Read Me BEFORE You Post!!!

[JJ]

To gain full access to this forum, you must post a mandatory introduction.  Please post a brand new thread for your introduction.  So you are not confused with a spammer, please make sure your intro addresses these three things:

1.  Tell us about yourself.
2.  Why are you here?
3.  How did you find the Shire Society?

If your intro does not address these points, your post count will be reduced to zero, preventing you from posting elsewhere in the forum and subjecting your account to our regular purge of accounts with zero posts.


The moderators of the Shire Society Forum are dedicated to peaceful evolution. Posts that advocate or threaten violence or bigotry are unwelcome, may be deleted, and their authors banned.

In addition to that policy, the BBS has important features that can help you control unwanted content.

1.  You can ignore users by clicking the "Profile" tab, then hovering over "Modify Profile", hovering over "Buddies / Ignore List", and choosing "Ignore List".
2.  You can ignore entire boards by clicking the "Profile" tab, then hovering over "Modify Profile", and clicking "Ignore Boards Options".
3.  You can ignore individual topics when you look at lists of unread posts or replies.  (Use the links in the top right.)
4.  You can set your preferences to not show avatar or signature pictures by clicking the "Profile" tab, then hovering over "Modify Profile", choose "Look and Layout", and then check the boxes to your preference and click "Change Profile".

Users posting undesirable content should be ostracized.  You are encouraged to utilize option one, option two or both.

Don't like the forum theme?  To change it, click the "Profile" tab, then hover over "Modify Profile" and click "Look and Layout".  Then click "change" to the right of "Epic-Orange".

Also, you can click each forum category to open or close that category's "window" on the main page.  This feature can make a big forum like this more manageable.

[FTL_Ian]

Welcome to the Shire Society Forum.  This forum is intended for discussion of liberty activism and community in the Shire.  (Commonly known as the geographic area called New Hampshire.)  People living outside the physical area of the Shire are welcome, as being in the Shire is also a state of mind, but please keep your posts related to moving to the Shire and the activism here.  Debatarians should go somewhere else, as trolling is not welcome here.

To participate here you must meet one of two conditions:

1.  Support the right of Shire Society people (and other humans) to peacefully exist without being aggressed against.
-or-
2.  Agree with and/or have signed the Shire Society declaration

In order to control spammers, we have instituted a mandatory introduction post for all new users.  While logged out of the site, anyone can read the forum.  Once you create your account, all the forums will disappear except for the Introduce Yourself forum.  Please post a thread introducing yourself as per the instructions found in said forum.  Once you post, the other forums will open up to you.  If you choose not to post, your account will be subject to deletion at any time when mods remove all accounts with zero posts.  In addition, your first post and first private message will require an anti-spam check, but once you've made your first post or pm, that requirement will go away.

Please note that content is not edited or sanitized for your protection. This forum may contain offensive language and images.  That said, trolling and chronic dissent and naysaying will be removed repeat offenders will be subject to temporary and permanent bans.  Moderators have full discretion about assigning account restrictions.

In order to keep the readability of the forum at a pleasant level, signatures will be limited to no more than 150 pixels high.  Your account may be deleted after 365 days of inactivity.

By accepting these terms, you understand and are agreeing to the following:
I am a mature sovereign individual or I have parental consent to view the material contained within this site.

I understand that I am solely responsible for the content of my posted messages as others are for theirs. Furthermore, I agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries.

Advocation of violence and aggression, spam, racism, bigotry, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are forbidden on this forum.

This forum has no obligations to me and I use it at my own risk.  I understand that my posts can be viewed and saved by anyone surfing the site.

[FTL_Ian]

About the forum reputation ratings:

• You must have a certain amount of posts prior to being allowed to "appreciate" or "ostracize" another user.
• If your reputation level dips below a certain point, you may no longer be able to issue reputation.

[Dalebert]

People are always asking "what is a troll". It comes down to motivations. Therefore, you're never going to have a set of rules that will adequately define trolling. It's ultimately going to take a judgment call. But here's a primer.

A troll tries to stir up drama and get a reaction out of people, but what makes them a troll is WHY they do it and figuring that out requires examining a pattern of behavior. A troll might just be the digital version of an attention-seeker, someone who craves any attention even if it's bad, like a kid who throws tantrums or the drunk at a party. A troll might be doing it purely for entertainment, realizing how much fun you can have when you figure out how to push people's buttons and manipulate them. A troll might do it to feel better about themselves because they're a loser "in real life". Trolls are a sort of emotional parasite because they're having their fun at the expense of everyone else. Sometimes simply being a wrench in the forum is the end purpose of trolling. Someone may not want a forum to be successful for whatever its intended purposes are and they are just here to disrupt it. In any case, the motivations for stirring up drama are selfish and take place at the expense of others. That's why they ultimately will be the death of a forum and why the forums that stay really active and vital are the ones that are fairly heavily moderated.

I'm sure we all know drama queens in our personal lives--attention whores, high-maintenance friends, etc. They can literally be exhausting to be around. I've heard some people described as emotional energy vortexes. That's what a troll is in the virtual world.

It should be acknowledged that someone can also appear to be stirring up drama when they post something that simply inspires cognitive dissonance when they're trying to make a valid point. A discussion on a touchy subject can get heated and might even get kind of personal, insults going back and forth, etc. It's still not necessarily trolling if the motivations are sincere. And the occasional dramatic thread by itself is not necessarily trolling. It should also be noted that some people just don't play nice with others and while not intentionally "trolling" are still disruptive enough of the goals of a forum to seriously interfere with its intended purposes.

Unfortunately, the nature of the beast is that it takes a judgment call, and that's why decent forums have active moderators who have been designated that role by the owner of the forum. Fortunately, there are countless forums out there that may suit your tastes better if you disagree strongly enough with the judgment of the moderators here.

Since this is a liberty-oriented forum, consider the analogy that this is more like a private club than a public park. It will not suffer from the tragedy of the commons where people can argue endlessly over the bureaucracy and the space deteriorates from neglect. Service may be refused to anyone for any reason.