Welcome to The Forvm!

We established this site to encourage spirited, interesting conversations across partisan and philosophical lines. To aid in that, we ask that you respect the following rules when posting stories, diaries or comments:

1. No profanity

2. No insults or personal attacks on other users

3. Try to write entries that will encourage discussion. We don't discourage disagreement, just disagreement based on personal attacks and nasty comments.

4. Try to stay on topic, or at least limit yourself to a related topic within discussion threads. If you have a point that is entirely unrelated, it's easy enough to post a diary about it (we are generally pretty lax about this one, it's more of a guideline).

5. Do not try to hack your way around an established policy or try to mess with the site's configuration or settings (this one will get you banned immediately and permanently).

6. Please don't create multiple user accounts.

This site uses a voting system to decide whether of not to promote a diary (in the sidebar on the right) to the front page. Voting is accomplished by clicking in the box that appears to the left of the first line of a diary. Only positive votes are recorded, once a story or diary is voted on it is not possible to rescind your vote. Voting only affects the promotion of a diary to the front page, voting for a story once it is on the front page will not affect it in any way. We generally try to promote stories that reflect a substantial amount of thought and/or research, short diaries that merely point to a news story or article are generally not considered appropriate for the front page, unless it refers to an event of substantial importance.

The site is moderated, we currently have three moderators listed in the Moderators Box at the top left hand corner of the front page. They are volunteer moderators, and may not be online at all times, but they do check in on a daily basis and do scan the comments everyday. If you violate a posting rule, they will generally issue a warning or edit your entry before suspending or banning you from the site, but they are not required to. If you see a rule violation you can post a comment with "PRV" as the title to bring their attention to it. Their decisions are final. If you have a question or comment for them, you may email them - their email addresses are listed on the front page.

The technical staff consists of HankP and various other members. They are also volunteers. They may be reached at hankp98072 -at- yahoo dot com. This site is based on Drupal, and we have tried to avoid extensive customization because of the difficulties it will cause in the future with maintenance and upgrades. However, we are always interested in hearing about potential improvements to the functionality or appearance of the site.

Now have at it! Make your points with passion and logic, read and respect the views of others, and we hope you enjoy your visits here.
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I blame it all on the Internet