New Forum Rules - Read this before posting!

[Admin]

Hey everyone, these are the new rules and I expect everyone to follow them. Honestly it's meant pretty much for the trolls. We have created a "Report to the moderator" section and if you see anyone breaking the rules please report them so the moderators can take care of them. This will turn in a sticky in a few days. Thank you!

ADMIN


Abuse of Guests:
The guests of these forums are to be treated as you would treat guests at any other mixed function. Calling our guests names, intentionally abusing them personally or otherwise making them feel unwelcome can result in you being banned.


Abusive Posting:
Personal attacks, wishing death on innocents, racism, antisemitism, and trolling are all prohibited and can result in a ban.


Altering Quotations:
The quotation feature of these forums are a tool, and not to misrepresent what other users have said. Do not change the wording or make it appear like another guest had said something that they did not. This purposeful disrespect and misrepresentation, is a form of abuse and will not be allowed. It may result in a ban.


Racism/antisemitism:
This creates a generally hostile environment which is contrary to the purposes of civil discourse and a welcoming forum environment. It is an instaban offense and will not be tolerated.


Ban Bypass:
A user who has been banned, is banned, that's all there is to it. They do not just lose the username, they are no longer welcome on these forums. A ban bypass is an instaban.

Banned User Procedure:
A user who has been banned may create a temporary account to appeal the decision, to apologize or to clarify why he committed the act for the consideration of the moderators. The temporary account may ONLY be used to post in the mod board and ONLY on the topic of their ban.


Call Out Threads:
This is considered a form of abuse and we do not allow intentional abuse of guests. Starting a topic for the purpose of picking a fight with another guest is not allowed. These forums are for civil discussions, not for fighting and flaming other guests. This can result in such actions as deleting the topic, locking the topic, and banning.


Changing Screen Names:
This is generally not allowed. There are exceptions, for example in cases of confused identity or accidentilly giving away personal information while making the account. The reasons for this are the problems inherent with guests needing to remember a list of aliases and the abuse that comes with Multiple Screen Names such as puppeteering (posting in agreement with yourself) and playing both sides of a debate to make yourself look good.


Contempt of Host:
Contempt of Sarah Palin Forum Providers are a form of Trolling and will not be tolerated. These boards are graciously hosted by Sarah Palin Forum owners and its moderators and some respect is required for the folks who make these forums possible. Personal attacks against anyone listed as moderators or administrators on these forums are not permitted any more than most people would tolerate themselves or their family being called names by a guest in their own home. On these forums it is an instaban offense. Criticism without getting personal is allowable, but attacks are not.


Flooding:
Flooding is a form of spamming, it's the practice of bumping other topics out of view in favor of changing the board to either increase your own visibility or decrease the visibility of another guest or topic. It can be cross-posting identical topics in different Forums or multiple posts in any one forum with identical or nearly identical content. It may result in topics being deleted to the account responsible being banned.


Hateful posting:
No lynch mobs. Do not use the forums to spread hate, racism, antisemitism, suggest that innocents should die or that an innocent deserved to die, or otherwise fill our forums with hatred and malice. This will not be tolerated.


Impersonations:
Copying a guest's avatar, and/ or closely replicating their screen name for the reason of being mistaken for them or mocking them as you ruin their reputation falls easily into the area of abuse of guests, and that amount of malice leads to an instaban..


Instaban:
This is a no questions asked ban. It's an offense so bad, so terrible, and so obvious that any regular member who has been a member for awhile can spot it coming from a very long way away. It's a ban where a warning is simply not an option which we will even consider.


Multiple Screen Names:
Guests are allowed to have one account each. Multiple accounts are often times abused for puppeteering, which is posting as another user to help your own argument with a "puppet" ally, or for holding an account for backup to commit a ban bypass, or for a "good cop bad cop" style of debating and seemingly teaming up against other users. This is not allowed and such accounts are forfeit.


Obscenity:
Posting pictures of obscene gestures, linking to obscene web sites, posting obscene or graphic descriptions of a decidedly adult nature, and violating the standards of decent behavior are considered obscenity. Basically, if a tv show can be punished for it, then you could be banned for it.


Picture Policy:
Image size limits exist to maintain a net friendly format in consideration those who are limited to the use of dial-up connections for internet access.


In posts: 300x300, 48KB file size
Signature image: 400x150, 25KB file size
Avatars: 80x80, 19KB file size

If more than one image is posted in a post, the pictures combined file sizes can not exceed the 48KB file size rule.

One image only in a sig line please.

Images may be deleted or removed without notice and all related rules about profanity, obscenity and things of that nature apply to images.

Do not post images of graphic violence, obscene gestures, pornography or otherwise abusive content.

Concerning hot linking images: If you hot link to web space you do not own, and the owner of the web space changes the content of the link, then you will be held as responsible for the conten, so becareful.


Personal Information:
Do not post personal telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, street addresses, or mailing addresses of anyone but yourself or by expressed permission of the person whose information you are posting. If the information is posted with the intent to harass or intimidate, flood their mailbox or solicit harassment in any way, then it's an instaban and the information will be removed.


Profanity Filter Bypass:
Sarah Palin Forum uses a Profanity Filter because there are words which are not allowed on these forums in order to maintain a civil and welcoming place for our users. Any attempt to try and get past these filters and use such words is considered an offense. We don't want these words on the forums.


Retreads:
This refers to previously banned users who attempt to slip by a ban by using a different screen name and resume posting as if they had not been in trouble at all. This is in violation of the Ban Bypass and will not be tolerated

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Signature Line:
This is subject to all other rules, please don't use your signature to taunt or harrass other users.


Spamming:
Sarah Palin Forum is in the business of selling advertisements. Our guests are to use their accounts for personal, non-commercial interests and discussions. For any other use we require prior approval and permission which may be requested on the Moderator Forum.

Obama free zone:
This board is here to help promote Sarah Palin and John McCain, not to help Senator Obama. Polite discussion and debate is allowed and welcome, but do not post non informational posts to help the Obama Campaign. These include links to raise money, promote pro Obama gatherings, or anti McCain/Palin Rallys. Discretion is left in the hands of the Moderator team, if the moderators deem the content of your post to violate this rule, the link and possibly the post will be deleted.


Trolling:
A troll is a person that never offers anything of value or substance to the boards. The troll has no intention of taking part in discussions, save to try and ruin them for others. Trolls may be banned with impunity.