Welcome To The

We know it is sometimes tempting, especially in the heat of anger, but posters are NOT to remind or tell the moderators / administrators of the rules, (but moderators / administrators may remind the posters).

Nobody (with the exception of moderators and administrators of this board) is permitted to publicly comment on official moderator/admin disciplinary actions and / or warning comments issued to posters.

POSTING IN THE RIGHT FORUM

As of September 2002, we basically have six forums at BVDB (this is not counting the "Archive" forums); some of these are "active" and some are not:

1. Bible Versions
2. King James Only
3. Anything Goes
4. General Theology
5. Definitions & Information Forum
6. The Vault

Posters are asked to post their questions and comments in the appropriate forum: King James Only related questions/concerns should be posted in the King James Only forum, for example.

Our Anything Goes forum is a mishmash and catch-all. If it's not strictly about Christianity or the Bible, this is the forum for it. It is permissible to post jokes, funny stories, current events topics (secular, political or spiritual) in this forum.

For more information on what our forums are about, please take a look at the Objectives and Forums Description page.

STAYING ON TOPIC WITHIN A THREAD

If you are in a thread which begins with the subject of dogs, we ask that you do not begin posting in that same thread about taxes, cats, or toe nail fungus.

We do allow a small amount of leeway because sometimes conversations can veer off into branches of related themes, but please, be considerate: if you want to discuss cats and all you see is a thread on dogs, then please, start a thread of your own about cats.

NO DIRTY LANGUAGE ALLOWED

Do not use any vulgar, obscene terms at any time in your posts / sig lines / subject headings / screen name, and especially not when referring to other people or to Christianity or any aspect of Christianity, e.g., the Bible. This includes using symbols inserted amongst letters in attempts to "fool" the EZ Board profanity filter.

Do not link to sites, pages, or other entities that endorse, promote, contain or sell pornography. (This should be a real "well, no duh" for a Christian board, but some people...)

Do not place "img" tags / art / photos in your posts or sig lines that are pornographic in nature or anti-Christian in nature, (re: anti Christian imagery: e.g., a Thierry De Cordier photo of a cross in urine; drawings of Jesus committing lewd acts, etc. It won't go over with the board's admins and mods, trust me).

No cyber-vandalism. Do not place links or use java script in your posts/ subject headings/ sig lines, and what have you, that cause any sort of problem or inconvenience to other users (eg., do not re-direct a browser to a site that will cause a "freezing up" of the user's computer). Only you and your 15 year old friends find these sorts of things funny.

NO SPAM ALLOWED

1. Please do not place advertisments in our forums. We gave at church, we gave at the office, and we're happy with our current long distance and credit card services. We, or our generous benefactors, have spent good money to get rid of the EZ-Board inflicted ads, so what on earth makes you think we want your ads?

2. Please do not place multiple copies of the same post into our forums, regardless of content (secular or Christian). One is plenty; we do not need to see the thread "Matthew is my favorite apostle" or "Come to my new groovy cool Christian Ball Room Dancing and Accordion Playing Board!" in every forum here, just as we do not need to see the thread "Want Better Insurance Rates? Try us today!" in each forum either.

3. See Also:

When to Take it To E-Mail > EXCESSIVE ONE-ON-ONE DISCOURSE

ISSUES, NOT PEOPLE

Perhaps the most difficult of all sections to comply with [myself included, LOL -- Kristi F., admin]

Feel free to attack statements made by a poster, but not the person making the statements. You must maintain courtesy and respect for others at ALL TIMES! Those who will not cooperate and be respectful on this board will be prohibited from posting.

Discussion of the problems you see with another position will be allowed, but personal attacks and similar things are not. ALL POSTS ARE TO BE MADE IN A FRIENDLY AND NON-INFLAMMATORY MANNER.

1. Name Calling - not allowed

2. Questioning and/or Commenting on Spiritual Condition - not allowed!

• There is to be no questioning, challenging, or commenting on the spiritual condition in a negative fashion of anyone who disagrees with you. This can be done on the "Anything Goes" forum, but only as long as the person whom your comments are about agrees to discuss them. Similarly, making assumptions or overgeneralizations in a negative fashion about what a person probably believes fall into this category.
• This also includes other people/denominations in general. Issues may be discussed in the appropriate forum, but generic bashing of other denominations is not allowed.
• This also includes people like authors, translators, etc. The only exceptions will be when context-obvious quotes are provided for evidence (see "Quoting" on the Rules Specific to KJV Only Forum).

3. Gender - not an issue

• Women posting in these forums are more than welcome. Dismissing someone's points because of their gender will not be tolerated. Discussion about the "woman's role" will NOT be permitted in any forum except the "Anything Goes" forum, and even then we will keep an eye on it.
• Occasionally, because one moderator is a woman, 1 Tim 2:11-15, 2 Cor 11:3, Eph 5:22, etc. are raised in objection to a woman acting as moderator and enforcing the rules.

  As such passages refer to a husband-wife relationship, and in context of a church setting, such objections are out of context in this setting.

  Challenges to a female moderator's authority as a BVDB moderator or negative comments related to gender intended to insult or intimdiate female posters or moderators posted on the board will result in an immediate warning or ban (see this page for more details on disciplinary measures).

  [For another Christian view on gender roles, please see The Christian, Egalitarian View of Gender . The other board moderators are of the "Traditional Gender Role" View -- Kristi F., admin]

DO NOT INSULT OR ANTAGONIZE ADMINISTRATORS AND MODERATORS

• The moderators are not unfeeling robots, and we do not have unlimited time (some of us have full time jobs, outside pursuits or college courses; we do not get paid for our moderating services), nor do we have unlimited patience but are imperfect human beings like you, and so are to be respected as per above. Breeches of personal respect will likely result in immediate ban.
• The actions of the moderators are to be respected. Inflammatory challenges to warnings will likely result in immediate ban.
• Referring to administrator Scott McClare as "Scotty" is not allowed (a gem that came about due to special problems unique to our wacky KJV Only forum)

SEE ALSO:

Rules Specific to the King James Only Forum (which is also required reading only for those who wish to join in the mayhem that is the KJV Only Forum!)

Rules for Non-Christian Posters (which is also required reading only for Non Christian members)

1. ) COMPLAINTS AND ANGER

a.) towards general posters (and includes admins/moderators)

This is a hard one to do - even for one of the board's moderators :o)

- but:

Any complaints, concerns, or personal vendettas are NOT to be carried out publicly; such posts will more than likely be deleted. Instead, e-mail the individual with whom you have a problem.

b.) with administrators / moderators (pertaining to how board is run)

If you disagree with the actions of a moderator / admin, you are to E-MAIL that moderator/admin. Do NOT publicly post your disagreements/complaints; such posts are likely to be deleted.

2.) EXCESSIVE ONE-ON-ONE DISCOURSE

If you find yourself in what is mainly a one-on-one conversation in a thread which is becoming quite long, especially if the content (or subject headings*) of your posts are of a very brief duration, it is strongly advised that you continue your conversation either in e-mail or in a chat room.

Determining what constitutes "excessive" one-on-one posting will be left up to the moderators. Amount of duration (i.e.,number of posts, etc.) and character of the poster (i.e., does the poster seem to be legitimate or a possible "troll") are at least two of the determining factors.

This rule will not be as strictly enforced in the "Anything Goes" forum, since that is a leisurely forum for people to "shoot the breeze" and have fun.

Excessive one-on-one banter, in the view of one of the administrators, though,

• eats up screen real estate (one must scroll down the page to see other threads if one does not choose to have the "show new posts only" feature selected)
• wastes bandwidth; it makes the page longer to download
• becomes distracting to some people when it takes place on a more focused, serious forum, such as the "Bible Versions" or "King James Only" forum, and it will be considered to be a form of "spam" (see section above: Advertisements and Other Spam: points #1 and 2).

Non-Christians are reuired to read this page before posting at BVDB. For your conveinence, we offer here a summarized, but not complete, list of rules for Non-Christians who wish to post at our board, so that you may begin posting right away:

This board is NOT an arena for atheists, agnostics, Satanists, or other non-Christians to debate with Christians about theism, the Bible, or any other Christian-related ideas and views.