Great Debate Community Rules (GDC on G+)

Owner: +Steve McRae

 The Great Debate Community (GDC) community is a diverse group of experts and laypersons discussing and debating scientific, theological, and philosophical topics on G+ and YouTube. Being a member of the GDC means you’re part of growing community that has name recognition around the world. Whether you’re someone who wants to dive right into a conversation on a specific topic on air or on the G+ page we welcome everyone who has something to say and a forum to which to say it. We do however have rules which are to ensure the GDC remains a fair and open forum for everyone.

1) All posts must have some type of commentary provided with the post. This should, if possible, explain the post if not self evident, the reason for the post, and what should the topic of discussion about the post. (no blank posts such as just posting a meme…this includes no posting orphan memes in “The Lounge”)

2) Offensive posts are not tolerated. These are posts which directly attack a person or groups race, religious affiliation, sexual preference, gender…ect. This is a non-exhaustive list, and if it is uncertain if a post is offensive or not will be at the moderators discretion.

3) The GDC will always be pro-science and while pseudoscience can be brought up, and even argued for (this includes Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and flat Earth) by anyone…posts which merely promote these positions as fact or science will be removed.

4) No Trolling. Please stick to the issues and do not troll just to incite flame war or just do drive by spam attacks. Trolling can include people who are not interested in honest dialog, but only want to elicit emotional responses to posting of offensive memes, posts, or comments. Trolls are usually new members and are spotted very quickly and should be dealt with just as expeditiously.

5) No TOS violations of any kind. If you don’t think it belongs here, don’t post it. Simple as that. There will be no warnings for extreme violations of TOS and will result in a removal from the group by a moderator. This includes posting of nudity or other NSFW posts.

6) Snipers can not apply, or be introduced into this community. Snipers are those who use an exploit (or “working as intended” by Google) which allows someone to remove anyone (including the host) from hangouts effectively killing the hangout and taking it off air after 5 minutes. (Exceptions in very rare cases have been made and those cases have already been addressed.). A current list of known snipers is kept up to date on the GDC web page. http://great-debate-community.wikia.com/wiki/Hangout_Sniping

7) Responses to posts can not be disabled. All posts must be able to be responded to.
(Mods can disable comments with sufficient reason to prevent trolling or hijacking. This also includes deleting of comments from posts).

8) Moderators can not be blocked by members, but moderators can block members on their own personal G+ accounts.

10) Owner/Moderators have full control over their sections. Please respect their wishes and moderation. If you think you have been treated unfairly please message me directly and we can try to resolve it or another moderator.

11) Please post politics and social commentary strictly only in the “politics” section.

12) Try to keep comments relative to the topic of the post. No explicit hijacking of posts! Please respect the wishes of the OP if thread is being completely derailed.

13) Avoid misrepresentations, strawman arguments, blatant personal attacks, and try to take the most charitable interpretations possible. (This is strictly enforced as it helps to eliminate drama and trolling).

15) Rules are open to revisal at any time.

16) Steve and moderators have executive decisions to remove people instantly for egregious violations or their discretion.

17) Have fun!

Rev Jan 2018