Right now our forums have different rules or ways we handle each forum. In the paid forums the mods are a bit more lenient on how they handle things. Criticisms and negative posts have a broader range than what we allow in the free forums. When a paying customer posts on the free sports forums they are judged as the other free members and under the more strict guideline. The paid forums have a bit of privacy. Free sports Forum Moderators are more strict and that is my call. Posts there can be read by many and I would not want some of those posts seen by others. Then we have the social media forums (The Pub and Too Hot) that are moderated differently as well. So please be mindful of the forum that you are posting in at the time. Here are the specific rules for Too Hot for Swamp Gas: 1. Flaming, harassing, insulting, or threatening another member is not allowed nor will it be tolerated. 2. Profanity is not permitted; everybody slips once in a while... The occasional "hell", "damn", "ass" “shit” etc... are fine, just not every other word of each post. The F word, even with symbols "F#%*" is never permitted. G.D. is not permitted. WTF is allowed as the F could be what Frig, but on the other hand MILF is not allowed, as the F is always the F bomb. 3. Spamming is not allowed. 4. Posting of links to Pornographic sites is not permitted. Posting of pornographic or overtly sexual images is not acceptable. 5. Arguing your point with a moderator or refusing to do or stop doing something a Moderator has asked you about, will not be tolerated. If you have an issue with a Moderator, arguing with him or her on the forum is not a smart move. Send a PM to one of the site administrators. Oklahomagator, Unclenunzio, or ETGator 6. Screen names, avatars, and links of an offensive or suggestive nature will not be tolerated and may be removed at the Administrators' discretion. A member cannot have a political aspect to their signature and/or their Avatar. 7. Posting of personal information (i.e., phone numbers, addresses, employment) within topics are not allowed. 8. Copyrighted material or copying non-copyright material When posting an article and link to a news source, keep in mind the following: If the article has more than 8 paragraphs then post 4 paragraphs If the article is 6-7 paragraphs then post 3 paragraphs If the article is 3-5 paragraphs, then post 2 paragraphs. 9. Moderators and admins are not to be blocked or placed on your "ignore" list. 10. Posters with little posting history may NOT leave negative ratings without providing an explanation. To put this another way, posters with an established position do not have to explain their negative ratings when the post goes against their established position. Moderators or Administrators of the forums will determine if the poster's history is enough so that the poster may give negative ratings. 11. Bumping threads for the sole purpose of getting them BTTT (back to the top) is not allowed. Bumping an old thread should use the same threshold as starting a new one. Links or commentary to further the discussion are required (See next section) 12. Initial posts must contain original comment from the person starting a thread. An initial post containing only a linked headline, meme, or quote may be deleted if it does not also include an original comment from the person starting the thread on why the OPster thinks the posted topic worthy of discussion or debate. Comments must be more substantial than an inane, "This is interesting." Poster is required to expand on what's interesting about the topic being posted 13. References to the race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion of a person or people are not permitted in the thread's title unless that mention directly pertains to the topic of the thread. 14. If you copy or quote a post, do not change the wording of the post you copy in the quote box. If you are quoting a long post, you may shorten your quote to highlight just the pertinent part. 15. New posters with less than 20 posts who use foreign IP addresses or foreign ISPers will be automatically banned. No questions asked and no other reason needed. 16. Thread titles can be edited by a moderator to be more factually correct. Thread titles should not have nicknames for politicians in an attempt to keep the conversation more civil. 17. Nazi and KKK references are not allowed 18. You are not allowed to call out a poster in a post who has not posted in the current thread. 19. OPs should use the chart below for sites that are acceptable to start new threads. 20. Verified Twitter, Biue Sky, and Truth Social accounts may be used to start threads. 21. Sites that are just a collection of links may not be used to start threads, Drudge, MSN, and Yahoo are such examples.
#5 ……Awesome that 2 of 3 site admins can’t be trusted for objectivity. Is that considered “arguing your point with a moderator”?
Yeah. I definitely need clarity on not being able to argue my point with a moderator while at the same time not being able to put them on ignore
Moderators both post and moderate. If a moderator makes a post in his capacity as a poster, in other words, expresses an opinion about the topic being discussed, anyone can argue that with him. When posting as a moderator, or when sending a PM as a moderator, arguing isn't allowed. That's why posters are encouraged to then send PMs to one of the three listed admins.
I also feel like a mods reasonings should be public when a post is in dispute. Why take it to a PM? To me, it’s preemptive damage control for, what is likely to be, a lack of consistency in some of the decisions that are made by certain mods.
It is important that posts that are deleted then cease to exist. It would not make sense if we then took the debate public. Certain debates are allowed to remain public. (This thread for example).
You can argue topical points. But the point of this rule is to end the often lingering whining we deal with after a post is edited/deleted for a rule violation. Some guys act like their life is at stake over this stuff. Topical debate is 100% OK.
