Guidelines for Community Conduct

[The Theosophical Society]

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Ground Rules

First and foremost, posts and comments should be respectful. In keeping with this, certain kinds of comments should be avoided. These include:

1. Comments of a discriminatory or prejudicial nature: Under no circumstances should there be discrimination on bases such as race, gender, age, class, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation or other sweeping categorical bases not listed above. Common sense should be observed when in doubt; if your comments are openly prejudicial against any group, they should not be posted.

2. Personal attacks: This category can be much broader than it seems at first glance. Obviously, there should be no name-calling or overt put-downs in our discussion. However, this rule is not restricted solely to these more blatant forms of personal attack. Please be respectful of the viewpoints of others, even if you disagree with them. We cannot all agree, but we can agree to disagree. Also, please do not post others' personal information (phone number, addresses, emails, etc.). Try to stay out of other peoples' personal lives as well.

3. Spamming: We do not want the forums or Community to be flooded with repeated comments that simply take up space and load the forum down with redundancy. Spamming includes advertisements, but may also apply to individual comments posted repeatedly in several places unnecessarily.

4. Trolling: In Internet slang, a "troll" is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional or disciplinary response, or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. This makes it harder for earnest participants to carry on a discussion. As the purpose of this community is to foster earnest discussion of Theosophical subjects, this kind of disruptive activity is not acceptable.

5. Obscene, pornographic or violent material: Content posted to the Pictures and Videos sections is screened before being presented on the site, but it is not possible for us to screen images and videos that are embedded into a forum or blog post. Members should remember this community is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning. Comments, pictures and videos of a sexual or violent/threatening nature will not be tolerated. Content found to be obscene, offensive, or violent will be deleted.


6. Solicitation: The Community is meant for discussion and personal networking. Please do not use the Forum area or Blog posts to solicit money, donations, or other such services from others, or for advertising purposes.

We recognize that the nature of social networks makes them great places not only for discussion, but for promotion of one's business. In the past, our rules have strictly forbidden such activity; however, in recognition of the fact that some personal business endeavors go hand-in-hand with the spiritual topics often discussed here, we have now relaxed that policy.

A new group has been created in the Groups section specifically for networking of this kind. For example, if you offer astrological or spiritual consultation, massage therapy or other healing services, feel free to advertise such services in the group area, which can be found by clicking here. You may also wish to post links to your own website or to mention such services on your own profile. Please feel free to do so, but also respect the rights of other Community members not to view such advertisements unless it is their express desire to do so. In other words, keep business networking and advertising restricted to those designated areas.

5. Harassment/abuse: Many activities that fall under this heading also fall under other headings, but harassment and abusive treatment in general will not be tolerated. This includes things already mentioned, such as name calling and personal attacks, but also includes things such as stalking (following a person’s posting activity and posting abusive messages to them in many different places), personal threats/intimidation, extortion, etc.

This includes private messages. Harassment is not acceptable just because it is not public.

If you feel that you are being harassed or treated poorly by another member through private messages on the Community, please do not hesitate to contact an administrator. Dan Noga can be reached by sending a message here.

We reserve the right to delete any content in order to bring the Community into accord with these guidelines. If any such action is taken, we will notify any concerned party and explain our reason for taking such action.

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Ban Policy
Moderators have the ability to ban members from the Community completely. A Three Strikes policy has been adopted:

First violation: Member will be banned for the duration of one week (7 days), after which time they will be allowed back into the Community. In some cases, they may be asked to agree to certain criteria before being allowed to return.

Second violation: Upon being banned a second time, the member will be banned for the duration of one month (30 days). They will then be allowed back into the Community.

Any time a member is banned, their being allowed to return will be dependent on their apparent conciliatory attitude and expressed willingness to conduct themselves according to the guidelines in the future. If a member is banned and shows no remorse or willingness to change their behavior, there is no reason to allow the member to return, as there is no expectation that the behaviors which led to the ban will change.

Third violation: If a third ban occurs, the ban will be permanent.

Except under extreme circumstances, bans will not occur without prior warnings having been issued.

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Locking Discussions
Finally, discussions may be locked under different circumstances. These include, but are not limited to:

• Becoming too heated: It may be the case that a particular discussion is so controversial or touchy that the participants seemingly cannot restrain themselves from resorting to personal attacks or destructive comments. If repeated action is taken during the course of a given discussion to steer it in a more constructive direction and no positive change occurs, the thread may be locked as a last resort.

Again, whenever such action is taken, an explanation will accompany it.

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Moderators reserve the right to make on-the-spot judgment calls as issues arise. We will fall back on these guidelines as we mediate any disputes that arise, but may also make decisions based on our own discretion.