Terms of Service - Humanists.Party

Discussion culture

Any postings need to contain own text by the author. It is not tolerated to only post pictures, links or quotes without further explanations.
Own posts must not be deleted, unless permitted by an administrator. Other users put lots of efforts into their comments and will be understandably miffed if they disappear. If an author is unhappy with a posting, he can edit it with the remark „update“ or publish his opinion in a new posting.
Posts need to be clearly constructive and contribute to the exchange of opinions. Destructive postings such as quibbling, bossiness, or unproven claims aimed to discredit another user are not welcome.
Generally, every post represents a personal opinion.

Trolling is strictly prohibited.
Trolling describes multiple posts being made which have no factual content and serve the purpose of provoking others.
Irrational postings can also be considered trolling if they accumulate.
A sub-form of trolling is shitposting, where irrelevant and/or nonsensical posts are repeatedly posted outside of the designated threads.

Insults, defamations, disparagements and discreditations are prohibited.
It is not an insult if an ideology, worldview, religion, point of view or other way of thinking is attacked in a substantiated manner, but only, if a person or group of people is attacked. People have rights as opposed to ideas. A clear insult is e.g. „communists are idiots“, whereas „communism is an idiotic idea because…“ does not constitute an insult.
In the spirit of an appreciative and constructive dialogue, we ask all participants to adhere to objectivity and to differentiate whenever possible. Harsh criticism toward other ways of thinking is bad style, argumentative refutation should always be the means of choice.

Sexual harassment, threats, stalking and inciting violence are strictly prohibited.
Sexual harassment is defined as sexualizing remarks and actions that may have a degrading or humiliating effect.
Any form of intimidation is considered a threat.
Stalking is defined as the deliberate and repeated (persistent) pursuit or harassment of a person.
Inciting violence is both direct and indirect calls for the use of force against individuals or groups.

Spamming is prohibited.
Any post that has nothing to do with the topic is considered spamming. Posts that have no content, such as “yawn”, are also regarded as spam.
Multiple posts that either have the same content or are attributable to the “pushing” of a previous post are also counted as spam.

Violation of the rights of third parties is prohibited.
Any form of copyright infringement and violation of the right in one’s own image counts as an infringement of the rights of third parties.
Posts that fall into this category will be deleted by the moderators.

Sharing pornography will result in a warning and/or suspension.
Definition of the term “pornography” by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH): “A depiction is to be regarded as pornographic if, to the exclusion of all other human references, it foregrounds sexual events in a grossly obtrusive, lurid manner and its overall tendency is aimed exclusively or predominantly at the viewer’s prurient interest in sexual matters.”
Historical and artistic representations do not fall into this category, but must be related to the contribution topic.

Publishing of private correspondence and private data, such as addresses, telephone numbers, etc., is prohibited.
Posts in which private data is published will be deleted immediately by the moderators.

The distribution of advertising and the misuse of posts for advertising purposes is prohibited.
In this context, advertising is the presentation of organizations with the aim of making them known, recruitment, promoting sales or cultivating their image.

Repeated sharing of pages with conspiracy-theory content is not permitted, unless it is done with the intention of debunking them.
In particular, the so called “Reichsbürger” (oftentimes violent, right wing conspiracy theorists who deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and its laws), anti-vaxxers, chemtrail conspiracy theorists, 9/11 truther, QAnon supporters and flat-earthers clearly belong to the group of conspiracy theorists.

Race-based reasoning is strictly prohibited.
Any argument that assigns people to groups based on appearance or ancestry is race-based.

Xenophobic statements are strictly prohibited.
A statement is xenophobic if it generalizes other groups of people on the basis of social, religious, economic, cultural or linguistic differences or presents them as a threat that must be fought.

Social Darwinist claims are strictly prohibited.
It’s considered Social Darwinism when people are reduced to their genes and their value is determined on the basis of these.

Spreading of anti-LGBTQ views is strictly prohibited.
Any argument that views a group or individual as inferior because of their sexual or gender orientation is Anti-LGBTQ.

Sexist remarks are strictly prohibited.
A statement is always sexist when a person is reduced to their sexuality. Furthermore, it is also sexist to assign roles to certain genders.

The description texts of the hub categories indicate what kind of posts should be posted there. In particular, there is a difference between the lounge / small talk area and the other categories.
If a new thread is created in the wrong category, the moderators can move it to the correct category.
If the discussion in a thread becomes unfocused and deals with one or more “off-topic” threads, moderators may move the individual thread posts to new or existing appropriate threads.
If a thread is opened on an existing topic, the moderators can merge the two threads.
If a user repeatedly attracts attention by contributions that require treatment according to (2)-(4), a warning may be issued.

Moderators have the discretion to decide when to issue an official warning. They must refer to one of the paragraphs of this policy. Merely pointing out that a rule has been disregarded does not constitute an official warning. An official warning is explicitly issued to the person being warned.
The moderation team can directly ban or delete a user in case of serious violations of the hub rules.