Hello, and welcome to SkepticalViewer.com!  Discussions on this site are different, people don't insult each other or show disrespect because of a disagreement — and that's the way we want to keep it.  There are a few basic site rules, and two "Cardinal Rules" that should be observed at all times when taking part in the conversation here at The Skeptical Viewer:

Basic Courtesy

1) Stay on Topic — Don't "hijack" threads or "derail" the conversations, if you see this happening just start a new thread in the forums and instead of replying about the new topic (and derailing the conversation even further) post a link to your thread with a brief explanation so everyone else who wants to take part in the new conversation knows they should move over to the new thread.

2) Avoid Profanity — This isn't just about "cursing", it's about the quality of ideas.  Occasionally, a little profanity might be entirely appropriate, but much of the time it can detract from the conversation, lowering the level of discourse.

3) Show Basic Courtesy — Okay, this one's a cop-out but there's a lot of little stuff people sometimes do, but shouldn't: Posting the same thing in multiple threads, Starting the same thread in multiple sub-forums, etc. There are certain things everyone "should know better" than to do, and if you don't — well you'll probably see some of your posts being deleted.

Cardinal Rules

1) Show Respect — People are going to disagree with you, and when it happens you're going to think you're 100% right and they're 100% wrong. It's going to happen, that's just the way it is. How you deal with that is important. There are no hard and fast rules to explain what is "disrespectful".  It could be starting off you're reply by saying, "WRONG!" or perhaps the subtle suggestion that the person who is disagreeing with you might be an inexperienced teenager, or perhaps a little slow in the head.  Anything that could be described as namecalling, rude, sarcastic, snide, sneering or snippy is probably something best deleted before you hit SUBMIT on your post.

Ultimately, when someone feels insulted then they're not going to listen to what you have to say. It's in your own best interest and the interest of the conversation on this site as a whole that you go out of your way to avoid saying things that could be taken the wrong way by the person you're talking to. Of course, some people are going to get insulted no matter what — we understand that, but with everyone doing their part that doesn't happen very often, and in those cases it's not you that's going to get the attention of the moderators.

2) Use Logic & Facts — Because Cardinal Rule #1 is to Show Respect, people don't win arguments here by being loud and obnoxious. They also don't win by being popular.  On this site respect is earned by people who say things that make sense.  The more sense you make, the more value you've just added to the discussion.  It's pretty simple.  This of course means for some people that they need to set aside certain preconceptions in order to find common ground to discuss things with others.  For instance, not everyone has the same religious beliefs, so we can't really bring religious beliefs into a general conversation (unless the conversation happens to be about various religious beliefs). Logic and Facts are a universal language we all understand and most, if not all of the discussions on this site should be conducted within that realm.

For tips on what not to do, I highly recommend the list of Logical Fallacies at Nizkor.org

Consequences

The site administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit or delete posts and comments for any reason, as well as to suspend or ban users. No explanation or warning is necessary, but unless you've crossed way over the line you'll almost always get a warning (or three, or a hundred) first.  We tend to be very forgiving, as long as people learn from their mistakes and don't continue to break rules.  On the other hand, warnings sometimes come in the form of having your post edited, with comments explaining why it was edited.  This can be mildly embarassing, and we prefer to not have to do it, but that's also extra incentive to follow the rules (especially the Cardinal Rules) as best you can.

Again, we rarely ban users, but we regularly edit posts to publicly point out unecessary profanity or discourteous discourse.  This is a bit different from other boards, but we like it because kicking people out of the conversation is not what we're about here — and unlike other boards we never kick anyone out for disagreeing.  We want everyone to be able to join in the conversation, and we want that conversation to be, above all else, respectful and well reasoned.  If that sounds like something you'd enjoy then I'm proud to welcome you to the Skeptical Viewer Community! 

Questions?

If you would like something clarified, please use the Contact form.  The link is always at the top of the page.  Some quick tips: If you want to ask us whether or not something would be considered "insulting" or "profanity", chances are that if you have to ask it's better off left unsaid or rephrased a different way.  If you're confused about why a post was edited, the answer is inevitably going to be that something might have been taken offensively by another reader or that it was unecessarily profane (or broke some other rule) so a quick glance at the rule list above will usually point you in the right direction.

It's important to note that while we tend not to lock too many threads or ban too many users, we are very censor-happy when it comes to editing the language (not the ideas) of posts that we perceive to violate the spirit of our rules.  That doesn't mean we're mad at you or that you've got a black mark on your record, and it may just mean that we've been overly stringent, but as we're editing language and not ideas we tend to err on the side of being a little strict and it really does help make the conversations here better, so please no writing in to ask about that unless it's something really out of the norm.