Guidelines
Be Polite and Respect Others
Repolitics.com operates these forums in the hopes that they will promote intelligent, honest and responsible discussion. We encourage you to speak your mind on relevant issues in a thoughtful way. Please respect others using this board and treat them with respect and dignity.
No Trolling/Flaming
Do not post inflammatory remarks just to annoy people. If you are not bringing anything new to the argument, then do not say anything at all.
Some messages are not so much offensive as simply nuisance value. An example would be a person who persistently creates conflict without contributing anything useful. In newsgroup circles, such a person is known as a "troll". We define "trolling" as a message that serves no constructive purpose and is likely to cause offence or arguments. We define "annoying" as any message that results in a complaint from a registered user -- we will then decide whether to take action.
No Personal Attacks
Please respect others using this board by refraining from personal attacks. There is a huge difference between disagreeing with a thought or idea and attacking an individual. We encourage lively debate and intelligent critiques of others viewpoints, not tirades against another poster.
Trim your Replies
When replying to a post, quote only what is needed for context. No one is interested in reading the entire post again! Quoting the entire post wastes expensive bandwidth and is just plain annoying. After hitting the quote button, please remove those portions of the post that are unrelated to your response.
Insults
Insults are the ammunition of the unintelligent - do not use them. It is okay to criticize a policy, decision, action or comment. Such criticism is part of healthy debate. It is not okay to criticize a person's character or directly insult them, regardless of their position or actions. Derogatory terms such as "loser", "idiot", etc are not permitted unless the context clearly implies that it is not serious.
Rule of thumb: play the ball, not the person (i.e. Tackle the argument, not the person making it). People who have a history of antagonistic behaviour will be treated more harshly than those who do not. Insults leveled at third-parties (companies, political parties, nationalities) are also forbidden in the forums. Avoid using abbreviated terms such as "Cons" or "Libs" that may be offensive to the group to which they refer. Full names are best and official abbreviations are acceptable.
Do not use diminutives or character substitutions in proper names that are not recognized by the original person to whom the reference is being made. For example, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper does not identify himself as Stevie therefore, it is unacceptable to identify him as Stevie. Likewise, Paul Martin did not identify himself as Mr. Dithers, therefore, it is unacceptable to identify him as Mr. Dithers.
In the discussion forums, such infractions will be considered as third-party insults.
No Cross-Posting
Cross posting is defined as posting the same information in more then one forum on the Internet. It is also considered cross posting if you post the same information in different areas of these forums. If you want to propose a new topic, find the appropriate category and only post once.
All cross-posts will be deleted without warning.
Respect Others Privacy
Do not post unauthorized personal information about anyone on the board. Any posts that contain personal communication (emails, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) between multiple individuals will be deleted without notice.
Research Your Post
If you are stating a fact, be prepared to back it up with some official sources (website links etc). It is also important to structure your post in a way that everyone can understand. That means writing complete sentences and paragraphs with the appropriate grammar. If for some reason, you enjoy writing long confusing sentences and paragraphs riddled with poor grammar and spelling mistakes, your post, and therefore your opinions, will likely be discarded.
Therefore, it is in your best interest to make sure that your post includes sufficient sources and contains a well-researched and well-organized argument.
Posting Content
All posts must contain some aspect of an argument or attempt to stimulate discussion. Simply posting a URL to an outside source or posting statements that are only one or two sentences long will not be tolerated and the post will be deleted. In addition, use the search feature to ensure that the topic you are posting is not already being discussed somewhere else in the forums.
It is also important that you stay on topic and keep the discussion focused. If the thread begins to wonder off into a new topic area, start a new thread and continue the discussion under the new thread. If you feel a thread is being watered down with too many different topic areas and you do not want to start the new thread yourself, feel free to contact a moderator and request a new thread.
Posting Images
Only use images when necessary and only to move the discussion forward. If you feel that images enhance the discussion, please use them sparingly, tastefully and in a way that does not break or otherwise distract from the forum's layout.
Please post links to videos rather than putting the video URL directly into a post, as the software will render an image into your post whether you intend that or not.
Posting Copyrighted Material
Copyright infringement is illegal on these forums. Therefore, please do not post articles in their entirety. When posting copyrighted material, please use the quote feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a thorough summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA, etc. Find out more information on fair dealing in Canada. http://www.robic.ca/...pdf/032e-lc.pdf
Please do not try to pass someone elses work as your own. Anyone caught committing plagiarism will be dealt with severely.
Forum Moderation
These forums are not a free-for-all discussion area. Repolitics.com operates these forums in the hopes that they will promote intelligent, honest and responsible discussion. If at any time the discussion cease to be "intelligent" and "responsible" then the discussion will be ended.
Repolitics.com will attempt to monitor the content of the postings and reserves the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. We will also attempt to use this power judiciously and fairly, but our decisions are final.
If for some reason your post has been deleted and you were not notified, please feel free to contact a moderator or the Forum Admin and request an explanation.
Member Signature
- Signatures should not disrupt nor confuse the display of the forum.
- New members can only edit/add a signature after they have posted a minimum of 10 postings
- No images are allowed in signatures
- Only 1 URL is allowed in a signature
- A maximum of 4 lines are allowed in a signature
- No YouTube videos are allowed in a signature
- The content of a signature must be respectful.
Advertising
Advertising is not permitted in these forums. You are free to link to other websites (i.e. in your signature) however you cannot use these forums to sell anything. When posting about a political event, (i.e. political rally or a march) please seek the permission from a Moderator or the Forum Admin before posting.
Legal Issues/Action
You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Repolitics.com with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).
By participating in these forums, you grant us the right and licence to use, reproduce and display any submissions to the forum without compensation to you or any one else.
We at Repolitics.com also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a legal action arising from any message posted by you.
Multiple Member Accounts
Any member who opens more than one member account -- for whatever reason -- will be immediately banned from the forums.
Internet Proxies
The use of internet proxies to bypass a suspension or a ban is forbidden. Members who choose to use a proxy to access the Repolitics.com risk suspension and or banning.
Posting Removal
Any messages that we deem unsuitable will be deleted or edited.
Member Removal
Any user who fails to abide by these rules will be banned without warning.