Forum Rules & Infractions

[danp]

General Rules

Treat each other with the same respect you would if you were talking to each other face to face. If there's a good chance the person you're talking to would punch you in the face for saying what you're about to type, it may be a sign that you want to reword your post. Unfortunately the relative anonymity of the Internet allows people the world over to say things they would never say in real life without fear of any repercussions.

Try to keep debates friendly. While it's fairly well understood that 10 gun owners will give you 20 opinions on the same subject, the key to disagreement is to keep it friendly and sometimes realizing that the best option is to agree to disagree. Don't let a debate turn into a personal fight, that is childish.

Also keep in mind that your words reflect on the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association and all firearm owners in general. Fair or not, if you come on here and act like a jerk people are going to associate your bad attitude with the organization and firearm owners as a whole. Please don't make the rest of us look like uneducated, small-minded idiots just because you choose to be.

Defined Rules

The following is a list of the currently defined infractions, whether or not a warning may be given, how many points they give, and how long it takes for the infraction to expire.

PLEASE NOTE: WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING IN THIS LIST LIKE "NEVER EXPIRES" OR "EXPIRES IN 1 MONTH" THAT IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT, RELATED TO A BAN. IT IS HOW LONG THE INFRACTION STICKS BEFORE IT IS PHASED OUT AND FORGOTTEN. PLEASE SEE THIS THREAD (How rules are enforced) TO UNDERSTAND HOW THESE RULES ARE ENFORCED AND THE RELATED PUNISHMENTS BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS.

Hateful Content

Extreme (No warning, 320 points, Never expires)
Simply put, we are not interested in racial slurs or when your next KKK meeting is.

Inflammatory (No warning, 20 points, Expires in 1 month)
Think all the world's problems are the fault of an entire [race, religion, etc]? Save it for another forum.
Note: This rule does not apply to political parties/ideaologies, you are more than welcome to blame all the world's problems on liberals, conservatives, libertarians, or especially socialists.

Borderline (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
Please keep the subtle, implied racism, etc. in your head.

Illegal Content

Blatant (No warning, 320 points, Never expires)
Posting content that could get you or us arrested will result in not only a ban, but us contacting law enforcement. If you can't figure out the kind of stuff we're talking about, you'll probably never be affected by this rule.

Gray Area (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
We do not want to know where you pirate your music, movies and TV shows from or similar things.

Illegal Activity

Willful (No warning, 320 points, Expires in 1 month)
Are you knowingly offering or encouraging others to partake in a straw purchase? Mail a firearm directly across state lines to a non-FFL? Sell someone a handgun without going through an FFL/Sheriff? We don't want to be associated with you.

Ignorant (Warning optional, 10 points, Expires in 1 month)
Same as above, but we don't think you did it knowingly and on purpose. However we still really need to drive home the point of how badly such behavior reflects on all firearm owners.

Pornography

Blatant (No warning, 20 points, Expires in 1 month)
If you can see body parts that you can't show on a normal beach, it's blatant pornography.

Gray Area (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
If Maxim or FHM wouldn't publish it, you're entering a gray area. When in doubt compare what you're posting to what SoberByker posts, his pictures bring many people enjoyment, but don't go too far past that.

Gore/Death

Non-hunting (No warning, 10 points, Expires in 1 month)
We have no interest in pictures or videos of car crashes, shooting victims, war casualties. There are two exceptions to this rule:

1. Pictures of wounds sustained from negligent handling of firearms. Such things can serve as a grim reminder of how careful we must be when partaking in our hobby.
2. Anything from breaking news.

Excessive Hunting (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
It's one thing to show a picture of you with your recent hunting accomplishment, but there are a lot of people that probably don't want to see your step-by-step process of gutting a deer, or the remains of a coyote's head you hit with a .308.

Profanity

In Thread Title (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
Please do not use profanity or masked profanity in thread titles.

Excessive (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
Profanity within posts is fine to a certain extent and often necessary in a text-based medium, but if your language would make a dock worker or marine blush, please tone it down.

Trolling

Misquoting (No warning, 20 points, Expires in 1 month)
The forum software allows you users to "quote" other people's responses in their reply. While cutting out parts of a quote for brevity is OK, manipulating someone's post in a quote to make it look like they said something they did not is a big no-no.

Sock Puppetry (No warning, 40 points, Expires in 1 month)
Creating multiple accounts for the purpose of bolstering your own arguments and causing drama will result in all accounts being banned. Yes, we can figure this out pretty easily. For more information please see the Wikipedia entry on Sock Puppetry.

Armchair Expert

Commando (No warning, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
Please do not offer dangerous advice that may get people killed or injured. Examples of this would be bad ammunition reloading or gun-smithing advice. If you're not 100% sure about something you're free to offer advice, just please be clear about that. Preface such posts with "I'm not totally sure but I think..." or "To the best of my knowledge..." and let people know to wait for more responses.

Lawyering (No warning, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
Please do not offer advice that could land someone in jail. The last thing we need is people telling other members that's it's perfectly OK to carry a firearm in a car without a License To Carry Firearms, or that you can sell someone a handgun without going through an FFL. Like above, don't be afraid to post what you think is correct, just don't state things as fact when you aren't sure without a disclaimer.

Harassment

Blatant Threats (No warning, 20 points, Expires in 1 month)
Want to physically hurt someone? Seek counseling and don't use our forum to relay such threats.

Subtle Threats (Warning optional, 10 points, Expires in 1 month)
Don't try to be sneaky about the above rule.

Excessive Personal Attacks (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
This will probably be our most controversial rule, and it is a new one. At the time of writing these rules the forum has become a much less civil place than it once was. There is a certain percentage of people who seem to be unable to agree to disagree and debate civilly. Often their posts include name calling and outright, non-constructive mocking of people's ideas and opinions. It's one thing to criticize someone's actions and ideas, it is another to be a jerk about it. We thought for a while that a forum related to firearm ownership would not have these issues as it is mostly adults taking part, but we have been proven wrong. For whatever reason the anonymity of the Internet seems to reduce certain full-grown adults to the mental state of children on a playground. Simply put such anti-social behavior will not be tolerated on this forum as it breeds contempt and ill-will among all members of the community who can behave civilly. This forum has a very specific purpose: To bring together firearm owners so we can share information and organize as a force to expand and protect our hobby. People who act like jerks disrupt the friendly group cohesion that we need to fulfill our goals.

Classifieds

Discussion (Warning optional, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
We do not allow discussion in classifieds posts, if you have a question send it through a private message.

Price Commentary (No warning, 5 points, Expires in 1 month)
If you think a seller is asking too much for an item, don't look at it, someone else might think it's a great deal. The market will take care of everything, just as it has for thousands of years.

Note: Posting replies is now completely disabled in the Classifieds system (except for feedback and group buy sections.) As such these infractions are now depreciated.

Spam

Unrelated (No warning, 320 points, Never expires)
We're not interested in your iPods, phones, or pharmaceuticals. If you're breaking this rule, it is doubtful you'll ever read this. This does not apply to posting links to bona-fide deals or sales that people might want to jump on (for example if Best Buy has a really nice TV at a great price)

Related (Warning optional, 20 points, Expires in 1 month)
If you are selling something, put it in the classifieds. If you are a business, make sure it's in the commercial section. This goes double if it's the only reason you signed up. We don't need gun shops from Hawaii signing up to just post a list of every item they have for sale in the general discussion area.