[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]A short rewrite of the previous community guidelines:

Any registered Beliefnet member is welcome to post here provided the content does not violate the ROC. This is a debate forum, used to debate the validity and relative merit of various beliefs, practices, and hot topics. Participants should expect various, and often times conflicting view points to be discussed, analyzed, supported, and refuted.

Posts that malign the character of other members will be removed. This includes accusing or implying drug use, mental deficiency, or mental disorder. Abbreviating names for convenience is fine, but malicious distortion is not.

Accusations of lying, hypocrisy, or bigotry must be explicitly substantiated.  These types of claims are very serious...think carefully about making them.

Attempts to turn a topic into an unrelated debate will also be removed.

Posts dedicated to criticizing spelling and grammar will be removed for being off-topic and disruptive, however, sincere requests for clarification are encouraged in case of confusion.

AndyF
Community Host[/FONT]

Complaints can be sent to community@staff.beliefnet.com

I'm not sure how much experience any of you have at moderating or administrating an internet forum, but i have quite a few years worth now on a daoist forum i admin for a friend as well as a few other places a few things one learns very quickly on busy forums are:-

* It is hard for a busy mod/host/admin to always be up to date with every post.

* Members of forums do use or try to use staff to fight their battles, so do make accusatiosn against members they dislike in the hopes of causing trouble for or even driving away the members they dislike. Persoanly i try hard not to do this i'm sur i do not always succeed being human and all, but it does put immense preasure on the host/mod/admin.

* something one person finds offensive, someone else does not, there has to be a certain amount of compromise to get any discussion done at all.

To some the terms animal hater are acceptable to use to refer to anyone who is not a hardline AR, for others ARE is acceptable for refering to those who are very hardline AR.

Who gets to judge what is or is not acceptable? The very, very busy host who does the best they can to cater to common sense as well as individual members interpretations.

beccaxx

I wonder, has it ever even occured to you that perhaps the best way to interact with, say, the host of a forum is NOT to call them names?

Addendum...

Accurate descriptions of hunting and dressing are allowed, but as a courtesy, please add a short disclaimer if your description contains graphic or gory details. 

Thank you for your patience.
AndyF
Host