO" RULES:
1. DO remember to use the "Reply/Quote" button even when using the quick reply feature as this inserts links and text that helps others follow the flow of conversation.
2. DO edit quoted material in your replies to the minimum needed.
3. DO write in a "normal writing" style. Capitalize the first word of your sentences. Use proper punctuation. Write in short paragraphs and place a blank line between paragraphs (hit return twice). Please do not WRITE IN ALL CAPITALS, in eLiTe LeTtErS, or in odd fonts and colors. Please do not use "Netspeak" (e.g. R U Wiccan) as our community areas are not a cell phone. See our Message Posting Guidelines for more information.
4. DO be tolerant of religions and opinions that differ from your own. You do not have to agree with them or support them, but you must be tolerant of those who express them. Others have as much right to hold and express their views as you do to hold and express yours.
5. DO follow our Avatar and Signature Guidelines.
6. DO try to post new topics on the correct board.
7. DO remember that other members of Raven-Moon are real people just like you with rights and feelings -- treat them as real people even when engaged in heated debate.
8. DO remember that everyone has different experiences in life and others may experience similar things in ways very different from how you experienced them. This means that they will have different understandings of things based on their personal experiences, traits, and history, and may well have information or perspective that you lack -- and vice-versa.
9. DO remember that you are not your opinions and beliefs. An attack on your opinions and beliefs in debate is not an attack on you. If attacks on your opinions and beliefs seem like personal attacks to you, you will probably want to bow out of topics that turn into heated discussions or debates.
10. DO try to avoid posting already posted information in "pile-ons." If you see a thread where someone has posted obvious incorrect information on hot button issues and there are a lot of posts after that message, please read ahead before posting to avoid posting the 20th reply with basically the same information (as this tends to make the member with the incorrect information think people are ganging up on them).
11. DO realize that some boards have special rules that apply only to that board and follow those rules when posting on that board -- such rules will be in a clearly labeled sticky post on the board they apply to.
12. DO follow instructions/suggestions from staff members and host(s) about how to post and/or behave on Raven-Moon (quoting, formatting messages, etc.). Staff members have no interest in hearing why you would rather not do it the standard Raven-Moon way.
13. DO expect to be asked for sources to support any unusual factual claims you may make. If you chose to back those claims with poor sources (wikipedia and other encyclopedias, dictionaries, popular press books written by non-experts, out-of-date academic books, etc.), do not be surprised when they are not considered convincing, let alone authoritative.
DON'T BE ANNOYING:
Please do not engage in annoying or rude behavior in the community areas. Annoying and rude behavior includes (but is not limited to):
1. Editing your messages to significantly change the content after a message can reasonably be assumed to have been read by others (which is 2 or 3 minutes after posting). This is particularly true if the message has already been replied to.
2. Posting the same message to multiple topics or boards.
3. Trolling (posting material just to stir up trouble or start flame wars)
4. Proselytizing for any religion (whether Pagan or not).
5. Making overly broad "All Pagans believe..." or "All Pagans do..." or "Everyone knows..." type statements. Except in the most trivial cases (e.g. "All Living Pagans need to drink water"), such claims are almost always false.
6. Demanding that others prove your claims wrong instead of supporting those claims with evidence they are correct.
7. Attacking a post based on typos, poor spelling, poor grammar, or failure to know/remember your personal details, instead of debating its content. Our message board is more akin to a spoken conversation with people from many countries than it is to a term paper. Posting solely to respond to terminology you disapprove of (as opposed to terminology that is factually incorrect) is a borderline violation of this rule.
8. Oversharing personal details -- posting the intimate details of your life in inappropriate threads.
9. Using gratuitous offensive language. We are a PG-13 forum.
10. Using an offensive or inappropriate username, name, custom title, avatar, signature, etc.
11. Failing to properly attribute quoted sources.
12. Having your account set to a false or out of date email address.
