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Discussion Guidelines
These discussion guidelines have been developed to outline the purpose of this board and expected conduct of those who participate. The Administrators, also known as Shepherds and Moderators, are responsible for enforcing the rules, and can moderate at their discretion to ensure that the desired spirit at these boards is maintained.
Board Purpose (Please Read - Important!)
This message board is intended to reflect the spirit of Christ--serving as a place where sincere seekers can ask questions, and where faithful followers of Christ can receive encouragement and instruction. This board is not for those who have already decisively made up their mind that Christ and his teachings are "not" for them; who merely wish to debate and argue against the truths as presented in the Bible, ignoring any and all reasons presented. Therefore, those who are here to discuss and learn or those who may not fully agree with us are encouraged to join, but those who merely wish to attack and discredit our beliefs are discouraged.
Forum Name
The name of the forum is the Open Bible Forum. This reflects our desire to open God's Word and learn from it. The Bible will be our primary source for all our topics and answers to questions, as we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, directly inspired by Him in all its parts. Other books claiming inspiration such as the Book of Mormon, the Apocrypha, the Urantia Book and the like will not be considered as authoritative, nor accurate.
Membership
You must register for an account and become a member in order to post here and include a verifiable and working email address. Anonymous/Guest postings are not allowed. Multiple identities will not be allowed. Please respect the chosen names of others and please address the individual with the name with which they present themselves. Upon joining, the admistration team reserves the right to request information to determine validity of the member and their posting status.
Language
The Open Bible Forum is rated "family friendly" and for "all ages", so please keep your words clean. Some words considered inappropriate have been blocked, and attempts to get around a blocked word by inserting a space or character will not be tolerated.
As a matter of etiquette, any posts typed in all capital letters will be deleted without notification. It is considered shouting and rude. If found offensive, pseudonyms, avatars or signatures will be modified and/or deleted by the administration team.
Personal Identification and Profiles
We ask that your signatures be low key and without graphics. We encourage you to use Bible verses in your signature in keeping with the purpose of this forum. Please note that the "Faith" section of the profile is mandatory.
Avatars are also to be low key and are not to exceed 90x90 pixels.
Manners
Within discussions, please be civil and courteous and do not resort to personal attacks and if you disagree with someone, please do so in an amicable manner. If you feel inappropriately attacked, please bring such cases privately to a moderator who can then intervene as necessary. Members may also use the 'report a post' function if they feel a post needs immediate attention from the adminstration team. While these instructions are likely unnecessary for the vast majority of participants, here is some biblical advice to help serve as a guide for conversations:
Respect the privacy of others. Do not post or otherwise distribute private emails or private messages from other users without first obtaining their consent. The adminstration team does reserve the right to read any personal messages via the board function if the need should arise.
Constructive Discussions
To have a constructive discussion, there are at least five main requirements:
Plagiarism, Copyright, References, and Misquoting
Plagiarism is not accepted here. Any information taken from another source must be referenced in some way. In most cases, all that is expected is a single link along with who you quoted. All Bible quotes must also be cited, and which version is used for the quotation.
Please respect the copyright laws when quoting from articles and books. For reference to what is fair usage of copyrighted material, please see this webpage.
The trustworthiness of sources and quality of references should also be determined; otherwise you might end up embarrassed. There are many ideas floating around on the Web, and the quality can generally be judged by where it came from. For example, you should be wary of sources that are predominately "opinionative", don't appear "educated" on the issue, or lack "professionalism". In addition, refrain from continually using references that have already been shown as false.
If you quote an article or excerpt, you must be prepared to discuss it in a meaningful way. Please do not paste an article and simply state 'discuss'. It will be considered 'hit and run' and will be removed at the admistration team's discretion.
Misquoting is also frowned upon and will be cause for intervention by a Moderator or Shepherd. It is best to quote an entire sentence, even paragraph if possible. However, quoting a few middle words where the authors intention clearly does not support your case is dishonest and it will not be accepted.
Spam/Trolling
Spam will not be accepted. By "spam" we mean links advertising a website, posts that only contain links, quoted articles, or massive amounts of text uninspiring to discussions. Such posts will be by a Moderator or a Shepherd at their discretion. If one can't spend the time discussing such links or articles, then others shouldn't be expected to bother either. Offenders will be notified and placed on the board's warning system. Trolling, that is, posting absurdities or deliberately offensive material to invoke responses also will not be tolerated.
Moderating
A Moderator and a Shepherd reserves the right to deal with any post they deem inappropriate, including for reasons not specifically mentioned here. Such moderation may include messages being edited or removed with or without warning. If you feel unjustly dealt with or do not understand the reasoning, please contact the Moderator or Shepherd in question directly and privately via the Personal Message function. We would like members to refrain from publically posting strong criticisms of this forum and/or its administration. If you have any questions on issues not covered here, please contact a Moderator or a Shepherd for advice. Comments regarding these rules of conduct are also welcome as long as they are constructive.
This forum uses the Invision Power Board warning system. General members who breach forum guidelines will receive an official warning, with five (5) warnings, the sixth (6) resulting in a ban. The member will be notified at the time of the warning. In time, if a member's behaviour improves and remains consistent, it is possible for the warnings to be cancelled out by positive recommendations and his status upgraded. If the member feels his behavior has improved but his status has not been upgraded, he should contact one of the Shepherds and express his concerns about his status.
The administration team may also suspend membership, either for a period or indefinitely, or place members on moderation (all posts will be read prior to their appearing on-line) if the need should arise. Actions taken by the administration team will be conveyed to the member as well as the reasons for those actions.
Final Note
By registering for membership and by posting here you agree to these rules and further agree to be bound by them.
Board Purpose (Please Read - Important!)
This message board is intended to reflect the spirit of Christ--serving as a place where sincere seekers can ask questions, and where faithful followers of Christ can receive encouragement and instruction. This board is not for those who have already decisively made up their mind that Christ and his teachings are "not" for them; who merely wish to debate and argue against the truths as presented in the Bible, ignoring any and all reasons presented. Therefore, those who are here to discuss and learn or those who may not fully agree with us are encouraged to join, but those who merely wish to attack and discredit our beliefs are discouraged.
Forum Name
The name of the forum is the Open Bible Forum. This reflects our desire to open God's Word and learn from it. The Bible will be our primary source for all our topics and answers to questions, as we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, directly inspired by Him in all its parts. Other books claiming inspiration such as the Book of Mormon, the Apocrypha, the Urantia Book and the like will not be considered as authoritative, nor accurate.
Membership
You must register for an account and become a member in order to post here and include a verifiable and working email address. Anonymous/Guest postings are not allowed. Multiple identities will not be allowed. Please respect the chosen names of others and please address the individual with the name with which they present themselves. Upon joining, the admistration team reserves the right to request information to determine validity of the member and their posting status.
Language
The Open Bible Forum is rated "family friendly" and for "all ages", so please keep your words clean. Some words considered inappropriate have been blocked, and attempts to get around a blocked word by inserting a space or character will not be tolerated.
As a matter of etiquette, any posts typed in all capital letters will be deleted without notification. It is considered shouting and rude. If found offensive, pseudonyms, avatars or signatures will be modified and/or deleted by the administration team.
Personal Identification and Profiles
We ask that your signatures be low key and without graphics. We encourage you to use Bible verses in your signature in keeping with the purpose of this forum. Please note that the "Faith" section of the profile is mandatory.
Avatars are also to be low key and are not to exceed 90x90 pixels.
Manners
Within discussions, please be civil and courteous and do not resort to personal attacks and if you disagree with someone, please do so in an amicable manner. If you feel inappropriately attacked, please bring such cases privately to a moderator who can then intervene as necessary. Members may also use the 'report a post' function if they feel a post needs immediate attention from the adminstration team. While these instructions are likely unnecessary for the vast majority of participants, here is some biblical advice to help serve as a guide for conversations:
- Write in a manner that you would want others to write to you - "in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12).
- "But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth." (Colossians 3:8)
- "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person." (Colossians 4:6)
- "In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." (Titus 2:7-8)
Respect the privacy of others. Do not post or otherwise distribute private emails or private messages from other users without first obtaining their consent. The adminstration team does reserve the right to read any personal messages via the board function if the need should arise.
Constructive Discussions
To have a constructive discussion, there are at least five main requirements:
- At Least Two People: This point should be obvious.
- A Specific Topic: All conversations should have one specific topic, and as such should remain on that topic. Any new topic that forks out and is too far removed, should be started as a new thread or brought to a moderator's attention.
- Knowledge: It is not expected that you should be thoroughly educated on an issue before commenting about it. At the same token, it is impossible for us to know everything. So if a topic is new to you or you don't know much about it, then it is good to spend some time researching to increase your knowledge before writing. Please also look on the board to see if your particular topic has already been discussed.
- Self-control: Chances are you will disagree with someone, and it is at this point discussions can turn nasty. Please remember to be respectful to others and keep to the topic rather than resorting to personal attacks.
- Respect for others in the discussion: Please avoid large copy/pastes. Summarize your ideas and give a link to supporting articles. Be specific in what you want to discuss and give clear reasons as to why you find x/y/z not satisfactory or convincing. We all desire to be understood so please be clear and coherent in your writing. Refrain from text messaging shorthand.
Plagiarism, Copyright, References, and Misquoting
Plagiarism is not accepted here. Any information taken from another source must be referenced in some way. In most cases, all that is expected is a single link along with who you quoted. All Bible quotes must also be cited, and which version is used for the quotation.
Please respect the copyright laws when quoting from articles and books. For reference to what is fair usage of copyrighted material, please see this webpage.
The trustworthiness of sources and quality of references should also be determined; otherwise you might end up embarrassed. There are many ideas floating around on the Web, and the quality can generally be judged by where it came from. For example, you should be wary of sources that are predominately "opinionative", don't appear "educated" on the issue, or lack "professionalism". In addition, refrain from continually using references that have already been shown as false.
If you quote an article or excerpt, you must be prepared to discuss it in a meaningful way. Please do not paste an article and simply state 'discuss'. It will be considered 'hit and run' and will be removed at the admistration team's discretion.
Misquoting is also frowned upon and will be cause for intervention by a Moderator or Shepherd. It is best to quote an entire sentence, even paragraph if possible. However, quoting a few middle words where the authors intention clearly does not support your case is dishonest and it will not be accepted.
Spam/Trolling
Spam will not be accepted. By "spam" we mean links advertising a website, posts that only contain links, quoted articles, or massive amounts of text uninspiring to discussions. Such posts will be by a Moderator or a Shepherd at their discretion. If one can't spend the time discussing such links or articles, then others shouldn't be expected to bother either. Offenders will be notified and placed on the board's warning system. Trolling, that is, posting absurdities or deliberately offensive material to invoke responses also will not be tolerated.
Moderating
A Moderator and a Shepherd reserves the right to deal with any post they deem inappropriate, including for reasons not specifically mentioned here. Such moderation may include messages being edited or removed with or without warning. If you feel unjustly dealt with or do not understand the reasoning, please contact the Moderator or Shepherd in question directly and privately via the Personal Message function. We would like members to refrain from publically posting strong criticisms of this forum and/or its administration. If you have any questions on issues not covered here, please contact a Moderator or a Shepherd for advice. Comments regarding these rules of conduct are also welcome as long as they are constructive.
This forum uses the Invision Power Board warning system. General members who breach forum guidelines will receive an official warning, with five (5) warnings, the sixth (6) resulting in a ban. The member will be notified at the time of the warning. In time, if a member's behaviour improves and remains consistent, it is possible for the warnings to be cancelled out by positive recommendations and his status upgraded. If the member feels his behavior has improved but his status has not been upgraded, he should contact one of the Shepherds and express his concerns about his status.
The administration team may also suspend membership, either for a period or indefinitely, or place members on moderation (all posts will be read prior to their appearing on-line) if the need should arise. Actions taken by the administration team will be conveyed to the member as well as the reasons for those actions.
Final Note
By registering for membership and by posting here you agree to these rules and further agree to be bound by them.