Community Guidelines
Table of Contents
1. General Terms of Service
2. Forum-Specific Terms of Service
3. Disciplinary Procedures
4. Forums Legalese
1. General Terms of Service
These are the Terms of Service for Cross+Flame forums and chat. These rules are to be followed in order to keep your account active and able to post. The Terms of Service are set up to ensure a friendly and non-threatening atmosphere required for a diverse forum such as C+F. They are not designed to limit conversation or control topics discussed; rather they are here to encourage meaningful discussion, to stimulate healthy debate, and to ensure fun is had by all.
a) Vision Statement
Please keep in mind that while we are a website that does not force all posts to adhere to a specific philosophy or way of thinking, we *do* require all posts to encourage and stimulate discussion of the topic at hand. Along with that requirement is a focus on what matters to the Cross+Flame community, specifically the Vision Statement that should be the example that all posts of a religious nature are judged by. Any posts of a religious nature that detract from the Vision Statement, even though it is very ecumenical and open, will be moderated.
- The Vision Statement refers mostly to religiously-oriented threads, so feel free to goof off and have fun when it is appropriate. The Vision Statement is meant to aid discussion on serious topics, not limit stress-relieving ones! :o)
LINK: Vision Statement
b) Age Limit
You must be at least 13 years of age or older in order to participate. Go elsewhere if you are young; we are not held liable for falsified information regarding your age. This rule is for your own protection.
c) Courteous Posting
This is the most important rule. Keep it clean and courteous. NO vulgar language (language can get by the filter; watch the community norms for a while before you post risque material) and NO personal insults (ad hominem, straw man, and others defined in the links below). This includes broad generalizations about what you perceive to be a person's beliefs *AND* personalizing your words so they attack the person behind the words and not the words themselves. We take violations of this rule very seriously, as they go against everything the Vision Statement stands for, so please keep in mind the Vision Statement when posting. Please consult an admin or moderator before you post any questionable content...we promise to be fair.
Related Link: Categorizing and Stimulating Discussion (defines broad generalizations)
Related Link: Pitfalls of Debate (defines ad hominem, straw man, etc...)
Related Link: A Message from the Admin Team
d) No Indecent Behavior
All posts must be there to stimulate conversation not to unnecessarily or frequently detract from it.
- NO TROLLING: repeated negative comments across discussions that do not contribute to the discussion with content.
- NO SPAMMING: repeated meaningless posts that serve only to detract from a discussion or to raise your post count.
- NO HARASSMENT: (1) Nasty comments and unwelcome sexual advances in Private Messages are not tolerated. Do not harass individuals in public or private or you will face disciplinary action.
-- (NOTE: Private Messages are private communications and are not monitored by the administration unless a specific violation has been reported; then we reserve the right to examine private messages for alleged abuse)
(2) Individuals sometimes meet up here that know each other in Real Life; please keep relationship issues and circumstances from the real world in the real world and not on the forum, as both parties will be moderated if private material is discussed online without express consent of both parties.
e) Citing Quoted Material
If quoting information, CITE IT. Make sure you give the original author their due credit.
f) No Illegal Activities
No illegal activities (warez trading, illegal transactions, propositioning). This includes posting pornography or links to illegal files held off-site on the internet. Violation of this is subject to immediate banishment from the Community. Please consult an administrator if you have any questions.
g) No Abuse of Forum Resources
The Forum Resources are for everyone to share and use equally. Please do not abuse the forum resources. This includes having multiple user accounts, joining for the purpose of soliciting members to join another site, posting garbage to the Links Index, Articles Database, etc, and generally not using forum resources for their intended purposes. Violations of these services will result in disciplinary action.
h) Have Fun
This is a community: have fun! All these rules are to provide a healthy, nurturing environment where we can relax and courteously debate without fear and without hardening our hearts. Please help us keep this community free, open, and fun for all persons involved.
2. Specific Forums Terms of Service
Certain forums have specific purposes and intents, so please read here before you post in any of the following forums to ensure you are helping with the forum's purpose.
a) Christian Living Forum
The Christian Living Forum has a specific terms of service as it is for new Christians and Christians wanting to focus on their beliefs absent of having those beliefs debated. Keep all debates out of the Christian Living forum; there is plenty to discuss elsewhere.
LINK: Terms of Service for the Christian Living Forum
b) Prayer Requests
1. Keep it friendly here. This forum is designed around and for spiritual support. So keep it friendly.
2. Keep all debates out of the Prayer Requests forum. This forum is not intended for inter-religious discussions.
3. The Prayer Requests forum is for requests and responses of a spiritual/intellectual/emotional nature only. Please do not post financial requests from the members as that is not tolerated by C+F administration.
LINK: Prayer Requests Forum
c) Religious Discussions
1. This is a place to encourage fellowship between faiths. It is not intended to be a battle ground. While all are welcome to debate issues, do not use it for a flame war.
2. Please remember that there are people here from all walks of faith including those with none at all. All posts should be worded and kept on the topic and the subject, not aimed at the person posting the topic or subject (ie. ad hominem attacks, straw man arguments). Especially keep in mind the Vision Statement in this forum.
LINK: Interfaith Discussion Forum
d) Social Justice
The Social Justice forum has a specific purpose of informing the public about opportunities to put their faith in action. Certain threads are information only, and others are for discussion. Please read the Terms of Service before posting to ensure you are helping contribute your thoughts in the appropriate place.
LINK: Social Justice Terms of Service
3. Disciplinary Procedures
These are the administrative procedures the administrators and the moderators follow if we are forced to resort to them due to a violation of the General or Specific Terms of Service. Please note that at Cross+Flame Forums, we try to keep moderating invisible and to a bare minimum, so just because you don't see moderating at work doesn't mean it isn't taking place. Please contact a moderator/admin before yelling about our inaction to ensure we are working towards a resolution.
a) If a Violation Occurs...
We are very forgiving of first-time offenders and people that don't get their posts edited very often, but there are disciplinary measures for those that don't keep with our desire to stimulate civil discussion.
1. If you break one of the rules of the Terms of Service (TOS) or violate the standards of the Vision Statement, you will be notified and your post will be edited.
2. If you consistantly or deliberately break the same rule of the TOS, you will be notified, your post will be edited, and notification of this activity will be submitted to the administration for review. See rule #5 for more information.
3. If you continue to break rules of the TOS, you will be notified and temporarily restricted from this site at the mods’ discretion. Reinstatement procedures will be addressed with the Administrators.
4. Any further breaking the TOS will result in being indefinately banned. Any desires to be reinstated must be addressed with the Administrators.
5. Administrators are the only ones that can possibly skip any or all of the chain above and ban you directly if we feel it is necessary.
6. Any posting of pornography or vulgar material is subject to an immediate ban from Cross+Flame forums.
7. All of these rules are applied to the live chat client as well.
b) Moderators and Admins Code of Conduct
1. Moderators and Admins must abide by the same rules as the users of the site.
2. Mods and Admins will not delete a thread unless a violation occurs AND have sent notification of deletion to the originator of the topic.
3. Mods and Admins will not edit a post unless a violation occurs AND have sent notification of the editing to the poster AND have noted on the actual thread who edited the thread.
4. Banning is a last resort. Upon excessive violations a user will be consulted by the Admins. Continuous violations in spite of warnings will result in a temporary ban which can be reinstated only by addressing one of the Admins.
5. Some of you may be familiar with phpbb-based forums like Cross+Flame Forums that are all over the internet, so you may be familiar with their moderator powers. As a security measure, the administration has removed the moderator's ability to view IP addresses of the users, as we didn't think that was appropriate and necessary.
6. If you feel a violation of the above procedures has taken place, please email Cross_+_Flame.
LINK: Listing of Moderators/Admins
4. Forums Legalese
While the administrators and moderators of C+F forums will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author, and hence the site administration will not be held liable for their content. As well, posts by the mods/admins reflect the personal views of the moderator or admin, and do not indicate views officially endorsed by the site administration and hence the site administration will not be held liable for their content. This applies to the live chat client as well.
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database, including Private Messages. The Administration will not view private messages unless a violation has been reported, but they reserve the right to do so if find just cause. While this information will never be disclosed to any third party without your consent, the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
This forum system uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies do not contain any of the information you have entered above, they serve only to improve your viewing pleasure. The email address is used only for confirming your registration details and password (and for sending new passwords should you forget your current one).
By Registering at Cross+Flame Forums, you agree to be bound by these conditions.
Questions? Start a discussion here (you have to register first). Or contact the administration here.