Rules for Posting!

[Arioch]

Hello all, and welcome to the board! This is a forum for discussion centered around the science fiction webcomic, Outsider. Almost any kind of discussion is welcome here that pertains to the comic, science fiction, comics in general, technology, worldbuilding, socio-political systems, etc. I have, essentially, only two rules:

First, that posters be civil and refrain from personal attacks or simply rude posts or trolling. It doesn't matter what the other person said to you, or how wrong the other person was; that doesn't make it okay for you to respond in an uncivil manner. I find it useful to follow the rule: "assume goodwill." If you want to continue a conversation with someone who you feel has slighted you in some way, try to view that person's comments in the most favorable light possible. 80% of the time, that will be what the person meant. And the other 20% of the time, it will drive them crazy that you didn't take the bait. If you think someone is way out of line, report the post. "Vengeance is mine," sayeth the moderator.

Second, if you have some kind of real-world political or social axe to grind... please don't grind it here. In science fiction we talk about all kinds of political systems, and I have a wide tolerance for off-topic posts, but if all you want to do is to complain about X real-world politician or Y real-world political movement, I would really appreciate it if you did it somewhere else. There are tens of thousands of political forums to air your personal ire, and I don't really feel like this needs to be one of them. Obviously, this is a fine line, and I will observe a lot of leeway in this respect, up to and until it becomes a clear violation of the first rule.

Third, and this is more of a guideline, please be courteous to other posters and mark spoilers and NSFW content with appropriate tags.

I guess there's also a fourth rule, which is that posts that are obviously spam (automated or commercial posts with no regard for the subject of the forum) will be immediately deleted and the accounts banned. I doubt that anyone would be surprised by this, but if by chance you feel that this has happened to you by accident, don't hesitate to contact me. (I doubt that this would be difficult for a real human being, as my contact information is plastered all over the site.)

edit: There is also a fifth rule, which I didn't think needed to be said, but apparently it does... please don't conduct or advocate criminal activity here. I shouldn't have to explain why that's not acceptable.

I don't consider myself an aggressive moderator, so I hope you won't feel deterred from speaking your mind. You will receive feedback from me if I think your posts do not conform to these rules, long before any moderation action is taken. I've only ever had to ban a very few posters in the long history of this forum, and it was never for the substance of what they posted, but rather for their refusal to be moderated.

Otherwise, welcome to the board, and I'm interested in what you have to say.

Also, just a note: the new forum version has an anti-spambot feature that requires a moderator to approve a new user's first post. So if you're new and you don't see your first post, don't worry; it's probably just that a moderator hasn't seen it yet.