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| Our Standards Spirit Forum was created to promote world-wide spiritual understanding, acceptance, and respect. We welcome people of all ages, races, religions, national origins, sexual orientations and points of view. Discussion on a wide a wide variety of spiritual topics is encouraged in our forum, with the understanding that people of all spiritual paths join our rooms to share their ideas and beliefs in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance and understanding. To that end, we expect our rooms, at all times, to be free from bigotry, hatred, harassment, abuse, and personal threats of all kinds, whether direct or indirect. Challenges to material offered must always remain directed toward the idea and not the person. Respect for the dignity of all is the norm for Spirit Forum. Specific Guidelines |
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Profanity is unacceptable, either as a direct affront to a person or a group, or as implied disrespect toward self or others. It is our philosophy in Spirit Forum that profanity detracts from the diginity of all human beings, whether in the form of inappropriate language or derogatory content. |
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Harassment of any type is unacceptable. This forum is designed for self examination and growth. We do not harass our guests to become as we are, nor do we allow it from our guests. We seek an atmosphere of mutual support and growth in our chatrooms. For this reason, respect toward all chatters is expected. |
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Religious/spiritual harassment: Respect for the beliefs of others is expected here. We allow for full exploration of ideas and beliefs that our guests and hosts bring to our Forum, and appreciate full discussion of whatever is presented. These discussions are expected to remain respectful and tolerant, and never to become personal in nature. Personal derision is not an acceptable form of discussion and is not allowed. Challenges to material offered must always remain directed toward the idea and not the person. |
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Sexual harassment: Our forum is intended for discussion among people getting to know each other for their ideas and beliefs rather than their physical attributes and/or sexual orientation; therefore, our Forum's guests are expected to reflect this purpose. Disruptions resulting from "pick-up lines" and other "flirting" activity are actively discouraged. |
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Bigotry and discrimination: Harrassment of others for their sexual orientation, lifestyle choices, race, color, or creed is not acceptable. |
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Disruption is not acceptable. The purpose of the Spirit Forum rooms is to provide a place free from disruption for conversation on a variety of topics. Disruptions include the following: |
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Scrolling: Scrolling is defined as the continuous posting of the same material, extensive use of popups, or disruptive posts that are interpreted as intending to divert the topic or disrupt the room's flow of conversation. These actions are not acceptable. |
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Language: The language of our rooms is English. Conversations and posts in other languages should be done in user rooms or in 1/1 to avoid disruption of the flow of conversation in the room. Some hosted topical discussions may be conducted in a language other than English. |
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Disruptive Programs: Spirit Forum does not permit destructive or disruptive programs in our chat rooms. While we may from time to time use bots for specific purposes, guests are not allowed to park or run bots in our rooms. |
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Typing in all caps is considered a form of disruption and is not allowed. | ||||||||||||
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Illegal Activities, or the promotion thereof, are not acceptable in our Forum. Illegal activities include distribution of copyrighted material, fraudulent schemes of any nature, and the promotion of sexually explicit material. |
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Drugs and Alcohol: Advocating or glorifying the abuse of illegal drugs and alcohol is not acceptable under any circumstances. Discussions of merit would include programs that divert and heal addiction. While the use of psychoactive substances has a long history as part of many world religious and spiritual traditions, we limit discussions of this subject to hosted, topical chats at the discretion of the individual host. |
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Nicknames are how we express ourselves and maintain our relative anonymity. We expect nicks of our guests to be respectful in nature and devoid of any element of racism, sexual innuendo, illegal activity, or denigration toward any person or group. We don't allow impostering the nicks of other participants. or using the Spirit Forum Staff (SFS) designation in our rooms. |
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Advertising or promotion of a commercial nature is not acceptable, except as approved by Spirit Forum, and only then in a specified manner consistant with the goals of our forum. | |||||||||||||
| Failure to abide by these Standards may result in operator intervention, including removal and/or banning from the rooms, or access to our message boards being suspended or removed. Spirit Forum hosts are trained in these Expectations and are accountable to Spirit Forum managment for their consistant application and enforcement.
Please feel free to give us feedback on the quality of your experience by writing to: standards@spiritforum.org Thank you for helping us create Spirit Forum. Adopted by Spirit Forum Board of Directors Oct. 26, 2000; revised April 12, 2001 |
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