Clarification For Sikhsangat Members

[Mehtab Singh]

Just to make a few points clear. We will NOT tolerate

• any message, direct or indirect, that questions the status or authenticity of Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji
• any direct or indirect insult to any Sikh jathebandi
• any direct or indirect insult to any Gursikh who is doing seva of the panth or did it in the past, or some Gursikh sevadaar who has unproven charges against him/her
• any hateful or insulting messages about another religion or an individual from that religion who is NOT anti Sikhi
• any personal attack on a fellow forum member for whatever reason
• any non-Sikh coming on board and attempting to propagate his/her faith by trying to demean/degrade Sikhi. Propagating one's faith is cool, but you don't come on a Sikh board and post garbage about our faith. However, any non-Sikh brother/sister is more than welcome to come here and ask questions about Sikhi and educate themselves.
• any personal attack on a friendly non-Sikh member who is here to learn about Sikhi

Anyone who does any of the above will be given ONE warning (you read it right, I said ONE warning ONLY), followed by action taken against you. If anyone has a problem with that, please feel free to report me to the other administrators and moderators, but from this point forward, there will be ZERO tolerance for mischievous trouble makers.

I will (as usual) be locking this thread later today, so either just read and move on keeping these in mind, or add your one dollar to it if you want to. I just want to be sure that in future if someone doesn't see their posts/threads, you know why.

I urge members to continue using the "report" feature so that we can catch such people in due time.

If anyone has an issue with whatever I have said, you have 2 choices

• send me or any of the other admins/mods a message and we'll talk about it in private
• quit this forum! There are tons out there, and we promise you we won't miss you

- Mehtab Singh

[Jag_Singh]

I don't understand how the warning system works?

[BhForce]

Will any any direct or indirect insult be allowed of any Sikh jathebandi which directly or indirectly questions the status or authenticity of Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji?

quit this forum! There are tons out there, and we promise you we won't miss you

Although I don't want hateful posts on the forum, either, doesn't it seem like a like heavy-handed to say this?

The problem with saying this is that Sikh Sangat claims to be the "Voice of Sikh Youth". If it was just a personal blog it would OK to say the above, but as "The Voice of Sikh Youth", and with a name like Sikh Sangat, I think it behooves the administrators not to treat the forum like a personal fief.

Again, I don't want hateful posts on the forum, but abrupt bans and deletions without any sort of due process other than what an adminstrator felt like on a certain day doesn't seem to be Sikh way. If even Guru Gobind Singh Ji felt compelled to be accountable to sangat, can't Sikh Sangat be accountable to the Sikh sangat?

I believe the reasons for possible dismissal of a member should be posted in a thread, the member should be able to speak in his defense, and other members should be allowed to speak in favour or against dismissal.

It's said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think that one reading of the first post above would mean that not only someone who posted something hateful would be dismissed, but also anyone who merely questioned an administrator's actions would be in trouble as well.

Instead of constanly banning people or posts, why not turn on the post-rating feature (the plus/minus buttons) so people can rate good posts, and downgrade bad ones?

[Mehtab Singh]

I don't understand how the warning system works?

Depends on how many posts of a person are reported, or on the grading.

Will any any direct or indirect insult be allowed of any Sikh jathebandi which directly or indirectly questions the status or authenticity of Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji?

I don't understand your question veerji.

quit this forum! There are tons out there, and we promise you we won't miss you

Although I don't want hateful posts on the forum, either, doesn't it seem like a like heavy-handed to say this?

I know it is, but its reached a point that this had to be implemented.

The problem with saying this is that Sikh Sangat claims to be the "Voice of Sikh Youth". If it was just a personal blog it would OK to say the above, but as "The Voice of Sikh Youth", and with a name like Sikh Sangat, I think it behooves the administrators not to treat the forum like a personal fief.

Please do report wherever you find any admin/mod taking out personal grudges.

Again, I don't want hateful posts on the forum, but abrupt bans and deletions without any sort of due process other than what an adminstrator felt like on a certain day doesn't seem to be Sikh way. If even Guru Gobind Singh Ji felt compelled to be accountable to sangat, can't Sikh Sangat be accountable to the Sikh sangat?

That makes sense and is fair enough. This will be taken into account.

I believe the reasons for possible dismissal of a member should be posted in a thread, the member should be able to speak in his defense, and other members should be allowed to speak in favour or against dismissal.

Another good point which will be taken into consideration. The reason this was posted was to sort out trouble makers who are here only and only to cause a ruckus.

Instead of constanly banning people or posts, why not turn on the post-rating feature (the plus/minus buttons) so people can rate good posts, and downgrade bad ones?

You should be the administrator!!! :D

[Mehtab Singh]

Just to add on, this is NOT a dictatorship (as much as I make it sound like one). If anyone has ANY issues with the way this forum functions, please do let us know. We are mere sevadaars of the sangat trying to clean up the space that has been messy for a while, and so keeping that in mind certain strict measures needed to be applied. I am not the final authority (I never wanted to be in authority actually lol) on here, and I am still awaiting input from other admins/mods. They will hopefully add more good ponts like BhForce veerji.

[BhForce]

OK, your second post seems a lot more reasonable.

Will any any direct or indirect insult be allowed of any Sikh jathebandi which directly or indirectly questions the status or authenticity of Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji?

I don't understand your question veerji.

Well, the fact is there is one particular Gursikh (who shall remain nameless) who has done the highest seva in the Panth who is now directly or indirectly questioning Sri Dasam Granth. There are many Sikh jathebandis who are doing so as well. Will any posts about him be considered a direct or indirect insult on a Gursikh who has done seva in the past? Although I don't agree with simply calling him names like other members like to do, it seems that any criticism can be interpreted as at least an indirect insult.

Also, there was a post by me indirectly calling the fellow from Delhi who called the Khalsa panth a Brahim creation, a <banned word filter activated>. (I asked if he had any proof about his own authenticity.)

Instead of constanly banning people or posts, why not turn on the post-rating feature (the plus/minus buttons) so people can rate good posts, and downgrade bad ones?

You should be the administrator!!! :D

How about I be a union leader, and you can be management I'm looking at things from the perspective of an ordinary member. I'm sure that from the administrator's seat, having to deal with so much garbage, you get frazzled and lash out.

The lesson from history is that arbitrary power can lead to temptations such as implementing one's own particular agenda. Even if it doesn't happen, it's a bad precedent. Just as the sangat follows the Panj Piyare, but the Panj Piyare are still accountable to the sangat, and that keeps them on the right path, so too, being accountable to the sikhsangat.com membership will keep administrators proper.

Also, one rule that seems to be missing is keeping to the topic of the thread! It's amazing how we can't be focussed enough to just stick to one topic in a given thread. If someone wants to talk about an related yet separate matter, create a new thread, and post the link to the new thread in the old thread.

[Mehtab Singh]

Well, the fact is there is one particular Gursikh (who shall remain nameless) who has done the highest seva in the Panth who is now directly or indirectly questioning Sri Dasam Granth.

But he does have a questionable past which he hasn't been able to clarify.

There are many Sikh jathebandis who are doing so as well. Will any posts about him be considered a direct or indirect insult on a Gursikh who has done seva in the past?

Those jathebandis or their viewpoint is not welcome here if they are against Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji.

How about I be a union leader, and you can be management I'm looking at things from the perspective of an ordinary member. I'm sure that from the administrator's seat, having to deal with so much garbage, you get frazzled and lash out.

I will look forward to your comments/suggestions/inputs/advices.

The lesson from history is that arbitrary power can lead to temptations such as implementing one's own particular agenda. Even if it doesn't happen, it's a bad precedent. Just as the sangat follows the Panj Piyare, but the Panj Piyare are still accountable to the sangat, and that keeps them on the right path, so too, being accountable to the sikhsangat.com membership will keep administrators proper.

Agreed

Also, one rule that seems to be missing is keeping to the topic of the thread! It's amazing how we can't be focussed enough to just stick to one topic in a given thread. If someone wants to talk about an related yet separate matter, create a new thread, and post the link to the new thread in the old thread.

This will be enforced immediately.

[Azaad]

MEHTAB BHAJI ROCKS :D

[BhForce]

OK, I guess we're going to see the first application of the new rules here:

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php/topic/49160-beware-of-these-people/

[Nirvair S Khalsa]

Just to make a few points clear. We will NOT tolerate

• any message, direct or indirect, that questions the status or authenticity of Sri Dasam Granth Sahib ji
• any direct or indirect insult to any Sikh jathebandi
• any direct or indirect insult to any Gursikh who is doing seva of the panth or did it in the past, or some Gursikh sevadaar who has unproven charges against him/her
• any hateful or insulting messages about another religion or an individual from that religion who is NOT anti Sikhi
• any personal attack on a fellow forum member for whatever reason
• any non-Sikh coming on board and attempting to propagate his/her faith by trying to demean/degrade Sikhi. Propagating one's faith is cool, but you don't come on a Sikh board and post garbage about our faith. However, any non-Sikh brother/sister is more than welcome to come here and ask questions about Sikhi and educate themselves.
• any personal attack on a friendly non-Sikh member who is here to learn about Sikhi

All of these are agreeable rules that make perfect sense and are very much needed. They should be enforced with immediate effect.