Banable Offenses:
1. Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
2. Threats of Violence or Harassment
3. Personal Attacks (name-calling or abusive remarks directed at a person or group of people)
4. Revelation of Other People's Personal Information
5. Proselytizing
6. Spam
 

*Please report any member that engages in the above activities, especially if you are the victim. We will handle the matter swiftly and privately. If you engage with a member that is using insults and use insults yourself in turn, you are just as culpable as they are and action may be taken against you too. Think Atheist reserves the right to suspend any member if it is deemed necessary.

Posting Guidelines:

Please be aware that a moderator may contact you to request that you repost your content in the proper format, appropriate section of the site, or request that you edit it in order for it to meet guidelines. He/she may copy your content into the message, with an explanation, if it is denied as a blog or taken out of the discussion forum for some reason. However, if your post is deemed inappropriate for Think Atheist, it may be removed outright. Though we try to preserve your contributions, Think Atheist is not responsible if content is lost. SAVE your content before posting to ensure it will not be lost. 

If you would like to express a concern, make a complaint, or offer feedback on any matter whatsoever (including moderator behavior), please Report an Issue or Send Feedback. You may also contact a moderator directly, or Morgan Matthew, the site founder. Please be discrete; the public forums are not the place to confront members or moderators and action may be taken against those who do so inappropriately. We will do everything in our power to resolve an issue satisfactorily.  

No part of Think Atheist shall be used to defame, discredit, or berate another member of the site. If you participate in live debate, you must refrain from personal attacks. Find a constructive way to get your point across without insulting those you engage.

1. Blogs- must be somehow related to free-thought/atheism-topical.

~No Teaser Posts- Posts that take the form of a few paragraphs and end with something like "Read more here [URL]" and force a member to click away offsite to read the rest of the post are not allowed. Copy and paste the full text of the post from offsite while providing a link for attribution to the source of the piece. This includes cross-posting from your personal blog to your Think Atheist blog. We're happy to allow you to get a wider audience for your ideas but Think Atheist can't be used to drive traffic to your blog.

~No Blind Links- Posts that take the form, either actually or essentially, "Hey, check this out! [URL]" are not allowed. Either copy and paste the full text of the piece from the link (or at least an excerpt in the case of long pieces) or provide a summary or critique of the piece in your own words, while in either case providing a link for attribution to the source of the piece.

~Blogs must contain at least a paragraph of content. If you want to make a Twitter-like post, do that on the front page in the activity feed ("What is on your mind?").

~If you are linking to an article outside of Think Atheist, include a copy and paste of the full text of the piece (or at least an excerpt in the case of long pieces) or write your own summary or critique, while in either case providing a link for attribution to the source of the piece.

~If the content in your blog was not authored by you, cite the source from which you retrieved it by providing a link back to the source.

~Image-only blogs are not allowed; you must at least write a paragraph to accompany the image (not merely a caption). If you do not want to write anything next to the image, you may choose to upload your picture in the images section.You also may create your own album.

~Due to the way blogs are formatted, consider the purpose of your post. If it asks a question or makes a controversial assertion you're likely to be asked to defend, you might prefer to post it in the forum section where the format makes discussion easier. If a moderator asks you to repost your blog in the discussion forum, it is because that moderator sees the potential for ongoing discussion.

~No flooding- Rapid posting of multiple blog posts with little to no time in between isn't fair since the result is that the entire front page of the Blogs section may then consist of the posts of a single person. Give others the exposure to their ideas that they're entitled to by spacing your posts out. You can do this at the bottom of the blog post entry page where you can set up a future date and time for the post to go live. Blog post that are posted without attention to this may be declined but can be reposted at a later time and or date.

2. Forums- must be somehow related to free-thought/atheism-topical.

*As a good rule of thumb, when deciding whether to post your content to your blog or to the forum, if you can imagine members replying with "I agree!" or "haha! good one!" or "ugh. this drives me crazy too!"; if the content is rant, a reflection, an anecdote, an observation, or an essay, it probably belongs on your blog. On the other hand, if the content asks a question or makes an assertion that the members are likely to ask you to defend—in short, if it's going to start a debate—then it probably goes in the forum. Simply asking "Thoughts?" or "Opinions?" isn't sufficient.

~No Teaser Links- (See definition above under 1. Blogs above)

~No Blind Links- (See definition above under 1. Blogs above)

~No thread-hijacking; be sure to stay on topic when you enter a discussion. If you engage in a discussion that leads you to a different subject matter, create a new discussion for that topic. 

~ The forum is primarily a debate space; it is best formatted for questions, advice, debate, and the like. 

~Please, when creating a new thread, select an appropriate section of the forum for your post given its subject matter from the drop-down menu below the text box under "Categories." The "Welcome to Think Atheist" and "Small Talk" sections can't be catch all's for every thread.

3. Videos- must be somehow related to free-thought/atheism-topical (although you may embed whatever video you like on your profile in your "About Me" or "Why are you here?" sections). Please, when it comes to videos in multiple parts, only post the first part and include links to subsequent parts rather than posting each part separately. Duplicate video submissions– submissions of videos that already exist in the Videos section– will be automatically declined. Please search FIRST before submitting a video to make sure it doesn't already exist.

~No flooding- Rapid posting of multiple videos with little to no time in between isn't fair since the result is that the entire front page of the Videos section may then consist of the submissions of a single person. Give others the exposure to their contributions that they're entitled to by spacing your video submissions out.

4. Groups- 

~Groups are intended for niche interests that do not necessarily have to do with atheism, and for networking with people who have similar tastes, interests, or geographic location. 

~Groups must remain active; extended inactivity (3 months or more) may lead to group deletion. 

~Groups must have a topic that lends itself to longevity. (A group on the 2012 US Presidential election that's only going to be active for a few months while its active at all is not what the Groups section is for. Discussions on such topics can almost always be had in existing broader-themed groups [For instance a group on Politics in this case])

~If there is already a group that exists with a similar theme, join that group instead of creating a duplicate. (There's no need to create a Death Metal group if there's already a Metal group [and may not even be reason to create a Metal group when there's already a Music group])

5. Images- In general, images that are NOT pornographic in nature, and do NOT contain gratuitous violence, are allowed. However, Think Atheist reserves the right to delete any image if it is deemed inappropriate. 

6. Events-

~If you know of a local, atheist-related event that may be of interest, or plan on hosting an event yourself, this is the place to advertise it. Please contact Morgan Matthew if you would like to host an official Think Atheist meet-up in your area.

~A moderator will notify you if Think Atheist cannot be affiliated with an event you are hosting.

Common Courtesy

• Out of courtesy, please label any content NSFW (Not Safe for Work) that contains nudity or excessive profanity, or anything else that could be construed as "offensive" while in the workplace or in front of family members.
• Please tag your blogs and discussions for ease of organization on this ever-growing site.
• Please avoid deleting discussions you have started, or deleting comments you have made that have several responses attached. It’s not fair to members who have typed thoughtful posts to have them suddenly disappear. Think how it would make you feel to have your words censored in this fashion!
• If you're feeling too heated in a discussion, take a moment to calm down before continuing to engage. Moderating your own feelings is much better than having someone else do it (namely, the mod team). As mentioned above, personal attacks, harassment and threats will not be tolerated.