LPP RULES

This is clarification of the Legal, Political and Philosophical Discussions moderation team's current policy on flaming. Please read and try to follow the rules and guidelines set below.

If you have any comments about thes rules and guidelines, or suggestions to make, send a Private Message to torrenter

There is no one, clear definition of flaming and whether someone has flamed is up to the judgement of the moderators and administrators of the board.

1. What is Flaming?

In political discussions it is difficult to avoid critical comments about countries, leaders and opinions of others, however clear signs of flaming can include...

1. Violent or aggressive language aimed at one or more individuals (including swearing, threats and abusive/discriminatory comments)
2. Derogatory and belittling comments about an individual’s opinions, typing, linguistic abilities or attention to detail within previous posts. This does not mean you shouldn’t shy away from informing someone that they misread your posts, but do so in a polite and civil manner, not through sarcastic remarks or vulgar language.
3. Comments that are racist, sexist, convey hatred of sexual orientation or pertain to any other form of discrimination and clearly intended to cause offence. It is not for moderators to censor opinions or beliefs, and you may/should discuss these issues, but ALWAYS back up sensitive opinions with reasoned arguments and be open to counter-criticisms
4. Excessive use of generalisations with no reasoned arguments to back them up. When your criticism is targeted at a government, say so, rather than attacking an entire country, one of the main causes of flaming. However, we do not wish to censor valid opinions and thus each instance of an excessive over-generalisation will be judged individually.

2. What isn't Flaming?

1. EVERYONE is allowed to partake in discussions on all topics posted in the politics forum and include within these their own opinions and beliefs, so long as they meet the above criteria. No beliefs, whether fascist, communist, anarchist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic…etc will be censored, so long as they are argued within the rules and standards of this board
2. Criticism of nations, governments, politicians, or any other individuals in the public eye are allowed. No country or individual is immune from reasoned criticism. Moderators are not responsible for maintaining a balance of criticisms and if one country or individual is the subject of more posts than another, this is unavoidable and perfectly legitimate within the rules of the forum
3. Criticism of religion, atheism, abortion, euthanasia or any other controversial issue is perfectly legitimate and encouraged, so long as individuals are not targeted with abusive comments as outlined above and all views and opinions are respected (not that you must agree with them, but you must allow all opinions to be discussed and criticised within the rules of this forum.)
4. Sarcasm is allowed and the moderators recommend using [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags around any text you wish to be read as sarcastic. Similarly, you should consider using these ‘made-up tags’ around irony, conspiracies or rants. Sarcasm will not be accepted if used to insult or belittle other users. We recommend using smilies provided by the board to lighten up posting, but do not rely on them all the time to indicate sarcasm and irony.
5. Conspiracy theories are allowed on the board, but we would prefer a mixture of verifiable news articles and political issues as well. Not all users accept or are interested in conspiracy theories

Whilst these rules may not cover all eventualities, they do provide a basic framework for users and moderators to work with. We don’t hand out punishments lightly, and honest mistakes are understandable.

DO NOT RESPOND TO FLAMERS!

Please, report the post to the mods instead, and let us remove the offending posts that are attacking you personally, and that way the thread can continue as well as the discussion.

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Moved Threads!

From time to time, due to flaming or inappropriate content a thread may be removed from the forum. Quite often the thread will be edited and returned within a few hours, but can we ask that you refrain from making new threads asking where the original thread has gone.

We prefer it if you ask via PM, or simply wait and see if the thread is returned.

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Debating

You're free to make your point, agree and disagree, but we ask that you do it in a polite way. Different people take comments in a multitude of different ways, and even if you don't consider what you said to be offensive, they MIGHT, therefore keep it civil.

People come here to talk and learn, not get high blood pressure because a few members like aggressive arguments.

Many threads will go off topic...its inevitable. If need be, the moderators can and will lock topics that have run out of steam, so as to stop the mindless back and forth insults that seem to develop when a topic has been exhausted.

Remember this place is for recreation and community building, not a political battleground or place to vent anger. You can't possibly hope to debate something properly in politics, when you're angry; not in the 'real world' and not in here.

Biebel's Hints on Debating

- Use imo (in my opinon) when you are stating your opinion rather than straight facts.
- Put govt or something when you comment about the actions of a certain countries governement. (Belgian govt sucks ... we can all agree on that ... Belgium sucks is only silly, because it also blows)
- If you are getting angry because of something another participant wrote ... chill out a bit before you reply ... after all its only a persons opinion. In the case the post you are getting pissed off about is insultive report it to the appropriate moderater or admin rather than replying with your own litterary form of insulting.
- When you notice people are just repeating what they said in previous posts as an answer to yours dont go ahead and repeat yourself too ... Just let it be and try to find some way to agree to disagree.
- Keep in mind that Opinions are like assholes ... everyone has at least one ... and they are entitled to it.

On Posting of Torrents

Please DO NOT post any .torrent files in this forum, nor any links or references to related threads. Torrents will be removed. This rule may be revised at any time.

You may discuss any torrent or documentary you downloaded.

On Posting and Editing

We prefer users to edit their posts rather than chain-post - that is to make several consecutive posts. Please also respond to multiple users in one post, rather than an individual post for every reply.

This can make quoting difficult. Quote tags are as folows:



Please check to see if a news article you intend on posting has already been posted in the LPP forum within the last week. Moderators will either merge or remove duplicate topics where they deem it necessary.

This post has been edited by yourmercifulgod: Feb 3 2008, 03:14 PM

Originality

Your posts should be your own work, and you should make the effort to think out your own replies to others, not rely on outside articles to make your point for you. If you wish to refer to another article in a reply, you should do so in a link, not by pasting the article in it's entirety in your post. If you wish to open a discussion on an article, you should do so by summarising it, offering your own comments on why it is good (or bad) and linking to it.

Merged Topics

Duplicate topics are likely to be merged by LPP staff without warning, so please take the following into account before posting a new topic:

• Check for existing posts before posting Take a brief look over the front page, or use the search function, to see if anyone else has covered the same thing
• Consider if your topic is really new After having looked at what's there already, see if the point your making could be made in an existing thread: there's no prizes here for starting the most threads
• Use the quote function Use the quote function to indicate who you are referring to. Ideally, quote specific sentences, not huge chunks of text. That means, that if we do have to merge a thread, your comments will still make sense.

This post has been edited by yourmercifulgod: Mar 14 2008, 06:51 PM

A quick note to all regarding bias and LPP policy

It has not escaped the attention of FS admin or the LPP moderating team, that this section has a particular "slant" to it, with regards to political orientation, national perceptions, and ethical, moral or religious thought. For many of our regulars (those that participate in LPP, as well as those that read but don't post) it will not be any great surprise to be told that Legal, Political & Philosophical has a reputation for being pretty much a nest of anti US govt, left-wing/liberal atheistic posters.

Speaking generally, I think any regular reader of LPP would be hard pressed to deny that this section has a habit of stomping on opinions that fit outside the box of that slant. Now, that is not to say that posters regularly break the rules or flame, and nor is it an admission that LPP has been created this way, it is just an honest appraisal of the nature of this section.

As posters to LPP, we should all feel the need to take a moment to consider whether or not this stomping is actually counter productive to the overall well-being of both LPP and Filesoup in general. All regulars will know for sure that Filesoup is an international forum, with many, many members from the US and other non UK & European countries. Regulars will also know that there are many members who hold very firm religious beliefs, conservative/right-wing political opinions and are staunchly in favour of many of the things that LPP regulars find hard to swallow.

With this in mind, we must ask ourselves why it is then, that the majority of these members will not take part in one of the most active sections on the whole board. One does not need the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes to arrive at the conclusion that it is probably because, many will feel too intimidated to run the gauntlet of full-on criticism they will inevitably face for airing their views.

Herein lies the problem for LPP. We are in real danger of becoming a kind of nodding shop, where a particular opinion is posted, and everybody just nods in self satisfied agreement, because we have scared off all opposing views. We are also in danger of giving the impression to visitors that FS is an anti American or anti religious site, when in reality, the vast majority of our members are neither.

The staff in LPP, generally take pride in the fact that for a primarily political section that often gets heated, we use fairly light modding tactics. We do this in order that you, the members, have the opportunity to express yourselves without having to worry about being censored. We now feel, however, that we should be aiming to re-strike the balance of opinions in LPP so that those who would wish to present views that oppose the usual slant, feel more inclined to do so. Let us make this perfectly clear, though, this does not mean we intend to (or even want to) start censoring members for expressing forthright views. What we actually want, is you, the regular posters, to take a second or two before replying to ask yourself a few simple questions

• Am I deliberately stomping all over this persons point of view?
• Do I really need to be so abrupt/strident/forthright in my response?
• Will the manner of my response likely cause more offence than is necessary to make a good rebuttal?
• Would the nature of this post be likely to intimidate a new poster and prevent them from contributing?
• Am I actually ridiculing this member, rather than being critical of their views?
• Does my reply actually have a point, or am I just sounding-off anti American/religious/war etc rhetoric?

These are the type of simple questions that we can all ask ourselves before hitting the reply button. It doesn't take much time or effort, and the section could well benefit from a far greater diversity of view points.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a message to all members, old and new, who have yet to fully get involved in LPP because of the slant: We need you! We want you! We really do want and welcome all points of view. Whether you are pro war, pro military, pro religion, pro conservative or just plain old pro USA etc, your points of view and your opinions are every bit as valid as the old liberals that haunt this section. We don't want you to be shy or feel intimidated, we don't want you to feel your going to get put through the liberal mincer for expressing yourselves... We want you to get stuck in and fight your corner. Tell these namby pamby bleeding hearts that haunt LPP how YOU think it is, or how YOU think it should be. Make LPP yours, every bit as much as it is theirs.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

On LPP staffers

LPP staffers are also active participants in the forum. When they take staff action, they will make their posts or edits of other peoples posts in red. This is meant to make clear when they are acting as staff, and when they are acting as general posters.

If you disagree with a staff members normal (not-red) posts, feel free to discuss it here, as you would with any other poster. If you disagree with a staff action, please do not start a discussion about it in LPP. Either PM the staff member directly, or PM another member of staff, or make a post in 'Observations and Suggestions'.

If you feel we are failing to maintain a proper distinction between our personal posting, and our action as staff, please let us know.

This post has been edited by MichaelKVegfruit: Dec 21 2008, 03:07 PM

How to make use of the quote function in LPP debates

At the bottom of each post that you want to quote, click the "Quote" button as shown below in the screenshot.

If you want to quote multiple posts, simply click the quote button of every post you want to quote.

 quote1.GIF ( 15.5K ) Number of downloads: 9


After you've clicked the quote button, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the "Reply" button, as shown in the screenshot below

 quote2.gif ( 20.47K ) Number of downloads: 7


You will then be taken to the usual reply screen, as seen below. This time however, you will see the text you want to quote inside preformatted quote tags, as highlighted in the red circle

 quote3.gif ( 32.09K ) Number of downloads: 6


type your response to the quote, by typing underneath the quote tags, as seen below

 quote4.gif ( 17.26K ) Number of downloads: 7


If you're quoting more than one post, you will of course see more than one preformatted set of quote tags (as below)
 quote5.gif ( 18.02K ) Number of downloads: 7


To respond to to multiple quotes simply type your response to each quote, under the quote tags you are replying to, as demonstrated below.

 quote6.gif ( 20.64K ) Number of downloads: 7


You can of course manually add quote tags by simply typing:

CODE

[quote]

[/quote]

And copying and pasting the relevant parts of the post you wish to quote between the two tags.

To make it even clearer, you can add the name of the person you are quoting by typing:

CODE

[quote=YMG]

[/quote]

Below is an example of the tags with the quoted text between the two tags:

CODE

[quote=YMG]
I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt So sexy it hurts
[/quote]

Which will look like this when posted:


And that's all there is to it... One more thing though: do not alter the text of a quote to make it read something other than the original poster intended.

If you wish, you can insert a fake tag such as <Snip> to indicate you have snipped stuff out for brevity's sake, providing you do not attempt to mislead the reader into thinking the quoted text reads other than it was intended.