Introduction
The Battlefront Rules of Engagement are a supplement to the Posting Guidelines and the User Agreement. Adherence to these rules is required for participation in The Battlefront.
General Rules & Guidelines
The Battlefront Rules of Engagement are a supplement to the Posting Guidelines and the User Agreement. Adherence to these rules is required for participation in The Battlefront.
General Rules & Guidelines
- General Rules
- If you believe someone to be in violation of the rules, use the report button. Moderation is a team effort, and using the appropriate channels allows the entire team to be aware of concerns. Moderators will not respond to PMs regarding moderation.
- No faking moderation tags - these are for moderator use only.
- Do not reply to spammers. Report suspected spammers to the moderators.
- Some individual threads may have rules for participation in addition to these Rules of Engagement. Check the opening post before contributing to the thread.
- Thread Title
- The thread title must plainly describe the subject of discussion for the thread.
- Profanity or offensive language in thread titles is forbidden.
- Thread Scope
- Threads should have a reasonably limited scope.
- The opening post for a thread must contain a point of contention. Threads that lack contention will be relocated to The Lounge.
- Stay on topic. The discussion is expected to stay reasonably within the bounds of the subject defined by the opening post.
- Thread Necromancy
- Threads that haven't been active for more than two months are not to be resurrected. Start a new thread.
- Do Not "Link and Run"
- The opening post must contain more than a link to a topic of interest; it should provide some sort of commentary or insight to start off the thread.
- Thread replies must contain something more than a link. Include a brief summary of the linked information, why it's relevant to the thread, etc.
- Maintain the Standard of Discourse
- To promote adult conversation and clarity, we prohibit the use of "cutesy nicknames" when discussing public figures, groups, and organizations. Using cutesy, disingenuous, or derogatory names in the Battlefront hinders productive discussion.
- Sometimes general terms (like "tankie," "Nazi," "doomer," or "TERF") are useful as convenient shorthand, provided they are used in a relevant and constructive context.
- Moderator discretion will be used to determine if a term is a cutesy nickname that is lowering the standard of discourse. Whether or not you agree with a moderator's decision, you must abide by it.
- Contribute Positively to the Conversation
- Add positive value to the discussion by providing good discussion, counterpoint, insight, and facts. Repetitive trolling, personal attacks, off-topic pictures, or other similar low-effort posts will be subject to moderator attention.
- Learn from the knowledge and experience of other posters. Repetitively arguing from a position of demonstrated ignorance will be treated by the moderators as trolling.
- The burden of proof lies with the poster making the assertion. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- Engage in genuine good faith with an intent to further discussion. Sealioning, JAQing-off, and other forms of thread-crapping are not welcome in The Battlefront.
- No straw men. Argue against the actual stances taken by other posters, without twisting other posters' position to better suit your argument. Playing devil's advocate is permitted but requires announcing your intentions. If you want to argue against a position that is not held by other contributors to the thread, clearly indicate that you are doing so.
- Quoting Articles
- No plagiarism.
- Do not post large articles verbatim. This presents copyright issues, and large blocks of text disrupt the flow of the forum.
- Select appropriate excerpts that provide enough context for discussion and highlight the relevant parts that support your point.
- Provide a link to the original source, if available.
- Images
- Images and graphs can be used as a support for argumentation, but cannot replace it.
- Images that provide no value to the discussion (funny pictures, memes, image macros, etc.) are not allowed. This includes putting them in spoiler tags.
- Use of Fallacy Ref images is restricted to moderators only.
