Rules of the Road

Rules of the Road

First and foremost, posts and comments should be respectful. In keeping with this, certain kinds of comments should be avoided. These include:

1. Comments of a discriminatory or prejudicial nature: Under no circumstances should there be discrimination on bases such as race, gender, age, class, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation or other sweeping categorical bases not listed above. Common sense should be observed when in doubt; if your comments are openly prejudicial against any group, they should not be posted.

2. Personal attacks: This category can be much broader than it seems at first glance. Obviously, there should be no name-calling or overt put-downs in our discussion. However, this rule is not restricted solely to these more blatant forms of personal attack. Please be respectful of the viewpoints of others, even if you disagree with them. We cannot all agree, but we can agree to disagree.

3. Spamming: We do not want the forums or Community to be flooded with repeated comments that simply take up space and load the forum down with redundancy. Spamming includes advertisements, but may also apply to individual comments posted repeatedly in several places unnecessarily.

4. Solicitation: The Community is meant for discussion and personal networking. Please do not use the Forum area or Blog posts to solicit money, donations, or other such services from others, or for advertising purposes.

We recognize that the nature of social networks makes them great places not only for discussion, but for promotion of one's business. In the past, our rules have strictly forbidden such activity; however, in recognition of the fact that some personal business endeavors go hand-in-hand with the spiritual topics often discussed here, we have now relaxed that policy. A Discussion Group has been created for that purpose.

5. Harassment/abuse: Many activities that fall under this heading also fall under other headings, but harassment and abusive treatment in general will not be tolerated. This includes things already mentioned, such as name calling and personal attacks, but also includes things such as stalking (following a person’s posting activity and posting abusive messages to them in many different places), personal threats/intimidation, extortion, etc.

6. The goals and aims of Theosophy.Net are laid out in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). We encourage individuals to examine the original sources and documents available for the various Religions, Philosophies and Sciences.

7. Proselytizing, billboarding and trolling: We recognize that due to the nature of much of the conversation there will be some very long postings. We also respect the fact that many people have very strong beliefs. However, at Theosophy.Net we also represent a point of view. Our focus is on an intelligent, thoughtful discourse. Billboarding, or posting material with the intent of dominating conversation, proselytizing (and other varieties of gathering followers, individually or in groups), or deliberately sowing discord is inappropriate behavior.

Note: This includes private messages. Harassment is not acceptable just because it is not public.

If you feel that you are being harassed or treated poorly by another member through private messages on the Community, please do not hesitate to contact an administrator. The Theosophical Network Admin Team can be reached by sending a message to TheosNet@live.com.

We reserve the right to delete any content in order to bring the Community into accord with these guidelines. If any such action is taken, we will notify any concerned party and explain our reason for taking such action.

Suspension Policy

Moderators may remove content deemed offensive. Members acting against the best interest of the site may find their accounts suspended for a time, and in extreme cases removed along with all its content.

Locking Discussions

Finally, discussions may be locked under different circumstances. These include, but are not limited to:

• Becoming too heated: It may be the case that a particular discussion is so controversial or touchy that the participants seemingly cannot restrain themselves from resorting to personal attacks or destructive comments. If repeated action is taken during the course of a given discussion to steer it in a more constructive direction and no positive change occurs, the thread may be locked as a last resort.

Again, whenever such action is taken, an explanation will accompany it.

Moderators reserve the right to make on-the-spot judgment calls as issues arise. We will fall back on these guidelines as we mediate any disputes that arise, but may also make decisions based on our own discretion.

In addition, we operate under the Creative Commons License, the terms of which may be read HERE. We reserve the right to make exceptions on a case by case basis.