This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

GeekNights takes its community seriously, and this forum is intended to be an extension of that. The rules of the game make the community what it is. That’s why we are using this forum software and not some phpBB nonsense.

Please treat this forum with the same respect you would a slightly raunchy public park. We are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

There are few hard and fast rules.

Rules

1. Be mindful of your grammar and spelling
2. Post intelligently
3. Don’t be annoying
4. Don’t harass anyone
5. Don’t advocate fascism/white supremacy/hate speech
6. Don’t use fellow forumites’ real names without permission

Beyond these, the rest of the notes here are merely aids to the human judgment of our community. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Add to the conversation. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said. The exception is fascism: you don’t have to respect the idea or anyone espousing it. Fuck nazis.

Please spend some time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of not being annoying.

Argue Effectively

The FRC forums thrive on argument. Argue about everything forever. But do it well. If someone rebuts you, concede the point or counter the rebuttal. Don’t be sly and quietly ignore solid points while responding to the weak ones. If you take a hit, you take a hit.

If someone argues with you, don’t take offense. Defend yourself and what you believe. Make real citations. Prove your point. If you can’t back something, don’t post it in the first place.

Don’t play devil’s advocate casually. The shitheads of the world advocate for themselves well enough on their own: they don’t need your help. Argue earnestly for what you believe. This is not to say that you can not critique a point from a non-held position. Just always be open with your intentions when doing this.

If you find that you’re advocating for the devil more than for yourself, you’re likely contributing less to the discussion than you think you are.

Names and Identity

By default, use fellow forumites’ forum screennames when referring to them or quoting them. Unless you are sure someone is comfortable with you using their real name, don’t use it. In general, screen names from other similar social arenas are fine to use in context (e.g., a Steam or Battle.net name).

In this era of rising fascism, gomergate shitheads, and online harassment campaigns, pseudo-anonymity is increasingly a matter of personal safety. Some people are more comfortable facing these risks head on than others, so respect those who wish to disentangle their online identity from their meat identity. You’re not the one risking your meat.

Along these lines, never post personal details or contact information for another forumite without their express permission, and avoid directly tying a forumite’s forum identity to another community if there are no clear and public preexisting ties (e.g., same username).

If you discover that a forumite appears to be violating the rules of this forum in another community (e.g., posting hate speech or advocating fascism), don’t dox them: bring this to the attention of the mods. We’ll ban them. Doxxing only exposes you to potential harassment: our mods are much better equipped to deal with these shitheads.

Your Participation Counts

Discourse - the forum software - provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: favorites, bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. We haven’t tried these much yet, so let us know if they work or not.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Just flag it. We’ll take a look and act accordingly.

Moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts in any way; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Don’t Fuck Around

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of Fark.

• Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider abusive or hate speech.
• Keep it reasonably clean. Don’t post anything overly obscene.
• Keep it reasonably SFW. Post NSFW stuff behind spoiler tags
• Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
• Respect our community. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

This is a public forum. You are responsible for any consequences that might arise from anything you post here, not us.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

• Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
• Don’t start redundant topics.
• Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
• Don’t post no-content replies.
• Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
• Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

Don’t upload any images unattributed that aren’t public domain or fair use.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.