Current Events Forum Guidelines: Read before posting

[Bronco]

With the advent of the Current Events forum, we now have three primary "news" related forums in the Community Section at BFC, namely the Community Center, the Current Events forum and the Political Arena. Ideally, the content of each would break out accordingly:

The Community Center:
This forum is intended to be a place where members of the extended Bladeforums family can post news and announcements as they relate to their personal lives; births, deaths, vacations, graduations, promotions, hobbies, weddings, divorces, pets, etc., as well as information pertaining to meetings and get-togethers within the knife community at large. Please read The Community Center Forum Rules & Guidelines for more info pertaining to this forum.

The Political Arena:
As the name implies, the PA is the destination of choice for members wishing to discuss any local, national or world events or happenings of a political nature - past, present or future. Subtopics can include, but are not limited to, international relations, theories of governance, military conflicts, political parties, politicians, economics, environmentalism, and/or the establishment, enforcement and interpretation of our laws and statutes. Additionally, this forum has its own set of rules which should be reviewed prior to participating in any discussions.

The Current Events forum:
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Current Events forum. Consider this the place to post all items of interest that do not fall into one of the two categories above. The list of suitable topics is pretty wide open. You can discuss sports, celebrity gossip, humorous events, science and technology, a hot new band, the weather, natural disasters, new movie releases and so on.

From this point forward, however, the Current Events forum will not be the place to post links to politically related stories in a hit-and-run effort to circumvent the rules established in the Political Arena. Given the contentious nature of political discourse in general, it's not an accident that extra effort is required to begin a new discussion in the PA. Accordingly, the moderators will be particularly vigilant in addressing this specific type of rules violation. That's not to say, however, that there won't be instances in which an OP is legitimately unsure as to which of these two fora is the more appropriate venue for their particular discussion. This should not be a cause for great concern. Intent is an important consideration to the moderators here, and our goal is to facilitate friendly and informative discussions, not be disciplinarians. If mistakes are made in good faith, we will be happy to simply move threads whenever possible. Keep in mind, however, that the Political Arena's requirement for original subject matter analysis won't be waived for threads originating in the Current Events forum. So, if you're posting in the Current Events section, but your topic falls into the political/current events gray area, it might be advisable to include a few short paragraphs of personal analysis as an insurance policy against your thread being locked.

Beyond that, the rules concerning appropriate conduct for the Current Events forum are similar to those in force in the Political Arena. Some guidelines:

- This is intended to be a family friendly forum. No foul language or use of the jerkit emoticon is welcome.

- No personal (ad hominem) attacks against other members will be tolerated. If you are the target of such an outburst, do not respond in kind, but rather use the forum reporting feature to inform the moderators. Likewise, if you routinely find yourself at odds with another member, feel free to use the forum's ignore feature.

- Avoid using descriptions or images that would be considered overtly offensive to a reasonable person. Racist, sexist or other unnecessarily provocative language will be dealt with in a manner commensurate with the nature of the offense.

- Help make this a self-policing forum, but do so in a friendly and positive way. If someone makes an honest mistake, feel free to politely point their mistake out to them. And, in so doing, keep in mind that the difference between sarcasm and sincerity can often be difficult to discern on the internet. If the infraction is of a more malicious nature, avoid entering into a flame war, and simply report the post. If, on the other hand, you find yourself the recipient of a kindly rebuke, don't take offense. In most cases, if the offense is corrected before a moderator happens upon it, no further action will be taken.

- If you feel that a moderator has treated you unfairly, take your complaints to the Service and Support forum where you can have the matter properly adjudicated by Spark or a Supermod. Continuing to backtalk the mods in this forum and in the heat of the moment will likely only get you banned.

Thanks and enjoy!