Rules of this Forum:

1. While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible where necessary, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators or moderators (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.
   
2. You agree that in the case of allegations of breach of law arising from comments made by you, your details will be released to authorised investigative authorities. The IP address of all posts is recorded. You agree that the administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to edit, move, or delete any topic or post at any time should they see fit under the guidelines specified below. You agree that the administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and / or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.
   
3. Posts on private matters which could identify another individual either in name or by inference are not permitted. Where a post mentions a public figure, publicly reported incident or a quote made by any persons, the poster must include reference to where this quote was publicly made as proof of same: Rule 4 applies to the content of any such post. This is in the interest of privacy and to prevent individuals being exposed to posts which may lead to personal hurt, embarrassment or defamation.
   
4. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually orientated or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Messages personally attacking, calling names, disrespecting, winding-up, or otherwise harassing, making derogatory or condescending remarks to another forum member, public figure or any ethnic or religious group are not allowed. This applies even if an individual is not directly named. Any form of verbal violence/abuse/aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated
   
5. Reports of trolling will be taken seriously: behaviour will be closely monitored and reports reviewed by moderators and administrators collaboratively. Repeat "offenders" will be warned where an obvious pattern is evident. If behaviour continues, suspension or permanent ban will ensue, on individual, not just forum persona.
   
6. Actions of moderators may not be questioned on fora here: Should a poster have issues with actions of a moderator / administrator, they should use the report link to voice their concerns, or use the pm facility alternatively. All reports are seen by all moderators and administrators, and all reports will be addressed accordingly.
   
7. Moderation is restricted to moderators / administration only. Posts attempting to moderate topics / threads will be deleted. (This may result in follow-on posts being deleted, where they answer the "offending" post.)
   
8. Respect copyright. Do not post any copyrighted materials from any online publishers, i.e. any media source, unless you have written permission from the publisher to do so, and have emailed a copy of same to administrators in advance of posting. Permission must be then obtained prior to posting any such material. You may post a link to an article, but not the article itself. It is permissible to post a quote from a published piece, once a link to a verifiable source is referenced.
   
9. Due to the fact that one has to sign up and that posts are behind logins only, it is not permitted to quote posts outside this message board - unless done by the post's owner.
   
10. Privacy - please do not publish your email address or phone number. Such posts might be deleted by the admin.
    
11. When posting topics (threads), answers, comments
    
    2. Topic / Thread titles must be descriptive and self-explanatory. Be specific, so people know exactly what it is about, and to help others doing searches on the forum. Topics with non-descriptive subjects might be removed without any explanation.
       
    3. Posts giving information or advertising for similar websites or recruitment agencies will be deleted.
       
    4. Search the forum first if you have a general question to see if the answer is already there. People do not then spend unnecessary time rewriting existing answers.
       
    5. Be considerate to posters asking questions. Yes, some users are harder to help than others, but please be respectful to all users.
       
    6. You may talk about the post, you may not talk about the poster
       
    7. If you don't know the answer or don't wish to help, please say nothing instead of brushing off someone's question. Politely showing someone how you searched or obtained the answer to a question is acceptable, even encouraged.
       
    8. Avoid acronyms and jargon when giving instructions
       
    9. Do not use text-speak or slang
       
    10. Don’t use “Bump” or "anybody?" to keep threads on top: If they deserve a “sticky”, pm a moderator with your request
        
    11. Don’t post same or similar questions to several threads
        
    12. When writing a post, please space paragraphs with a blank line in between them for better readability.
        
    13. Please use punctuation for easy readability.
        
    14. Please do not write posts in all UPPERCASE letters, as it looks as if you are screaming at the people reading your post.
        
    15. Please use colour and font properties for highlighting portions of your text, and not for all of the text in your post.
        
    16. Typos and other errors can cause mis-communication between users on the forums, please preview your text before posting.
        
    17. Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic.
        
12. Advertising and canvassing
    
    2. Advertising on the message board is not allowed
       
    3. Advertising in the signature is not allowed
       
    4. Members ignoring this rule or people signing up just for advertising will be banned
       
    5. Canvassing is not allowed (vote for me, vote for him, vote for my school, etc.)
       
13. The administrators and moderators of this forum will preserve forum content when possible. However, we reserve the right to edit, move, delete any post without explanation, and to warn and / or temporarily / permanently ban a member who does not comply with rules.
    
14. Members not adhering to rules may:
    
    2. Receive a warning by pm from a moderator or admin.
       
    3. Be asked to remedy their post to remove material, or be informed that this has been done by editing, removal or deletion.
       
    4. Be requested to adhere to forum rules or face suspension or permanent ban.
       
    5. Be suspended or permanently banned with immediate effect.
       
15. Members have to look after their email addresses and have to check emails regularly. If the emails are not checked and the email account is disabled by the provider, the message board membership will seize, meaning that forums and User CP can not be accessed anymore. Also, there will be no access to any saved PMs.
    
    You are welcome to sign up again with a new username and a valid email address.
    

Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to review, amend and add to the rules as required.

9 months, 2 weeks and 1 day after:

"How To Deal With An Online Shitstorm" - there is an interesting read at http://www.buzzfeed.com/mariabustillos/h....cu3Vw56xo, especially the 2nd chapter "Just shut up".

What I want to say is: do not reply to any offensive or hurtful posts. Ignore. Don't feed the trolls. You can report the post and I will deal with it. Just check first whether it is not just an opinion. If you retaliate, you will be as guilty as the offender.