Rules of the Forum

[nestopwar]

Posting the discussion rules for comment

Rules of North East Stop The War Coalition Discussion Forum

1. Those participating in the forum post topics for discussion, and or, post information and articles for discussion that are relevant to the stop the war movement.

2. Everyone is free to present their views on the topics, articles and information posted, but not to challenge the views of others directly. They may not directly voice agreement, or disagreement, with views presented by others in the forum. If you disagree you simply elaborate your own view. This is done in order to enrich the elaboration of the topics, discussion on information and articles and ensure that there is no lobbying for ones positions, that those who wish to contribute can do so without fear of intimidation, and to ensure that participants may reach their own conclusions without being put under pressure.  Participants are not permitted to write about other individuals in the forum.  However, you have the right to complain to the moderator if you feel any individual post is in violation of the rules of the forum.

3. The discussion forum is moderated by nestopwar.


General Protocol and Disclaimer

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is warmongering, racist, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually discriminating, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International law. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason.  We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

[Roger]

Recently had an interesting dicussion about this. Question of whether you should have rules or not. It is said that there shouldn't be any rules and that it is the ruling circles that make the rules and we are better off as a movement without rules or in this case a forum without rules. I think that this is looking at the question upside down because it is the ruling circles that break all rules - ours and their own that they have been forced to accept.  I would hold that once the content is decided then the rules that protect that content must be fought for. It is interesting to note that in society at large the ruling circles enact laws to break the rules that we have fought for to protect societies civilised values. So , without a modern constitution that protects legal  rights, for example, the ruling class can come along and break that with their laws for incarcerating somone without trial as they are doing breakind hundreds of years of habeus corpus.  Let alone their continuous breaking of the rights of people in a modern society  to a livelihood, to housing etc.  So, the question is fighting to defend and give rise to rules that protect the civilised values of the people is an important part of the struggle  to defeat the activities of the ruling circles to impose their reactionary policies.  They break the rule of law especially those laws that in some way protect the people.  As we have seen war criminals like Bush, Blair and his cabinet colleagues become protected by such law breaking of the state they control. 

So, I think it is important to have rules for our discussion which facilitate a forum like atmosphere where people can elaborate their views without fear or favour on all matters to strenghten the anti-war movement.  Having such rules is a blow to the warmongers.