Thread: Proposed: Amended Rules

The following is a draft of an updated and simplified set of rules. Please provide input on the rules before they go into effect:

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The following RULES and GUIDELINES are being set forth in order to present and maintain Broncos Forums as a board which can be enjoyed by all members.

This is a community. That means that we are many different people making up a single entity. Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun off, or insult another member. If you feel a post violates a rule, don’t retaliate, report the post.

Moderators are volunteers that help out the forum for FREE. Please treat all moderators with respect in both public forums and in any private messages. Moderators also are expected to treat the members with respect in both public forums and in any private messages.

BroncosForums.com Posting Rules:

1. No discussion of any illegal activity, including posting links to sites that discuss such activity.

2. No Flaming, baiting or harassing. Regardless of whether you like a poster or a point being made, do not resort to flaming and harassing that poster. Don’t post “flame-bait”. That is a post just to irritate members or designed to get a reaction from another poster.

3. No threats, name calling, ethnic or racist remarks, gender harassment or other type of posts that attack another poster or posters.

4. Sexually explicit language – Each person defines it differently, so the 'benchmark' used will be Primetime network TV. If the FCC does not allow it on Prime Time Network TV, it is not allowed on BroncosForums.com.

5. If a word is censored, meaning if you type a word that the message board automatically replaces with ****, it is NOT allowed to use characters like *, !, @, etc. to get around the profanity filter, nor can you add a smiley or punctuation to the end of a censored word or use any other trick to get around the profanity filter.

It is allowed for a member to type a censored word and let the profanity filter substitute **** for it. This will be seen as the equivalent of beeping or bleeping out bad words on TV/radio. It is not allowed for you to type part of the word and replace part of it with ***. This is considered circumventing the profanity filter and violates the rules.

6. Avatars and Signatures: You may not have obscene or sexually explicit images in your avatars or signatures. Again, the Primetime Network TV test will be used as to whether or not it is acceptable.

7. Use of Multiple UserID’s is not Permitted – You have signed up with a user id, and that is the only one that should be registered. Posting under multiple userids will result in all userids/IPs being banned.

8. No advertising – No links (including in signatures) intended to advertise or posts intended to advertise are permitted. If in doubt, request approval first.

9. Moderators decision's are NOT to be questioned in public. If a moderator deletes a post or thread, do not start another one with the same topic, or create a post/thread asking why “xxxx” was deleted. If you have a question about a specific moderator decision, you can send a PM to a mod or admin and discuss it privately. We all may not see things the same way, we do understand that. Please understand, we do things we think are right for the site but will reconsider a decision if approached in the right way.

It is acceptable, and encouraged, to create a thread in the Town Hall discussing the rules, and within the context of existing rules, moderator actions, but they should be limited to questions about rules and moderator actions in general, not thinly veiled questions or criticisms of individual moderators or specific actions.

10. While BroncosForums has a P&R (political and religion) forum, any member that wishes to participate must agree to not resort to flaming. It is important to understand that it is unlikely you will ever change the mind of a stranger on these types of subjects. If they become heated, or result in complaints, then they may be edited, closed or removed by a Moderator. If a particular user's posts constantly results in moderator edits or deletions, it may be cause for disciplinary action, which could include the poster losing the right to participate in the P&R forums or an account suspension or ban.

This cannot be stressed enough. If you are going to participate in P&R, you must have thick skin and NOT resort to personal attacks when others disagree with you.

While staying on topic is always important, it is ‘essential’ in P&R. Many posters participating in P&R consider the discussions and debates very serious, do not make jokes or derail the threads with off topic remarks.

12. Stay on topic. With the exception of “Say Anything/Café” type threads typically located in the “What’s on your mind” forum, posters should be very careful about creating off topic posts. It is very easy for a thread to get derailed by a joke or two and then the responses that follow. It is important to respect the thread starter and stay on topic in the threads that aren’t designed to be long lasting, wandering threads.