

Congregation Rules - Read before posting (Updated 11/10)

Discussion in 'Congregation of the Masses' started by Mekkah, Aug 3, 2009.

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  1. Mekkah

    Super Moderator

    Feb 8, 2005
    Welcome to Congregation of the Masses, Smogon's "off-topic" forum. This is where you discuss things that don't really belong anywhere else. That means talk about sports goes into the sports arena subforum, and talk about Pokemon goes to one of these places. Talk about something that pertains to all generations goes in the forum of the most recent generation, currently Uncharted Territory.

    NEW: It was always implied, but serious topics go in this forum. Joke topics go in Firebot. If you don't intend for your topic to be for serious discussion, or if your topic isn't something that promotes discussion rather than just response, it belongs in Firebot. This goes for replies, too. A joke here and there is fine, but try to keep things in this forum on-topic.

    Here are some other guidelines. Besides these, the global rules are in effect here as well, and breaking any of them is grounds for a warning. Make sure to read them carefully if you haven't yet.

    1. No trolling. This forum is for serious discussion only. Trolling includes (but is not limited to) trying to encourage negative response on purpose. You are also not to insult other users. The nature of this forum allows many controversial issues to be brought up, and you will almost certainly disagree with other posters. It is important to remember that we're all just having fun posting on a message board. Be respectful of your fellow posters.

    2. As you would expect, you may not flame (insult) other users, either. This is not limited to directly insulting them - if you're worried you are toeing the line, tone it down if you would like avoid warnings. Attacking your fellow posters' character and posts like "(x) totally just owned you" apply here. There is never a need to belittle other users, debate the issue, not the debaters.

    3. Threads need to have actual content that promote discussion. We don't need to know what you had for breakfast today. Most common topics are usually news items, politics and real life events near you. This applies to the replies as well as to the opening posts of threads - this is not a post count ++ forum. Try to make sure your posts are contributing something to the discussion. This includes posts that only include simple messages like "Good Post" and "Agreed", as well as posting a link with no introduction.

    4. Before you make a topic about something, make sure you check beforehand whether there is already an active topic about it (check the first two pages).

    5. This is just a reminder that this is a political discussion forum. You are allowed and encouraged to post your beliefs, but remember that the point of this forum is discussion. Wording your arguments and beliefs in a way that can be expected to offend or provoke inflammatory reactions from other users is not going to be accepted. Keep how other people read your posts in mind - there's a certain degree of moderator subjectivity in this forum, so make sure you take that into account before you press the 'Submit' button on your post.

    Similarly, if you aren't willing to discuss something, you probably shouldn't post about it to begin with.
  2. Synre


    Apr 4, 2005
    Edited to include some pointers about when you should be posting in Firebot instead of Congregation. Not likely something you'll get a warning for unless it becomes a recurring issue, but apparently it isn't as implied as we thought, so I put it in the rules.

    Also added some bold for emphasis on the bottom of rule 5, since it's been coming up lately as well.
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