This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect as you would a public place. We are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge, and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid human judgment in our community and keep this a kind, friendly place for civilized public discourse.

SUMMARY

  • Treat the forum like a public place: be respectful, constructive, and stay on-topic.

  • Disagree with ideas, not people: no name-calling, personal attacks, tone-policing, or reflexive arguing.

  • Add value: if your post does not improve the discussion, reconsider or reframe it.

  • Use the tools: like, bookmark, edit, mute, watch, and especially flag problems instead of replying to them.

  • Keep it civil and clean: no hate speech, harassment, doxxing, impersonation, obscene content, spam, or vandalism.

  • Keep it tidy: post in the right category, avoid cross-posting, avoid no-content replies, don’t derail threads, don’t sign posts.

  • Post only what you have rights to share: no copyrighted material without permission, no piracy or illegal how-to.

  • Moderators can remove content or accounts at any time.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds value to the conversation, reconsider what you want to say, and reframe it if needed.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering topics that are already being addressed. Spend time browsing the topics before replying or starting your own. You’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember, it is better to comment on ideas, not criticize people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling

  • Ad hominem attacks

  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content

  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations here set the tone for every new participant. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting and informative place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience and everyone else’s too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it. Let’s enhance it!

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. Yet so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it. Plus, it consumes your energy and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

To maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.

  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or ■■■■■■■■ explicit.

  • Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief ?? anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.

  • Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to post things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less time cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category; please read the category definitions.

  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.

  • Don’t post no-content replies.

  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.

  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

Powered by You

This site is operated by your friendly moderator team and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in Site Feedback and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact the moderators.