Forum Terms & Rules

The primary goal of this forum is to provide a place for honest, educational, civil, and fun debate on the topic of origins. Given the heated nature of the creation vs. evolution debate, this is not an easy goal to achieve so we will require members to follow the stringent set of guidelines below. To make life easier for the moderators, our goal is to weed-out the troublemakers early, which should also lessen interaction from moderators. We want to have as little editing or deleting of posts as possible, so instead we will seek to edit “people”.

The bottom line is that only the intellectually honest need apply to participate in this board. Our moderators will be primarily looking to identify those who give even the slightest inkling that they are here to waste people’s time, consciously or otherwise. We will be looking for repeated cases of red-herrings, quibbling over terms (equivocation), strawmen, false allegations, and other devices contrary to honest debate. If this is your style of debate, then this forum isn’t for you. For a top-10 list of common time-wasting talk.origins-style tactics, please see the Evo-Babble Percher Alert page.

Following are the forum guidelines. The various moderators and Admins can cut or ban without notice or appeal or explanation.

Forum Guidelines:

This moderated forum fosters scientific dialog on creation-evolution, intended to be useful for visitors and searchers, as well as participants. That is the spirit of all the following guidelines.

1. The subject header should be succinctly descriptive of the content. Content should be specific and mature, and consistent with its chosen subject header.  Compact, well-stated posts are preferred. Participants are encouraged to use private e-mail concerning minor points, off-topic, or personal matters.
   Good headers:  "Epistasis"; "Black Holes"; "Human/ape DNA similarity"
   Bad headers: "Need help with this"; "YOOOOHOOOOO! Creationists!"; "Evo-babbler Bonehead Post of the month”
2. You should provide proper references when quoting an article or website.
3. Your post should not be simply a link or links to articles/websites, or a wholesale cut&paste of an article/web-page. Various snippets from articles are fine, provided it is in the context of the argument you are developing. This shows the reader you understand the topic you are debating and makes for more productive discussion.
4. If you believe another member is breaking a forum rule, please do not post on the open forum your grievance, instead please use the 'Report' button, or PM us to let us know. 

The following are disallowed:

1. Profanity, obscenity.
2. Advertising.
3. Posting copyrighted material without permission.
4. Use of unauthorized personal correspondence (i.e. email or Private Message).
5. Clear cases of misrepresentation, quoting out of context, or unsubstantiated hearsay.
6. Equivocation, particularly regarding what "evolution" means. It is intellectually dishonest to claim that micro-evolution (something everyone agrees occurs) proves that all life originates from a common ancestor.
7. Ad hominem attacks -- discussions about someone's credentials or character are disallowed unless the exchange necessitates a clear need to point out a problem with a source of the information. Such exceptions shall be few and brief. 
8. Negative one-liner responses to a post, such as "that's a bunch of baloney".
9. Pointless chatter -- though there is some leeway for occasional friendly banter or brief humor in good taste.
10. Nagging or complaints that an opponent is not responding -- We are all busy, and there is no requirement to respond.
11. Needless repetition.
12. Trolling -- questions or arguments that are insincere or for creating a spectacle.  This includes conspiring on another forum to come here and cause trouble for a specific member. While posting under a pseudonym is allowed, it makes you more likely to be taken for a troll, so weigh this into your behavior.
13. Complaining about board moderation.
14. Registering under more than one pseudonym (also called a "sock-puppet").
15. Elephant hurling, such as providing a barrage of citations to give the illusion of weighty evidence.

Consistent violators of the above guidelines will permanently lose posting privileges to the board, often without warning. Again, our moderators are looking primarily for time-wasters, regardless if they do not appear on the surface to be disingenuous.

We highly encourage members to report any questionable post, and to let us know if they think someone is wasting their time. We highly discourage complaints to Moderators or Admins. There are many other forums on the internet if you do not like the way things are run here. Our objective is quality, not quantity.

Moderator Policy

Since Evolution Fairytale is a Christian-based ministry, only Christians will be accepted as Moderators and Admins for the forum. If you are interested in assisting as a Moderator, please contact Fred Williams.

We are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message.