The following rules are in addition to the main rules seen here and are specific to Intelligent Discussion. A lot of work and thought went into these, so please take the time to go over them and have an understanding of them before you post. We will be taking posts in this forum rather seriously, and so these rules will be upheld in a strict manner.

Rules

Now. Onto the rules. We realize that not a lot of members will be willing to agree to these, and that is okay. Those people will be warned upon breaking the rules and there will be no looking back. We are both going to assume that, since we are making the rules incredibly available, that every single member that posts in this forum is well-versed on them. If you haven’t read them or you skimmed them, that is your fault. We cannot be held responsible for your being irresponsible. We took the time to write them, you take the time to read them.

1. This is forum is not General Chat Plus. We will not moderate like the General Chat moderators, meaning that we will not be lax with a lot of things. We will take everything seriously and will not be afraid to issue out warnings for inappropriate handlings of certain subjects. You may feel that this is unfair and that we are being a tad bit “Nazi”. We say to this opinion one thing: Tough. We will explain why we are taking whatever action we have taken and you are expected to understand this. This, interestingly enough, leads into the second guideline.

2. If you feel that you have been judged unfairly and wish to dispute whatever warning that has been issued to you for whatever reason, you are more than welcome to. However, and let us be perfectly clear about this, we will not stand for our say being argued with in public. If you have a problem with the way one of us has judged things then feel free to contact whoever you feel should be contacted in order to sort whatever problem you have out. Do not whine about everything though, because that gets annoying and you could be issued further warnings for harassment or making a big deal out of a small problem. Also, if you are going to report, use a sort of “Chain”. Remember that there are two moderators of this forum and they think in two completely different ways. If you have a problem with one, contact the other. If, for some reason, you feel the need to take it to a higher level, then go for the Super Moderators. They exist for a reason. Going directly to the Administrators, while it may solve a problem quicker, is more bothersome than it is helpful. Remember that they have other things to do. We have a fairly large staff and not all problems need to be taken to the top.

3. Bickering and fighting will not be welcome here. This is a forum for debates and appropriate arguments, nothing more and nothing less. If you are having a problem defending your point of view do not resort to calling another member names. Also, as a part of this, keep the use of curse words to a minimum. You will find that a lot of members have a hard time taking people seriously when every other word out of their mouth is the F-Word.

4. There are many here who follow the path of religion, while others choose that of science. These are two separate fields of thought, so please keep an open mind when exploring the many topics in this forum. Discussing religious matters in a scientific topic is considered off-topic posting. Discussing scientific matters in a religious topic is also considered off-topic posting and in both cases you will be warned and your post deleted. If you wish to debate whether Religion or Science is superior, you must ask a moderator for permission to create a topic solely for that purpose. You may not agree with someone's core beliefs, but the least you can do is respect them.


5. Try to avoid logical fallacies. Things like appeals to ignorance ("Well, if you can't prove ghosts exist, they don't," or, "If you can't prove ghosts don't exist, they must"), circular reasoning ("I know God exists because the Bible says so. I know the Bible is true because God wrote it."), popularity ("Islam is the most widely followed religion on Earth. How could so many people be wrong?" or, "Syd, you're the only one who is against euthanasia, why don't you give up and concede that we're all right?"), or ad hominem, which literally means against the man ("Of course you believe we should pay teachers more, you are one!") are logical fallacies. Here are some links to pages with logical fallacies and their descriptions:

http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/

Feel free to call people on their fallacies and point them to a link or quote them lines that say, "Hold it right there, you can't justify things that way!" Or you could paraphrase that. ^_^

6. Please make an attempt to write at least a paragraph in each of your posts. We aren’t asking for an essay on any given subject, but there are no excuses for a one-liner. If you are posting in this forum you obviously have something to say, so pull out all the stops and get your point across clearly. If you find something that may help other member’s understand what you are talking about, please give us all a link so we can read more about it. Spread the knowledge that you have, that is a part of what this forum is used for.

7. This last one is more a suggestion than a rule, and it regards the use of grammar and punctuation. We are not going to ask that you type everything perfectly, but simply check yourself over once or twice, proofread what you have written. If you’re having a hard time understanding what you’ve written, just imagine the trouble another member is going to have. Again, we are not asking that you understand every single rule of the English language, but at least make the attempt to make whatever you post easier to read in the eyes of another person. Consideration and all of that fun stuff.