Board Rules

[Emma]

These are the rules for posting on this board. Please read these before posting in any forum. They are for everyone's benefit to make the message board a safe and enjoyable place to post.

Forum Rules

1. Treat others with respect.
You are to respect every other user on the board despite any personal, religious and political differences. The following will not be tolerated:

• Personal insults
• Ad hominems
• Threats or promotion of violence

2. One user account per person.
The use of 2 or more posting accounts is prohibited. Using a proxy account (or sock puppet) to cause trouble will not be tolerated. If you can't say what you need to say with your user account then it probably shouldn't be said in the first place.

If it is found that you have registered a sock puppet account (by matching IP addresses) the second (and any subsequent accounts) Will be deleted without notice and the primary user ID will incur an infraction.

3. No posting of complete copyrighted documents (fair use snippets are accepted)
We don't really want to be bothered by Scientology lawyers and lawsuits because of posted copy written material. There are plenty of sites that already host those documents and they can be linked to. Posting "Fair Use" snippets is ok if you want to refer to something to make a point, just don't go posting the entire "History of Man".

4. No private PMs or emails are to be posted without prior permission from the other party.
This is a violation of privacy and won't be tolerated.

5. No posting of other members personal information.
In this group of ex Scientologists we are bound to run into people who we knew in our former "lives" as Scientologists. Given the extreme violations of privacy already rampant in the church it is quite likely that you may know of some personally embarrassing information about another poster. For example: you may have known poster "John" in the church and know that he had gotten into trouble for gambling or theft or promiscuity etc.

To bring up these personally embarrassing things (whether true or not) as some sort of oneupmanship or as a form of retaliation in an argument is really bad form and will not be tolerated on this message board.

6. Link to long pieces of text where possible.
Instead of copying and pasting long pieces of text, snip the bit you want and link to the rest. Experience shows that the longer your post is the less likely it will be read anyway. Of course if your post (your own words) is quite long because you are telling your personal story, that is different. Personal stories will be always be read no matter how long they are because people are interested.

6. Respect the moderators.
Moderation is a thankless task. You can't please all the people all the time but the moderators will do their best to be fair to everyone.

If you disagree with a decision a moderator has made please don't make a huge scene on the board. PM or email the moderator in question and put your case forward. Usually disputes can be resolved amicably by doing this. If you are still unhappy with the outcome, email or PM the board administrator who will have the final say.

7. Don't feed the trolls.
By its nature, this board is likely to attract its share of trouble makers. Trolls thrive on attention so the best thing you can do is to ignore them and report any offending post to a moderator who will deal with the situation. Getting into flame wars with a troll is exactly what they want you to do, so don't give them the satisfaction.

Warning/Infraction System - (no longer in use - kept here for historical purposes only)

The warning/infraction system is used to remind ESMB members of the rules and guidelines. If you make a post that violates the rules of ESMB you will be given a warning that will outline what rule has been violated and your may be asked to edit your post. If you have logged off the board and are unable to edit your own post, the post may be edited by a moderator.

Warnings
A warning will be given to a member the first time he/she violates a certain rule. There will only be one warning given for each type of violation. If a member continues to violate that rule an infraction will be given.

Infraction system
Accumulating 4 unexpired points will earn an automatic ban for two weeks (minimally). All points are removed after a certain time period without further incident. Infraction points will be given out based on the following criteria:

• Personally insulting/abusing another member : 1 point / expires after 2 weeks
• Posting private communications from, or personal information about another poster: 2 points/ expires after 4 weeks
• Posting copy written material: 2 points / expires after 3 months
• Found to be operating a sock puppet account: 2 points / expires after 6 months
• Promoting dangerous or illegal activities: 3 points / expires after 6 months

Some bans my be longer in length depending on how long an infraction takes to expire. For instance; if a person is found to be operating a sock puppet on January 1st they will incur a 2 point infraction which will expire 1st July. If that same person posts some private information about another poster on February 1st they will incur another 2 point infraction that will expire March 1st. As they have a total of 4 points they will be automatically banned until enough points expire to bring them back below 4. In this instance it would be March 1st, effectively making it a 4 week ban.

Infraction points can be viewed by the individual user and moderators but not by other users. i.e. you can only see your own. If you receive a warning or infraction you will be notified by PM and given a reason. Any disputes are to be first taken up with the moderator who issued it, and if it can't be resolved it is to be escalated to the board administrator whose decision will be final.

If you find yourself having to take several "holidays" in quick succession you may be considered for a permanent ban by the administrator.

Moderators have the ability to warn and give infractions to users but not to suspend or ban. So if you are suspended or banned and wish to discuss this with someone, please take this up with the board administrator only by email at ex.scientologist@gmail.com

[Emma]

Here are the forum rules as written in 2007

Forum Rules

1. Treat others with respect.
You are to respect every other user on the board despite any personal, religious and political differences. The following will not be tolerated:

* Personal insults
* Ad hominems
* Threats or promotion of violence

2. One user account per person.
The use of 2 or more posting accounts is prohibited. Using a proxy account (or sock puppet) to cause trouble will not be tolerated. If you can't say what you need to say with your user account then it probably shouldn't be said in the first place.

If it is found that you have registered a sock puppet account (by matching IP addresses) the second (and any subsequent accounts) Will be deleted without notice and the primary user ID will incur an infraction.

3. No posting of complete copyrighted documents (fair use snippets are accepted)
We don't really want to be bothered by Scientology lawyers and lawsuits because of posted copy written material. There are plenty of sites that already host those documents and they can be linked to. Posting "Fair Use" snippets is ok if you want to refer to something to make a point, just don't go posting the entire "History of Man".

4. No private PMs or emails are to be posted without prior permission from the other party.
This is a violation of privacy and won't be tolerated.

5. No posting of other members personal information.
In this group of ex Scientologists we are bound to run into people who we knew in our former "lives" as Scientologists. Given the extreme violations of privacy already rampant in the church it is quite likely that you may know of some personally embarrassing information about another poster. For example: you may have known poster "John" in the church and know that he had gotten into trouble for gambling or theft or promiscuity etc.

To bring up these personally embarrassing things (whether true or not) as some sort of oneupmanship or as a form of retaliation in an argument is really bad form and will not be tolerated on this message board.

6. Link to long pieces of text where possible.
Instead of copying and pasting long pieces of text, snip the bit you want and link to the rest. Experience shows that the longer your post is the less likely it will be read anyway. Of course if your post (your own words) is quite long because you are telling your personal story, that is different. Personal stories will be always be read no matter how long they are because people are interested.

6. Respect the moderators.
Moderation is a thankless task. You can't please all the people all the time but the moderators will do their best to be fair to everyone.

If you disagree with a decision a moderator has made please don't make a huge scene on the board. PM or email the moderator in question and put your case forward. Usually disputes can be resolved amicably by doing this. If you are still unhappy with the outcome, email or PM the board administrator who will have the final say.

7. Don't feed the trolls.
By its nature, this board is likely to attract its share of trouble makers. Trolls thrive on attention so the best thing you can do is to ignore them and report any offending post to a moderator who will deal with the situation. Getting into flame wars with a troll is exactly what they want you to do, so don't give them the satisfaction.

The previous rules still apply but time & experience has shown me that no matter what rules are stated, people still find ways to be disruptive & make the board less than enjoyable.

I've found that over the years some people have more to say about me & how the board is being run than they do about Scientology. So basically it comes down this this:

• I'm not perfect so don't expect me to be
• I don't owe anyone anything and I'm not on an amends project.
• If I have to tell you how to behave you probably don't belong here.
• I don't have to justify myself. I do my best and if that's not good enough feel free to leave.

Another way of putting it might be "Don't be an asshole and expect to get away with it".

The infraction system (detailed in the previous post) has proved to be pretty useless to be honest. From now on there will be no "points system". If you're being a jerk and disrupting the board you'll be asked to stop it. If you continue to be a jerk you'll probably be banned. You might be banned for a week, or two weeks or it might be permanent, it depends on how you've behaved previously, how long you've been here etc. Moderators can issue warnings & bans.

Unfortunately, rules and amendments to rules and infractions systems etc. are all just designed to handle the very small minority of people who wish to disrupt & cause trouble. 99% of the membership here has never been warned or infracted for anything. For those folks nothing will change. For those who just want to make trouble, I guess you have less freedom than you once did.