Forum Rules and Guidelines - How can we improve them?
We have posted Forum Rules and Guidelines. How can we improve these rules?
Our Rules and Guidelines (found from the drop-down menu on the Forum tab) are here:
http://www.adventistonline.com/notes/Site_Rules_and_Guidelines
They currently read:
"Site Rules and Guidelines For Use of Adventist Online:
1. Be loving. Discuss issues with Christ-like love for your brothers and sisters here.
2. Be truthful. Do not mislead others. Speak words that you have a basis for. Do not speculate about suspicions.
3. No vulgarity or profanity in any form will be tolerated. Threats of any nature are strictly forbidden.
4. Don't call names, make personal attacks, or use negative stereotypes against other people or groups of people.
5. No belittling of individual people, their character, their beliefs, or their motives.
6. Only rebut issues, NOT the people who write them. Do not negatively characterize others' positions or beliefs with your own value judgment. Simply state how you think the belief is wrong and what you believe the true interpretation is - giving your basis for your belief.
7. Don't put words in other people's mouths that they have never said. (This does not, of course, prohibit quoting their words from previous posts.)
8. Don't post in the public forum personal differences, arguments, old grudges, hearsay, or private messages. No spamming discussion forum or chat rooms with off-topic, useless or repeated messages.
9. No spamming, soliciting money, commercial messages, or link farming. Commercial links / messages are only allowed on your own personal profile page. Members agree to not use any of the following ways to advertise, promote, or repeatedly link to any website: Comments, Chat, Videos, Photos, Groups, Blogs, Forum Discussions, Messages (both public and private), Member Name and Profile Picture. Members further agree to not use Adventist Online as a platform to invite Adventist Onlines' members to any other membership site.
10. Adventist Online is not a place to state your beliefs without accountability for their Biblical and/or Spirit of Prophecy basis. Do not stop the open exchange of ideas and the search for His truth by blocking or deleting comments to your blog entries, videos, etc.
11. Listen to, and cooperate with, moderators. Challenging the decisions/actions/inaction of moderator/s in the open forum is not acceptable behavior. Use the "Report an Issue" link located at the bottom of every page to address issues.
12. This is a site by Seventh-day Adventists for Seventh-day Adventists. We welcome all seekers of God's truth here. We believe that God will continue to reveal His truth to His people as time progresses. Thus we are constantly seeking a better understanding of God and His word. We welcome all that are doing the same. That said, if it becomes apparent that your purpose in being a member of this site is to promote a different agenda and/or sow discord among the brethren, your ability to interact with this site may be restricted.
13. Only one profile is permitted per person. Only one person is permitted to use each profile. Each profile represents one person (the account holder) and is not a separate unique entity. The profile is the representation of the person who established it. The person and their profile are one and the same.
14. If you ever feel justified for being negative or antagonistic toward another person... prayerfully see rule #1 and DON'T.
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How can we improve these rules? What needs to be added or removed? Are any of these unfair? Do they discriminate against anyone? Thank you for your help, it is appreciated very much.
Views: 1697
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Star68 (Esther) on -
I think the rules are clear, and I agree with them.
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Permalink Reply by N Him on -
Thank you for doing this. The rules are good. It is something that we all can strive for.
This was needed and I also agree with them and will strive to abide by them.
Now that we have the rules .... we can be reminded of them.
I appreciate the way in which the rules have so far been pointed out.
Much credit to Administration ............
PS. Can I ask if soliciting of funds or selling of items is allowed on this forum? A statement of guidelines regarding that might be goodl
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Permalink Reply by Adventist Online on -
That's a good question if we understand you correctly. I'm assuming your question is about allowing commercial messages in the discussion forums. We should put something about that in there. How's this?
-No commercial messages. The only place commercial links / messages are allowed on Adventist Online are on your own personal profile page.
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Permalink Reply by N Him on
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Yes. That is what I was referring to. I like the way you have put it.
Don't put it in on my account. It was just an idea. If you and others like it then by all means add it to your list.
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Permalink Reply by Samuel on -
Thanks very much for the timely reminder. I have witnessed too much bloodletting on this 'christian forum', recently, to be proud to publish my association with it
There ,evidently, are some persons who are preoccupied with imposing their opinions on the entire network, at any cost. We should remembr that this is a discussion among PEERS, who may periodically have differing perspectives on various issues. Christian. courtesy should always rule.
Disagree, if you must but insist on the 'right of others' to hold an opinion that does not corroborate yours. Please come to both teach and LEARN
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Permalink Reply by rush4hire on -
The Adventist people have a reputation for adherence to Scripture, so we should probably use Scripture to establish rules. See how the 28 fundamentals all quote gobs of verses at the end of them? Like that.... That would be great. Bible principles.
It'll offer some input later, but it's the Sabbath now, so I'm not going to strain myself.
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Permalink Reply by Adventist Online on
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If you are suggesting that all of our rules need some Biblical basis (and aren't valid unless they do), we disagree. These rules are here to encourage the type of site we wish to have. What possible Biblical basis could we have for our rule against commercial messages in the discussion forum? None that we know of. And yet that is one of our rules because we want this site to be about issues and open communication and not be clogged with spam.
Adventist Online is not a church. So the basis for it's rules are much different than what a church uses to establish doctrine. None of our rules are doctrine. They are only rules for this site. Since AO is not a church and only a forum on the internet for church members, it has rules that relate to forums on the internet. Our rules here are to foster a particular Seventh-day Adventist Christian atmosphere. That atmosphere is to the liking of some, and not to others. But that's the great thing about the internet... if one site is not to your liking, you can find (or start) another one that is.
We would be quite happy to list texts after our rules if you would like to provide us with those 'principle' texts. That's a great Sabbath project! :-)
God bless you Rush
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Permalink Reply by Tuffour on -
I agree with A.O. it is very difficult to find Biblical texts to support all rules here. I think these rules are not doctrines.
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Permalink Reply by rush4hire on
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I am of the persuasion that there's something in the Bible that gives us guidance for every thing we may ever possibly have to deal with in life. Here's the verse you where looking for:
Exo. 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.
Advertisement is something you normally pay for. In fact that singles web site is your sponsor. That means they pay for advertisement here. If someone advertises and doesn't pay for it, it's stealing.
Wouldn't you agree?
And it doesn't matter if your site is not a church. It does bear the name "Adventist", so certain things will be expected of it to be worthy to bear the name.
I think you have done a great job so far. I really am impressed.
You might run into some things you are not sure about, but don't we all?
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