AHS Etiquette

Guidelines for Civil Discourse

Thank you for taking the time to read the AHS Rules of Etiquette. The purpose of this site is to establish ground rules for the many interactive portions of this website. This page outlines the rules common to all interactive forums. The menu to the left has rules of etiquette for each specific forum. Please read the Ground Rules and then read the guidelines for etiquette, for the forum(s) that you choose to participate in.

AHS Etiquette

The greatest benefit of an online forum is that it enables us to discuss issues that are generally off-limits to polite company. Religion and politics are generally off-limits, but here we embrace the discussion of political matters and, though this is not a religion discussion room, we also welcome discussion of religion, as it applies to the topics that we deal with. The reason that religion and politics are typically regarded as off-limits for discussion in polite company is that many people have very strong beliefs on both topics and it often leads to heated and uncomfortable arguments. To keep our discussions civil, please adhere to AHS Etiquette, outlined below.

1. Debate the argument, not the person making the argument. Whether a person is a hypocrite, insensitive, uninformed, or so on has absolutely nothing to do with the truth or validity of the argument.

Example: You think that abortion should be illegal, but you just admitted that you had one yourself - you're a hypocrite!

2. Avoid irrelevant generalizations. It is a waste of your time, our bandwidth and everyone else's time.

Example: You think that drugs should be legal? That is Libertarian bunk. I guess we should also let illegal immigrants freely cross over our borders like the rest of your Libertarian buddies want to do.

3. Use proper grammar, check your spelling and preview your post. Your post will always make sense to you, as you write it, because you know what you are trying to convey. Read over your post after you have completed it, to ensure that others can understand it. Poorly developed arguments can make your point as confusing as sloppy spelling and bad grammar. Also, the more that you edit your post, the less likely you are to see your own errors.

4. Get the to the point. car The longer your post, the more likely that your point will get lost in the flood of words. Do not write your manifesto. Just make your point and back it up. There are endless opportunities for you to weigh in on a wide variety of topics. You do not need to cover them all in one post.

5. Be courteous. This forum is an appropriate place to discuss political issues, because that is why people come here. You are not going to make anyone here uncomfortable by discussing politics. However, the anonymity granted by forums such as this often leads some people to behave rudely. We ask that users control themselves and maintain a respectable level of civility. If you would not typically say it in a face-to-face discussion, then it is probably inappropriate here, as well.

One last note:

Violating AHS Etiquette will not necessarily get your post deleted or your account deleted, but it will certainly reduce your credibility and make it more difficult for you to convince anyone of your position. And, if you are not here to inform or convince, then why would you post?