Rules for the Religion Forum

[Don]

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful the Especially Merciful

Complete Policies for the Religion Forum

In furtherance of the registration guidelines for GUPSHUP these are the complete policies for the Religion Forum. We aim to promote decent, constructive and positive discussion, allowing participants to share their knowledge on faith-based issues in a civil and respectful environment. We encourage participants to make this so and any assistance we as moderators can offer we will gladly provide.

Policies

1. All articles posted must include a reference, whether they have been taken from websites, books or any other sources. We encourage members to use relevant parts of the article and then provide the link to the whole article. If the article is your own original thought, please state clearly (either on top of the article or at the bottom)
   
2. No post or thread shall be allowed that is for the express purpose of picking fights with other members, and/or name-calling other participants in this regard. A thread that has an indecent, offensive, misleading or provocative title shall be modified/removed. Posts containing indecent, flirtatious, foul, offensive or abusive language or insulting and derogatory to other members, their family or relatives shall be removed. Broadly speaking, topics opened for a discussion on a particular topic should stick to discussion on that or any directly related topic. Please don't derail discussions by irrelevant side-topics. Open a new thread in such cases, or the moderators may split the original thread to allow smooth flow of discussions.
   
3. We welcome constructive discussion and positive examination of any aspects of Islam and all other religions. Please note - We seek to learn more about other religions, and promote accurate and productive discussions in this pursuit. Hence we highly encourage participants from other (non-Islamic) faiths to contact the forum moderators in this regard, and help us to ensure that we can fulfill these aims, and to report any violation of the wider policies. But specifically any posts containing defamation of, insults, ridicule or making a mockery of:
   
   - Allah (God)
   - Divine texts (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.)
   - His Prophets and Messengers, and their families (wives, children, grandchildren etc.)
   - His Books and Laws
   - The Companions or disciples of any of the Messengers
   - Any other religious practices, personalities, places, items etc which are not stated in the above points, and are deemed sensitive by other members or the moderators.
   
   will not be tolerated. Showing any disrespect towards them is not acceptable under any circumstances.
   
4. Any posts that contain deliberately distorted and/or misinterpreted material may be removed. This will be at the discretion of the moderators.
   
5. Multiple nicks - We do take notice of people using multiple nicks. Though in general we tolerate this, those who keep multiple nicks must not use them for any adverse purpose.

Any violations of above rules may result in the posts being removed/edited and the thread deleted (as the case maybe). Repeat violations may result in additional restrictions imposed by the Admin. These policies are not exhaustive, however, these are the minimum which we will enforce to allow for a smooth functioning of this sensitive forum. Please feel free to advice us if we missed anything. These policies may be updated at any time based on additional feedback.

In case you have any questions or complaints, please contact the forum moderators and wait for their response. Please use PM or email for such communications. If you recieve no response within a reasonable time, or are not satisfied with the response, please contact the Admin. The Religion Forum is only meant for dedicated discussions set out in the forum description and not to put forward complaints.

This is a place for all of us to share our ideas and views, so we hope you have a great learning experience in our Religion forum. We thank all our members to help us in making this the premiere place for all faith-related discussions and continue to look forward for your support and suggestions to make it even better.

[Sadiyah]

As most of you must be aware that 'Report Bad Post'
is an option that has been made available and has been functioning for a few months now.

Given that this forum receives quite a lot of traffic and we have quite a lot of members posting, it could be that some posts go unnoticed by me (and perhaps other moderators). Therefore, in order to maintain a decent environment and sanity, I'd like to request you all to make use of this service and/or feel free to drop me (and other moderators of the forum) a PM if you feel something needs immediate attention of the moderators rather than resorting to personally attacking each other.

Your cooperation would be much appreciated.

[Submission To Peace]

To make posting and surfing easier and to maintain a high standard of interesting and informative debate, please make sure you stick to the following rules:

1. Refrain from quoting LONG posts, as it causes distraction to the eye. Better quote the part in a post that you are directly referring to...otherwise delete some paras or use @ to directly address the poster whom you want to reply.

2. Do NOT quote a post when your reply follows right after it. It takes up unnecessary space and makes reading difficult. It can disrupt the flow of a thread, because posters have to scroll through large amounts of text that they may not wish to read.

3. Avoid irrelevant one liners and idle chitchat, as it derails the topic under discussion.

While posting regarding the views of a particular sect/religion, if possible, it is preferable to clearly state which sect/religion is being referenced in the description shared. So people who would like to avoid reading material supporting a specific view have the option to ignore it.

Moderation

It includes editing, moving, and deletion of posts or threads. It should be noted that, posts and threads are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, in an effort to create a balance between competing points of view and to treat all posters fairly, given all the circumstances. In general, posters will not be informed that their posts have been moderated. However, a reason for editing may be mentioned in the relevant post. Members should not re-edit the post after a moderator has edited it.

The moderators understand that many topics in the Religion forum are variations on a theme. That is to be expected in this forum. However, topics which are mere cut-and-pastes from previous thread topics may be deleted or merged with a previous thread.

Posts which attack a person rather than his or her views will be edited to remove the unnecessary personal remarks.

Examples of acceptable posts:

• It is evident from your comments that you lack knowledge of Atheism ...
• Your views about Islam are illogical, because ...
• You obviously don't understand shia/sunni sect, because ...

Examples of unacceptable posts:

• A person who thinks the way you do needs mental treatment..
• Your post clearly shows your stupidity and hatred against Islam...
• You seem to be an idiot who doesn't know anything about Christianity.

No Propaganda

Material copied word by word from other web sites, books or articles, which demonstrates clear bias for or against a particular religious belief or religious group is not encouraged. One may use articles which examine an issue objectively, without a particular religious or political bias. Posts consisting solely of propaganda may be edited or deleted.

Original material posted by Gupshup members will not be regarded as propaganda, provided that any argument is based on logical reasoning made for or against a particular view and is supported by evidence and appropriate references to source material. Moderators will have regard to the percentage of original material in a post in taking any decision to edit or delete it. Members who post their own views will be treated with greater respect and a lighter hand than those who merely cut-and-paste the views of others.

Name Calling and Generalization is Prohibited

Do not assign a character feature to any member because of his/her firmness in his/her belief system. Any kind of name-calling will be edited or deleted. Unacceptable posts include:

• Muslims like you are totally blinded by what is written in their books.
• All Hindus are racists thinking of themselves holier than others.
• Muslims like you have given bad impression to Islam in the west.

No Provocation of Angry Reaction

Posts in the middle of a heated discussion, which in the moderator's opinion, serve no purpose but provokes an angry reaction from another member, will be deleted. Avoid posts which promote hatred among different religions, ethnic groups or nations. All racial slurs will be deleted.

It is not expected that members of one religious group or belief system will be friendly and receptive to contrary beliefs. However, this is not an excuse for the general disparagement of anybody who adheres to a belief system you personally find disagreeable or offensive. Posts that have the agenda of proclaiming one religion as better than another by degrading other belief systems may be deleted.

All the above rules are there to make this forum a better place for you. We hope that you will enjoy your time on this forum. The quality of your posts makes this forum what it is.