Code of Conduct

This Community forum is a place for public discussion

We believe that community is co-created - not just us, but also by you.
We want you to engage in a lively exchange of ideas, share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
We want you to partner with us in making this place valuable for everybody.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve things.

Here are some basic rules about how and what to post. We’ll assume you’ve read these, but if you do something that violates these expectations, we will let you know you need to read them again. If you keep violating the rules, we may remove you from the forum.

We hope that you will

Use the search to make sure your question hasn’t already been answered.
Ask questions especially if you are a “newbie”! We want to hear from you!
Categorize your posts appropriately and avoid posting in multiple categories.
Don’t spam our users, or use the forums to spam others.
Keep sensitive data such as passwords and credit card numbers out of posts.
Don’t change the topic of a thread in the middle of a conversation.
Take the time to stick around and help answer other people’s questions.
Think about what your post adds to the conversation before you post it.
Only post your own stuff, and only post things that are legal. You’re not allowed to post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other local or US law.
Do not post or link to anything explicitly sexual, or violent. Everything you post must be suitable for youth (13-18) at all times.
Be friendly, encouraging and respectful. Rudeness is rarely appropriate.
Flag posts that violate this Code of Conduct or our Terms of Service so that a moderator can take care of them quickly.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s totally fine! We have absolutely no problem with that, there are usually more ways to do one thing. But remember to avoid criticizing people’s identities and personal choices.

If there is conflict, we encourage you to:

Consider how you can make things better
Consider how you can avoid making things worse
Consider how you can work together to solve the problem
Consider taking a break instead of responding in a kneejerk way

We can’t accept (please see our Terms of Service for a full list)

Remarks that single out something about a person’s identity, such as their name, race, gender, sexuality, age, body shape, or any other similar factor.
Harassment, stalking, or any other unwelcome contact,threats of violence, or using of rejected names, intentional misgendering, or similar actions.

If you experience any of the above, even if you aren’t sure its “bad enough”, don’t second guess things too much. Flag it and we’ll look into it.

The role of mods & flagging

When you see bad behavior don’t reply. It encourages attention-seeking bad behaviour. Just flag it! If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention. Moderators may ask you to review this Code of Conduct and our Terms of Service before you can post again if your posts are flagged.
Moderators can and will edit or remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time.
Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a detailed Terms of Service describing in your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws, as well as more in depth explorations of acceptable behavior in this forum. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS. Please give them a read through - we will expect that you have if something goes wrong.