Constitution of Political Animal
Political Animal (Australia) Forum Rules
In the process of registering on this forum you have agreed to accept these terms and conditions and subsequent amendments which may occur from time to time. In doing so you essentially signed an electronic contract pledging to have read the rules and agreeing to follow the rules as written. It is your continuing responsibility to read, follow, and update yourself with the Forum rules.
The following are basic guidelines for use of the Political Animal (Australia) forum. Anyone caught disobeying these guidelines will be issued a warning by Forum Staff, otherwise known as Moderators. Moderation works on a five warn limit policy unless the situation calls for more appropriate action ranging from a verbal warning to a double warn and suspension to an immediate ban, and so on. Just because something is not listed specifically here as inappropriate or subject to Moderation does not mean it's immediately acceptable behaviour. Use common sense and make sure you read the pinned threads in each sub-forum which will serve to highlight rule updates from time to time.
1.) First Warning 2.) Second Warning 3.) Third Warning 4.) Temporary Ban (48 Hours) 5.) Permanent Ban
Forum Bans If you receive a 100% warn level on the forums, you will be banned from the forums.
Process of Appeals
Members may appeal individual forum warnings. You may only appeal a warning if: (a) you can show with evidence that it was unwarranted or unduly harsh, or (b) if a reasonable amount of time has passed (no less than one month and preferably longer) in which you have demonstrated reformed behaviour. Wasting Moderator time with inappropriately filed reports and/or unfounded appeals will resort in a warn level raise. Repeat incidences will result in a ban from the forum.
Bans are permanent. Banned members may appeal to the the Moderation Council if they believe grounds exist (very, very rare) in which they state their case with evidence and explain why they believe they deserve to be allowed back into Political Animal (Australia) Forums. This process is not quick and the investigation into cases may last three minutes or three weeks or more depending on the individual situation.
The only place where discussion of moderator action is acceptable is in the appropriate Moderation forum. Posting commentary on or disagreement with moderator action elsewhere will result in a warn level raise.
Posting All posts must be in English, no exceptions. This is not only a TOS of the forums, but also a forum rule put in place.
Topic Hijacking Hijacking is forcing the current thread discussion off of the original topic and usually results in spam or flame from either side. Forum users found hijacking threads will be given a warning.
Trolling Trolling is submitting posts with the aim of targeting/harassing/angering a group (as opposed to flaming which applies to individual). Trolling is not tolerated and will result in a warning.
Repeat Topics One topic is enough. Repeat topics will be locked and moved to the archives without mercy and the author given a warning. Users found creating repeat topics after others were locked by a Moderator will result in a warn raise and/or temp-ban.
Spam Spam is not permitted on the Political Animal (Australia) Forums. Users found spamming (posting contentless material of any variety) will receive a warning. Examples include (but are in no way limited to) posts containing nothing but smilies, "+1", "QFT", "this" and any other one to few word contentless combination, and/or quoting a post or posting an image and adding any of the aforementioned examples. These posts and other similar contributions have no substance and hence are considered spam.
Moderation Forums There are forums that are not for discussion and are used strictly for Moderation staff to address issues of concern, suggestions, or other forum business which may arise between Moderation Staff and members from time to time. Only moderators and the original poster may post in a thread. This ruling is an absolute with no exceptions. Users found disobeying this guideline will receive an automatic warning for each offense.
Wiki Vandalization/Harassment There is a zero-tolerance policy. Any player finding him/herself being smeared on the Wiki may report it in the Moderation Forum by providing a time stamped screenshot of the offending page or pages to the Moderation Staff. The offender will be immediately banned from the forums.
Mild and Explicit Language / Namecalling While most other civilised community forums frown upon crude language - moderate, harsh or extremely explicit - tradition holds that Political Animal Forums have, in the past, permitted an open slather approach to name-calling, abuse and personal insult. However, a swear filter exists as a part of the forum support software, and will be continually modified with a selection of verbage deemed to be 'extremely explicit' by the Moderation Council, with a view to minimising the appearance of 'extremely explicit' language on the forum to encrypted substitutes for the words or phrases which qualify.
Harassment Forum users should not be stalking/harassing others on the forums. Anyone found stalking players from topic to topic, etc., will be subject to a warning.
Signatures Those who fail to read and abide by these rules will have their signatures "fixed" and receive a warning. You may have only one image per signature which may not exceed the maximum size of 250 pixels wide by 75 pixels tall. You may have no more than 4 lines of text and text size cannot exceed 'normal' sizing. Each quote tag and image count as a line.
Obscene Content and/or "Account Suicide" Anyone caught posting vulgar material (including but in no way limited to pornographic photos depicting RL illegal acts such as violence towards humans or animals, child pornography, death photos, and any other obscene or offensive material in either text form or picture form) will have their account(s) permanently banned, and their ISP contacted along with any other applicable internet and RL authorities.
Revealing Personal Information An personal threat of any nature will equate to an automatic ban from forums. Likewise, the publishing of personal information of any other member without their explicit permission is grounds for warning and/or ban depending on the severity of the offense.
Death Threats / Death Wishes A death threat or a death wish of any nature (including but not limited to telling another player to commit suicide) will equate to an automatic ban from forums. We do not tolerate such an action here by any stretch whatsoever.
Member Personas Members Forum identities/nicks/personas should be civil, innovative, amusing, meaningful or just plain funny. Forum identities/nicks/personas which are deliberately provocative, obscene, insulting on a racial or religious ground will be receive a warn and have the identity/nick/persona amended to YOURFACE.
Multiple Forum Accounts With the exception of moderators, if you are caught with multiple forum accounts, the multiple account(s) will be banned, warn level raised, and your identity will be announced by a moderator to the Political Animal (Australia) community so rule-abiding members become aware of your offence and exactly who your principal persona really is. Multiple forum account offenders will receive a varying percentage warn level raise and/or a permanent ban on a case-by-case basis at the behest of the Moderation Council.
Imitation & Impersonation Imitation in terms of this forum is mimicking the posting, avatar, or signature styles of another user in an attempt to be satirical or generally humorous. Impersonation in terms of this forum is copying the posting, avatar, or signature styles of another user in order to present the illusion that the person is in fact that user. Imitation is fine and can be quite funny. Impersonation is disruptive and is warnable. Please pay attention to the subtle difference between these two concepts.
A player may not impersonate another player by emulating the characteristics of someone else's past or present account in an attempt to harass, stalk, or flamebait. Creating a new forum account in an attempt to impersonate a standing account will result in deletion and banning without notice. Any attempt at imitation and/or impersonation of Moderation Staff is strictly prohibited and will be met with harsh repercussions.
Avatars Size for avatars is limited by the forum mechanics to 150 pixels wide by 220 pixels high and must utilise no more than 18 kilobytes of memory. Avatars must be in good taste, and any avatar containing a picture that is too violent, disgusting, sexually explicit, insulting to another member, etc. will be removed. Players may not "borrow" the avatars of any moderator past or present without permission.
Swastikas The swastika may not be used in signatures or avatars.
Moderation Staff The revealing of the private identities of any Political Animal (Australia) Moderation Council member past or present is strictly prohibited, and thus no speculation/accusation of identity is allowed. Doing so is grounds for moderator action against your account appropriate to the offense.
Claims of moderator bias should be directed to the Moderation Council via the Moderation Forums. Claims of moderator bias without relevant supporting evidence is grounds for a warning. Blatant disrespect of the moderator staff in the general forums is strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to spoofing moderator accounts in any way, sig/avatar references, baiting, flaming, rude demands, mocking, attitude, and unsubstantiated claims of bias. All, and that means absolutely any complaint about a Moderator, his/her actions, contributions to the forum debate, abuses of 'power' or otherwise concerning behaviour MUST be reported to the Moderation Council through the Moderation Forums
Moderation Staff are elected from the general forum population on a six monthly basis, retaining their position for a period of twelve months. The Moderation Council should consist of no less than three members and no more than five members and MUST include the Forum owner or administrator, UNLESS that person delegates the position and responsibility to another member. Should the forum owner/administrator elect to delegate overall responsibility for forum management, such delegation is subject to six monthly review and cannot be held by an existing or immediate past member of Moderator Staff.
Moderator Elections Elections will be held on a one-vote=one-value basis, with each registered member (disregarding suspected clone or puppet accounts which may be under investigation) allowed to vote once for one nominee only. At most, there should be no more than two moderators up for election at any one time, discounting the Forum owner/administrator or subsequently delegated member. Nominations for the position of Moderation Staff will be accepted from an registered forum member (disregarding suspected clone or puppet accounts which may be under investigation) with a warn rating of three or less. Campaigning by accepted nominees should be performed in the Off-Topic sub-forum ONLY or via Private Message. No campaigning of any kind will be tolerated in the Political sub-forum
Questionable Actions and Content The forum rules are not designed to cover every scenario. Any action that is seen to be counter-productive or harmful to the forum community may be met with moderator action against your account. The Political Animal (Australia) Moderation Staff reserves the right to take action against your account without warning for any reason at any time.
Third Party Software Third party software is not allowed to be advertised on these forums by any means (post, signature, PM, etc). These programs can easily be used to put malware on the user's computer, and as such can cause huge security issues. Anybody who is caught spreading links to these will at the very least have their warning level increased.
Political sub-forum rules
These rules and the universal Political Animal (Australia) forum rules are to be followed when posting in the Political sub-forum. These rules will be enforced by moderators when there are repeat topics, flaming, and so on.
1. Do not make repeat threads involving pro/anti *insert person*. This forum is for political debate and current news, it is not a forum for you to express how much you like/hate someone.
2. Use sources to support your views or discredit someone. If someone says: "It is inhumane to let old people live" - And you disagree with it, then respond with your views of the subject along with a source that supports it. You should always try to use statistic's, online news' sites, and any other credible sources when trying to make your point. Do not use biased sources in your post(s).
3. Do not start a topic in which your post contains only a link or the story copied and pasted. You must provide some type of explanation in your post explaining the article and your views.
4. When posting about real world affairs, or breaking news, be sure to post a link to the story so others may read it. You may copy the story and quote it, but you must have a link to the story in question along with an explanation.
5. Do not flame others who have a different opinion than you. We all have the right to our own opinions. We ask you to respect individual opinions and not to ridicule others for their beliefs or ideas.
6. You are not permitted to prevent people from posting in your thread unless they are being disruptive. If they are being disruptive, please report individuals via the Moderation Forums.