FORUM RULES & GUIDELINES
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The SikhSangat Team has had a discussion about the moderation rules of the forum over the past few years. We have all agreed to the following moderation system/rules and have committed to follow this system for the betterment of the sangat and to provide more clarity about our guidelines. We want to make this available for all the members so there's no confusion as to why they were given a warning or placed under moderation. Remember, we don't have enmity towards anyone we all seek one purpose and all have a common goal. We want to make this site as best as possible according to gurmat and want to bring forth the qualities of gursikhi like peace, love and compassion in the topics being discussed, the only thing we request is for all members post with love and humility.
WARNINGS
Two warnings will be given to a user to modify his/her behavior and adhere to the forum rules. Warnings may be given without any contact. After 2 warnings, user account will be put for moderation for 30 days. Moderation will be lifted upon the discretion of SikhSangat. User may write to the Admin (SikhSangat@live.com) stating why he/she should be taken off of moderation and how they will strive to make better posts.
BAN
Upon receiving 2 warnings, if the user continues to violate forum rules, it will result in the user being banned from the forum indefinitely without any contact. User may write to the Admin (SikhSangat@live.com) stating why he/she should be taken off of BAN and how they will strive to make better posts. IF we lift the ban, user will stay under moderation until further notice.
REPORT THIS POST
If you think something requires the attention of the moderators or if any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately; please hit the "Report this Post" link on the post in question. This will send an ALERT via PM and email message to SikhSangat so that they can address the problem next time they log on to their computer. This is a manual process, however, so please realize that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. You may also contact us at SikhSangat@live.com providing all details such as URL, User ids & brief description of your disagreement.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Do not post messages that advocate harm or death to anyone, threaten the livelihood of anyone, or otherwise harass anyone. Do not send email, snail mail, phone, fax, or other messages to anyone if your intent is to threaten or harass, and do not encourage others to do the same. Do not take your disagreements off the message board and into the "real world," and do not do anything to try to harm or harass any member of this message board in the "real world." SikhSangat will not responsible for any member's action BUT we will provide member's details and online activity to police officials if requested by law enforcement. This is fair warning to all members to think twice before posting.
CONTACT US
The only official contact of SikhSangat is SikhSangat@live.com. You can also open "Support Ticket" but keep in mind it may take couple of days to respond. Questions about SikhSangat policies belong in the "Feedback" forum. All discussion topics relating to SikhSangat.com policies, procedures, enforcement, etc., which are posted outside of the "Feedback" forum will be deleted.
FORUM RULES
Please review the following moderation rules before posting. Not following the forum rules will result in putting the member on moderation.
A member will be given a warning and put under-moderation for:
Insulting, name-calling and labeling other members; this includes both the initiating person and the person retaliating.
Spreading rumors about other person on the forum.
Never-Ever post any other person's picture without their consent. You may post pictures of public figures such as politicians etc.
Defamation of other character is not allowed.
Writing derogatory comments about different jathas of the Sikh panth. Any particular practice of a jatha can be questioned but must be done so in a respectful and non-offensive manner.
Insulting the Sikh Shaheeds of 1980's is certainly not allowed under any condition.
Indirect personal attacks, sarcasm towards another member's posts and a negative tone of speech are also liable for a warning without any warning.
Death threats, soliciting and private messaging bibis on the forum.
Supporting the Indian government for attacking Darbar Sahib and justifying the 1984 massacre.
Supporting excommunicated people like Kala afghana and spokespersons.
Supporting Anti-Sikh organizations/sects/cults and their affiliated websites.
Posting adult or obscene audio/visual content on the site.
Posting topics/links against the basic principles of Sikhi.
Insulting Sikhi, Shabad Guru, Khalsa Panth, Akal Takhat, Sikh identity, Dasam Granth, Sikh Scriptures and calling Sikhi a sect of any other religion will result in the user's ID being disabled until further notice.
Pro views or justifications or posts that are for ANTI-SIKH organizations/sects will not be allowed on SikhSangat.com and will be deleted and the member will likely be put under quality control/moderation. Most of these organizations include those that have been declared as anti-sikh by Akaal Takht Sahib such as kala afghana, naamdharis, radhasuaamees, etc.
No personal attack on Jatehdars of Sri Akal Takht Sahib or other 4 Takhts regardless of whatever information you may have. Member may discuss about former Jatehdars but we will not allow anyone to talk negative of any current Jathedars.
**Asking questions for educational reasons is allowed but all posts must be approved by the moderator in that topic.
GENERAL RULES
While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Our decision is final in these matters.
Refrain yourself from writing any derogatory comments on any religion. Any particular practice of a religion can be questioned but must be done so in a respectful and non-offensive manner.
Please refrain from posting meaningless threads, one word (or short) non-sense posts, or such.
Multiple or repeated posting in order to increase your post count is not allowed.
Use the search function before posting. Chances are your question has already been answered.
Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the forum email and Private message system to spam other members.
Discussion of illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property violations are not allowed.
Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.
We reserve the right to remove offensive posts without notice.
We also reserve the right to ban anyone who willfully violates the forum rules.
Use a title that describes the content of your post. Don't use all caps or special characters to draw attention.
Also while these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way.
Private Messages received on these Forums are to be considered private and are not to be posted publicly unless the sender of the private message agrees. Also Participant shall not post messages containing personal phone numbers or addresses.
Do not post messages that advocate harm or death to anyone, threaten the livelihood of anyone, or otherwise harass anyone. Do not send email, snail mail, phone, fax, or other messages to anyone if your intent is to threaten or harass, and do not encourage others to do the same. Do not take your disagreements off the message board and into the "real world," and do not do anything to try to harm or harass any member of this message board in the "real world."
Stay on topic. Don't jump into an unrelated discussion and introduce a barely-relevant tangent in order to bring up your pet issue.
Do not spam the message board.
When discussing race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion, please exercise the appropriate level of sensitivity toward others and take extra care to clearly express your point of view. This will help avoid misunderstandings and undeserved accusations of bigotry.
People who repeatedly and willfully break the rules, or who generally engage in rude, antisocial behavior, will be banned. It doesn't matter if you are a progressive or a long-term member of this board.
Not responding to or ignoring moderator warnings can lead to suspension. We reserve the right to ban/suspend anyone for any reason, and to delete any post for any reason.
Any threat or personal attack on any sewadar will result in direct ban. If you have an issue with a moderator you can open a ticket, but open attacks on the board or via PM will result in immediate ban of IP address.
Insults made against other members on this board are not tolerated, even those made via PM. Warnings will be issued to offending members.
This forum has zero-tolerance for junk. Unsolicited advertisement links and Spammers will be banned immediately and all spam deleted on spot. Abusive and inactive accounts may be removed at moderators consent without any prior notice, to reduce database load.
OTHER RULES
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BRINKERS = NOT ALLOWED
I'm within the rules. Some users find sport in seeing how close they can get to being thrown off a message board. The Admins/sewadars will often have a set of rules (typically known as the "Terms of Service" like this one) which specify how people should conduct themselves. One type of poster, a "brinker", attempts to get as near to the edge as he or she possibly can without actually going over.
Unlike the troll, who directs his or her efforts at the users of a system, the brinker is actually toying with the SikhSangat. He or she can be a thorn in the side of the administrator, holding the good name and popularity of the system at stake. Administrators hesitate to throw people off the system unless they have broken an explicit rule.
LANGUAGE
Although we do our best to cater for all, we do have certain limitations on SikhSangat. Language is one of them because you will notice the vast majority of posts are in English which has a universal base as it is one of the most used languages in the world. Communication is a problem in this world. It is one of the main causes for World Wars and poverty as well as in divorces and so on. And having taken these points into consideration, SikhSangat would like to request to all Sangat to please use English language to your advantage and post on this forum with language that every other member can understand. We all use slang language in our day to day speaking, but the advantage of this being a forum, means you can think longer about what you want to say with more time to express it. Extreme use of slang language is confusing to many members on this forum and will no longer be tolerated by moderators. Members can use Punjabi language in their posts. We will allow slang to a certain extent but SikhSangat reserve the right to choose the level allowed and will from hereon be moderating certain members more closely.
ADVERTISING
We do not allow people to post threads or to send private messages or emails to users here that advertise or solicit any services. Explicit advertising in sigs is also prohibited. Advertising, spamming and trolling is not allowed. This includes using the forum email and Private message system to spam other members. There is SikhSangat Advertisement program which can be seen here: http://sikhsangat.com/adverts
SIGNATURE RULES
Links in signatures must follow these guidelines:
A link and promotional text for a site that is not commercial provided the site is not against Sikhi or does not violate SikhSangat community standards. The SikhSangat.com team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.
Duplicate links to the same URL in a sig are not allowed.
Size: All signatures should not exceed the following size limits, and you can't have both text and images
For text signatures: 4 lines normal size, 8 lines small size and up to 90 chars per line. Font sizes above 2 are not allowed. (Blank lines count as lines.)
For images in signatures: 1 image up to 200 pixels wide, 75 pixels tall and 20k in size
Animated images in sigs are not allowed
AVATARS
Obscene images such as beheaded animals, pornography or inappropriate content (swf files) or images are not allowed.
SEWADARS
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SOME FACTS ABOUT SIKHSANGAT
• SikhSangat will not have bias views. Thus we will not have sewadars who is associated with any Jathabandis.
• SikhSangat will reply to every email (SikhSangat@live.com) we receive as humanly possible.
• SikhSangat will respect its member privacy by not sharing their emails, PM with anyone.
• SikhSangat does not hold any grudge against anyone.
• SikhSangat is Neutral Forum.
MODERATORS & YOU
Treat all moderators with respect. Do not post messages attacking the moderators or administrators. All of the moderators on this discussion board are volunteers. They provide their time and their good judgment to this website free of charge. They do not make the rules; they only enforce the rules. They do not deserve to have scorn heaped upon them either publicly or privately. Anyone attacking moderation will earn a BAN without any warning.
Please be aware that moderators are not expected to be online all the time, and therefore they cannot respond immediately to every problem that arises on this discussion board. If you send an alert or complaint to a moderator, please give that moderator sufficient time to respond. Do not assume that a moderator is ignoring your concerns merely because he or she does not respond as quickly as you would like.
When a moderator enforces the message board rules, members are expected to respect their authority and abide by their decisions. If you disagree with a moderator's decision, you are encouraged to politely explain why you disagree. Do not send rude, dismissive, or disrespectful responses to the moderators. If you think a moderator has acted inappropriately, please contact the administrators privately at SikhSangat@live.com, so we can deal with it. Do not publicly post private messages you receive from moderators and administrators.
ADMINISTRATORS & YOU
If you have any questions about the rules of this message board, please contact the website administrators by sending an email to sikhsangat@live.com.
Occasionally, the administrators of this website will make decisions that are not popular. That is life. We have given up trying to make everyone happy, because it is simply not possible.
Messages posted on our discussion board are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of SikhSangat.com.
iscuss the message, not the messenger
