General Discussion & Serious Discussion Rules

These forums are designed to be a place where you can discuss current affairs and serious news in a sensible and mature fashion. General Discussion is also a place for you to make more lightweight conversation or link something informative.

It is NOT a place for you to rant about your day, or bitch about your parents, or complain that the world is unfair. That is what blogs are for.

The rules are these:

1. Think before you post. Has someone already posted this? Use the search. Do I need to make a new thread, or will my post happily go into an existing one?

2. Do not be inflammatory. Political discussions can get heated - do not resort to puerile tactics to prove a point.

3. Act maturely. Don't rise to inflammatory statements - report them to a Moderator. Remember that your opinion is only your opinion, and other people have a right to disagree with it, just as you have a right to have it. Be polite.

4. There are a number of stickys at the top with common thread links - read them and familiarise yourself with their content.

5. Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Thread titles should be spelt and capitalised correctly. Posts should use correct English spelling and grammar - 'm8', 'b7', etc will not be tolerated. Use of standard acronyms such as 'LOL' are OK in context. If you're not a native English speaker, we will cut you some slack and will try to help you get across your point where possible. Posts may be edited for spelling and grammar by the Moderators. IeSpell (or SpellBound) is your friend.

6. More than anywhere else, we will lock and move threads in this forum. General Discussion is a great thing when everyone behaves well - when people get stupid, the place becomes a mess.

7. Do not bully other members. Flaming or constant attacking will not be tolerated.

8. In the same vein, don't post whiny threads that incite people to flame you.

9. The Discussion forums are all about Karma - think about your posts, and post good stuff, and other people will too. That way, we all benefit.