USMB Rules and Guidelines

[cereal_killer]

USMB Site Guidelines and Regulations​

List of Current Active Moderators:
Dont Taz Me Bro AyeCantSeeYou Meister Coyote katsteve2012 White 6 MisterBeale

Registration Guidelines:
Individuals are allowed only one (1) account. Anyone found to be in violation risk having all accounts banned.

Site Wide Rules And Guidelines:
The following Rules Apply Everywhere unless otherwise stated on USMB, including Posts, Private Messages, Visitor Messages, and Signatures:

• Please post in English. We like having global USMB members, but the use of other languages is too often abused in order to circumvent rules.
• When starting a new thread, please first check and confirm that there are no current threads on the same topic. Please select the forum that best relates to the subject matter of your topic. Opening posts require more than a "Copy and Paste" with a link. You need to include relevant on-topic material of your own. When posting a new topic do not use the CAPS lock.
• No attacks on family members. No direct or implied threats of violence/harm towards another member or members' family with the intent of interfering in or disrupting a member's life. Moderation may act on obvious stalking and harassment of members on the forums. Excessive use of negative post ratings can rise to a level of stalking/harassment.
• No accusations of other members relating to bestiality, grooming, or pedophilia. If you suspect a forum member is involved with grooming and/or pedophilia, DM the mods with your suspicions and evidence.
• No discussing infractions, bans, banned members, or specific moderator actions or duties on the open boards. Issues with moderation should be taken up privately with moderators in PM.
• Data mining is not allowed. You may not disclose any personal information about other members. Name, e-mail, phone number, address, occupation, pictures, quotes, etc. that has NOT first been posted here at USMB by the member themselves (include link). This includes links to sites that contain said personal information.
• Foul language (profanity) will be loosely tolerated and at the moderators discretion at any time within any forum and/or sub-forum.
• Copyright: Link each "Copy & Paste" to its source. Only paste a small to medium section of the material. (There is a 15 post minimum for new members before you are allowed to use this feature.) When starting a new thread and declaring something as fact in your opening post, you must link to a source. For example, "Polls say 2/3 of people think x, y, z." You need to link to a source for one of those alleged polls. Telling others to Google it on their own is not acceptable.
• No linking to, discussing, or promoting other message boards anywhere on the site.
• Graphic images, material, or links to images, and/or material whether real, satirical, or implied depicting obscene, indecent (to include human genitalia or human female aureola or nipples), pornography, pornographic acts, or morbid images are not permitted. This includes gifs and cartoons. Please report these posts.
• Editing quotes. You may selectively quote, provided that it does not change the context or meaning of the quote. When you comment on the quote, do it outside of the quote box. Do not post inside of the quote box or alter the member names in "link-back" text.
• No spamming. Multiple posting of the same thing, advertising, and/or links to other sites.
• No cross posting. Cross posting is posting the same content repeatedly or in multiple forums. Pick one.
• Off-topic posts may be edited, trashed, deleted, or moved to an appropriate forum as per administrator & moderator discretion at any time within any forum and/or sub-forum.
• Administrator and Moderator Official Posts are generally posted in red. They are directives. Please adhere to them. Do not comment on them.
• Not all Rules and Regulations are written. Not every circumstance can be foreseen. Moderator discretion does apply. When in doubt, PM an administrator or moderator.
• All violations will be subject to action by an admin/mod. Action taken could range from a warning, infraction, or banning and will be at admin/mod discretion.

We are operating the site under 3 different zones:

• "Zone 1": Clean Debate Zone (CDZ) / Introduce Yourself (Welcome Threads) / The Lounge / Announcements / Race Relations-Racism / Religion and Ethics: Civil discourse is the focus here, regardless of topic matter. No insults, name calling, or putting down other posters (flaming). Consider it a lesson in civics.
• "Zone 2": All other forums not specified as Zone 1 or Zone 3: Baiting and polarizing opening posts and thread titles risk the thread being locked, moved, or trashed. Keep it relevant, choose wisely. Replies must contain significant and specific thread topic content to advance the discussion. No trolling. No hit and run flames. No hijacking or derailing threads.
  • Titles and Opening Posts:
    • Titles must be free of INFLAMMATORY words, name calling, and "pet names".
    • Content in opening posts must be 2 sentences or more and must contain the opinion of the member starting the thread. "Get a load of this" is not sufficient topical content. Summarize the topic to be discussed and why you think it needs discussion.
• "Zone 3": Flame Zone/Badlands/Rubber Room: The least moderated area on the site. Refer to stickied threads in each section for Rules. Extreme flaming threads and posts belong here. You must be 18 years or older to enter and participate in these forums. In addition -- you must be a member for 60 days AND have a minimum of 100 posts in order to post or "thank" posts in Zone 3.

Signatures:

• Signatures must be limited to the equivalent of 10 lines standard size type including spacing. Additional sig line vertical space is offered to "Contributing Members". See post below for details.
• No Advertising or Soliciting in signatures.

Titles Under User Avatar:

• Keep it Civil.
• Using the term "Banned" is prohibited in User Titles.

PM Rules:

• Using the PM system will only be allowed after establishing a 50 post count
• Posting information gained through private messages is prohibited unless specific permission is granted in a public forum and/or to a USMB staff member from the member who is a participant in the PM conversation.
• No advertising or promoting other messages boards is allowed.
• PM's are only viewable by the recipients unless reported to the staff. We respect your privacy. Should you have a specific problem or issue, report it. We are here to help.

All members and staff have the right to their own ideas, beliefs and faiths. Members have the right to constructively express these on USMessageBoard.com with equal respect and consideration. If you have a specific question/comment about these guidelines, please PM a moderator of your choice. Thank you and enjoy the forums!

 

[cereal_killer]

Many members have had some questions and concerns as to the rules and the enforcement of those rules. This doesn't answer all of the questions, nor can it, the 'moderator discretion' aspect is a nebulous but necessary tool, as some situations arise where no hard, fast rule exists or can exist without it becoming draconian in nature. This will give everyone a better idea of what to look for.

One:
A member can not infer another member engages in an act of beastiality in any forum

Two:
No, we Moderators cannot read your PMs unless those specific PMs are reported to us.

Three:
Accusing, insinuating or alluding to another poster as a pedophile is NOT allowed. If you think someone is a pedophile and you think you can prove it then call law enforcement, .

Four:
Selective quoting is not the same as modifying quotes and the quote in question will only be considered modified if the original posters user name is attached to it.

Five:
If you constantly attack another poster or an opposing side then you should be prepared to be neg repped, a lot and it is NOT considered abuse of the rep system. If, however you post a simple, “how are you, isn't it a nice day” type of post and someone neg reps it that IS abuse of the system and if it is reported we will do as the rules state.

Six:
Everyone here will be treated equally, no one will be granted special protection or unduly singled out for any reason. The board Rules and Guidelines apply to everyone, that means if someone can't hack it here they need to find someplace that better fits their temperament. It also means that if someone is found to be attempting to disrupt or undermine the board and it's members, that person will be given the opportunity to find another site to post on.

Seven:
Discussing administrators, moderators and rules in general on the open forum is not a violation of the rules. However, bringing a specific mod action or specifics of a mod action into the open forum IS a violation of the rules and will be dealt with accordingly. PLEASE NOTE: If a mod/admin thread (or any thread for that matter) has degenerated into nothing more than pissing, moaning, demeaning, degrading and insulting staff we will close and/or trash the thread in question at our discretion as indicated in the Rules and Guidelines.

Eight:
I know there have been some questions and concerns about supposed arbitrary mod actions recently, if you have a specific issue with it then contact the Admin personnel via PM and they will review it to determine if it's arbitrary as claimed or not, based entirely on the governing Rules and Guidelines.
All official moderator actions will be in red, all unofficial moderator suggestions are that only, suggestions, and not subject to moderator action, warnings, infractions or banning regardless of what color it is though, in order to alleviate any confusion non-official suggestions should be typed as normal, in black.

Nine:
Socks. If you think someone is a sock by all means report it, we will investigate using the tools at our disposal. If that poster is still around after that then we were unable to determine that poster was a sock and there is no need to continually harangue us over it, I don't care what you believe. Proof, not suspicion is the key.

Ten:
Patience on your parts and a little help will do more to ease this transition and make the board run smoothly than anything else. We will however not tolerate the manipulative little children's games some seem to have a propensity to indulge in at our expense. If we catch you doing it you'll get a vacation, if it happens again you get your permanent relocation notice.

Last order of business is signature sizes. Below you will find the differences in allowable signature sizes depending on ones user group. We do ask that you please remain compliant when it comes to how many lines you use in your signature. If staff request that your signature fall into the acceptable parameters for your user group you will have 4-6 hours to change it. Failure to comply will result in the sig being removed for you.

GUIDELINES FOR SIGNATURE SIZES

Gold Supporting Members

Regular Supporting Members

Regular Registered Members

 

[flacaltenn]

About "Specific Topical Content' in the USMB Zone2 Rules

What makes the rules and moderation unique at USMB is our focus on getting good discussions without making a lot of judgments on what is acceptable content and what is not. Good discussions can be contentious and nasty. They may contain very controversial subjects or words that other sites fret over. All we want is that each thread has a topic and that there is enough coherent discussion for folks to learn and enjoy reading the topics. If you just want to rumble and rant -- get a Twitter account. Like the professional rumblers do. Or use our World Famous (members only) Taunting Areas - where acting as a responsible caring human being is optional.

We provide 3 Zones for EVERY level of discussion. From heavily moderated Civil Discussion in Zone1 -- all the way to very adult satire and flaming in the Zone3 Taunting Forums. In BETWEEN those two -- now sits Zone2, the vast majority of USMB forums. A lot of these forums are very contentious and are the topics you are warned about NOT discussing at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with your own family -- like Politics, Religion, Environment, Race or Israel/Palestine. Some others are "rest and relaxation" areas that are not really expected to GET violently personal or contentious. Shouldn't be large squabbles breaking out in the Gardening or Music forums -- but it HAS happened. Courtesy and common sense should be expected.

So here are guidelines for complying with the moderation guidelines of keeping threads and discussions centered on "specific topical content".

• Write titles and opening posts to be limited in scope, unique to the other current listings in that forum and select the proper forum. The Original Poster (OP) has the responsibility of setting bounds to this discussion and making certain that THEY respect their topics more than any other participants and constantly strive to keep the discussion on THEIR topic.
• In Zone2 -- EVERY reply must have some NEW perspective on that specific thread topic that advances the discussion, clarifies a point, responds to on-topic questions.
• Before you hit the "Reply Button" check your post to guarantee that it is not just repetition or pure personal flame and that you've included something that advances the SPECIFIC topic of that thread.
• You have a limited time to edit or delete posts. Don't get so involved in personal squabbles or thread derailments that you can't go back and revise or delete your "illegal" content.
• Help us by using the "Report Button" to highlight posts or threads that are in trouble. Give us a head's up in the description of the report, if the problems are not limited to the specific post you are reporting.
• There is no "level of effort" that can be enforced on content. But we encourage you to post as though the WORLD is reading it. And act like the adults we assume that you are.
• READ THE Opening Posts. Don't dive in and post "drive-by" comments without knowing the bounds of the discussion.
• If you are on-topic and contributing, you MAY include some flame and snark directed at other members. This should be incidental to the post content, not something that is obviously the PURPOSE of that post. HOW you express that snark and flame -- we leave up to you. But we're not here to host pages of senseless member flaming.

If you respect the topics and their boundaries and you are contributing to the discussion in every post, you should not ever have a issue with the Zone2 "topical content" rule. However, remember the Site Wide rules apply in every forum and in them are the only specified prohibitions that thou shall not post.

If you don't intend to have completely civil, flame-less, and profanity free discussions, don't post in Zone1. Take all member confrontations to the Zone3 Taunting Zone forums. There's a place for everything at USMB.

If you understand the Posting Guidelines (rules) and this guide to complying, you'll hardly ever have an issue with moderation warnings, penalties, or content deletion on USMB. It's simple. It's common sense. And it's vital to make USMB a place where discussions are readable and sometimes educational.

 

[flacaltenn]

Revised May 23 2022 to move Race Relations and Religion to Zone1

For the convenience of Members, we're adding a "Zone Map" here so that new members will have an understanding of the Board layout and what USMB Moderation is looking at DIFFERENTLY in each Zone..

Always read the "sticky threads" at the top of every forum listing page for additional guidance and clarification.