The Daily Diatribe Forum is intended to be a very informal place where people can discuss topics of interest, and hopefully sometimes the articles published on the site!

If one word could be used to describe the desired environment, it would be

"Civility"

Since I would like to share the site with young people, please keep the topics reasonably adult and adhere to the Richard Pryor "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" rules.  If you're not old enough to remember Richard Pryor and still don't get the idea, please look it up.  It's funny!

Following that, I guess the next most important thing for anyone reading or posting on this site to understand is that the words posted on this site are the responsibility of the individual who wrote and posted them.  Just as I cannot be held responsible for something someone else says on a street corner, the owner or owners of the site cannot and will not be held responsible for the words of another individual. 

We hope to avoid the development of complex rules and consequences and hope that people will be here because they enjoy civil, adult conversation that does not degenerate into vulgarity and hostility.

Having said that...

Generally, advertising in forum posts is not allowed except that you may have a link to your URL, i.e. one that you own the primary domain.  No banners.  If members would like to buy and sell personal items, that's fine as long as it doesn't become your personal garage sale.  If popular enough, we will consider a buy and sell forum.

Inserting your pet subject into unrelated threads is consider SPAM and therefore advertising.

I can't define porn for you but I know it when I see it.  If I wouldn't want my mother to see it, it's not allowed.  Please use judgement and consideration accordingly.

Personal attacks on members, calling them out, using racial or religious epitaphs to describe someone, are all not allowed.

Making offensive racial, religous, or gender-related remarks is also not allowed.

Singling out a specific race, religion, or gender for "special attention" in your posts is not allowed.  This could be detected in one post or a pattern of postings.

Criticise nations, governments, individiuals, planets, etc. all you like, within the bounds of decency, but when your criticisms start to be attributed to race, etc., we will ask you to leave.

I am an advocate of "Free Speech" but I don't believe that means you can say whatever you want.  While this forum is a public forum, it's not a publicly-owned forum so we will have some rules.

I hope we never ban anyone and that we can all discuss, debate, and learn together if not in harmony, then in civility.

Carl Andersen