The Seven Habits of a Successful Forum Member

(1) Be cool -- Stay on topic, be respectful and don't get personal.
(2) Rate content -- Win friends and help out by telling us what's good.
(3) Post media -- Links, images and video are permitted and encouraged.
(4) Flag wisely -- If you see rule violations, or off-topic posts, say something.
(5) Invite your friends -- They don't feel like working any more than you do.
(6) Be nice to newbies -- People are more likely to return if they feel welcome.
(7) Keep coming back!


The Seven Deadly Sins of Forum Suspension

While we celebrate the First Amendment, we ask that you understand that the Cobert Nation Forum is an editorialized, public discussion platform.  This means that members may express themselves with a great deal of freedom, but part of managing a site like this requires deletion and relocation of some posts (it's nothing personal!)  And, of course, there are the situations that arise in which a certain participant may behave in ways that result in the temporary or permanent suspension of access.

That said, below are guidelines for our administrative judgment:

(1) Spamming -- Don't post the same statement, links, pictures, etc, in more than one location.  If you do, they will be deleted.  If you continue to do so, you will be banned from posting to the forum permanently.  (This one's a no-brainer.)

(2) Trolling – According to Wikipedia, a troll is “someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion”.  Trolls will be banned.

(3) Bad Words -- Comedy Central Forums are intended for a mature audience.  Therefore we do not censor so-called "four letter" words.  There is no need to send an Abuse Notification to report an "F-bomb".  But Content and Context rule in determining what will be tolerated within the Forum.  For instance, the "N-bomb" is unacceptable, as well as all similarly-classed words of past and present bigotry.  Directing expletives at a fellow member in an aggressive fashion is very likely to result in suspension.  We provide a "Flame" board as a platform for blowing off steam.  But the same principles apply.  Directly threatening another member is an obvious deal breaker.

(4) Isms -- We will delete anything that we deem to be racist, sexist, homophobic, or other attempts to propagate hatred.  We may choose to completely ban a member for the same reasons.  We may or may not choose to warn a member before taking action.  Think before you post, please.

(5) Personal Information -- Use of proper names of other community members, or ANY other personal information such as contact, address, birth date or other information is strictly prohibited. This offense may result in immediate and permanent forum access suspension.

(6) Pr0n -- That's "leetspeak" for "pornography".  We allow you to post images and video.  If you choose to use that privilege to post pornographic media of any kind on our site, your access will be permanently suspended.  There are plenty of places online where you can do that.  Please do not do it here.

(7) Inappropriate Behavior – In general, comments that make a fellow member uncomfortable should be avoided.  Repeated behavior that warrants complaints from fellow members may be deemed reason for temporary or permanent suspension.