FORUM RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR USERS

[WebMaster]

FORUM RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR USERS

PDF Philosophy and vision:

PDF wishes to be a platform for ideas to be discussed openly and in a cordial productive manner. The reason for IDs where you can have a relatively high degree of anonymity is for you to do away with your person and be your ideas. However, that does not mean that the person behind the keyboard ceases to exist and therefore; we have these rules to enforce that environment where ideas can be exchanged, challenged and projected freely.

Sharing explicit / graphic content

Any material showing gore/after effects of violence/ graphic things or adult material (pornography) is strictly not allowed on PDF. Please, share only images / content which is considered safe for work (SFW) as a general guideline. Members violating this rule will get permanent ban.

Ethnic / political / nationalistic hate

Needless to say, PDF wishes to be a productive exchange of ideas and not a place of spreading communal, national, political or religiously motivated hatred. Members found involved in such activities would be severely penalized.

Sectarianism

PDF holds zero tolerance towards any sectarianism. Any material garnered towards inciting sectarianism in any form would be heavily penalized. PDF is not the place to have a dialogue on religious interpretation and anyone using that to create divide and unrest can be permanently banned as well. Please consider that criticizing any government, nation or person independent of bringing sect in is possible.

Religious Discussions

PDF proudly maintains respect for all religions therefore; as PDF is primarily a defense and geopolitical forum, the management feels that, it is not the place for religious discussions. Kindly do not post religious threads nor respond to any and, please, refrain from using religion in arguments. It should be noted that ethnicity is different from religion, Muslims/ Hindu/ Christians are ethnicities and Islam / Hinduism / Christianity are religions. This also includes sectarianism as well; PDF is not the place to have a dialogue on religion. Violation of this rule would be considered serious as it often leads to issues based on religious / communal tensions.

Inciting violence

Any post or thread inciting or encouraging violence would be penalized and if need be all information required would be shared with the appropriate authorities. PDF holds a zero tolerance policy towards such materials.

Special Section: using social issues for inciting ethnic / nationalistic / political hatred

Social issues such as sexual harassment, rape, child molestation or abuse are not to be used to incite ethnic / nationalistic / race inspired hatred nor political point scoring. PDF management would severely penalize any such threads / posts. If you are a good human being, kindly, be an ally of victims and do not abuse victims for your gains.

Racism

PDF is not a platform for spreading racism nor do we condone it. Any such threads / posts / materials would lead to heavy penalization.

Other forms of discrimination

Same goes for ethnic or nationalistic discriminatory views, aimed at stereotyping and berating members belonging to a specific area, country, religious, ethnic group

Sexism

There would be no tolerance for any threads / posts aimed at spreading sexism (berating / inciting / discriminatory behavior based on a person’s gender identity ). Such materials are not allowed at PDF

Inciting criminal activity

Any thread / post aimed at inciting or encouraging any activity deemed as a criminal offence would not be tolerated at PDF. (exceptions: political dissidents).

Spreading fake news

In today’s era, dubious or doubtful sources are being used by interest groups to twist perceptions of people usually for nefarious means. This is not allowed at PDF. Before you post, kindly, check the source yourself, a good practice is to verify the news from multiple sources before posting it on the site. If you are posting your personal opinion or the opinion of another person then clearly state it to be so, credit the original content. Do not masquerade opinions for news.

Individual Harassment

Kindly do not ruin PDF for other members; such behavior includes following a member around PDF and replying their posts with harassing content such as thinly veiled threats or passive aggressive behavior or making the member feel as if they are being harassed. Such accusations would be investigated and would result in a ban. Moreover, kindly, do not share personal information about any member on PDF. We are a public forum, nor attempt to garner such information using PDF

Trolling

Any content or response given with the intent of simply antagonizing people (such as a particular group e.g. Pakistanis, Muslims, Christians, Women, Hindus, Indians, Africans etc.) or a particular individual in order to garner a negative emotional response is considered trolling. More generally, essentially trolling is bullying online where by either a person is subjected to denial of opportunity to speak or making them feel very bad or inflaming them to be upset only. It is understood that during dialogues on sensitive issues there would be some words considered offensive but as long as it is not generalized to justify discrimination or packaged as a personal attack then that is acceptable because the spirit of the exchange is reflection or sharing of an opinion. Responding to trolling is deemed as ‘feeding the trolls’ and would be considered trolling too. It is not justifiable to respond to trolling with trolling and would also be addressed.

Trolling is a widespread problem and user’s postage history would be taken into account. Repeated offenders may face a permanent ban and trolling is taken seriously at PDF. Kindly, it does not help anyone and causes a ruining of the decorum therefore, would be dealt with appropriately.

Flaming / baiting

A special form of trolling whereby, threads or posts aimed at inciting an individual or group of people to be emotionally charged and incite fighting are not allowed. PDF is especially against using such posts or threads to incite hatred against politically belligerent nations or group of people e.g. Indians, Pakistanis or Saudis, Iranians etc. This would only add fuel to the flames. That’s not what PDF stands for.

Propaganda

Sometimes the news sources are being used to spread propaganda: weaponized information aimed at achieving a certain political goal. Usually this is to incriminate hatred amongst groups of people or vilify them. PDF does not believe in aiding the spread of propaganda that does not mean that PDF is closed to discussions about such pieces. When you are to post such pieces of information for the sake of discussion or clarification, kindly clearly state so in your post otherwise it would be treated as aiding the spread of propaganda and would result in penalization.

Indoctrination

Sharing of information garnered at indoctrination of the public are not allowed. That includes political / religious / ethnic indoctrination are not allowed at PDF and would be penalized.

Political name calling

Using politically degrading names are not what PDF stands for and this applies for every country. PDF is politically neutral.

Political campaigning

You are encouraged to engage in political debates as well as project your own views about the political philosophy that you hold. However, PDF is not a platform for garnering political capital such as votes. Such threads or posts would be penalized. That doesn’t mean that you do not project your views or encourage others to vote, voicing your opinion as to who, in your view, should get to be in power. However, running political ads on behalf of political parties and hijacking the platform/ threads/ posts is not what PDF is for.

Personal attacks

Do not attack any individual nor use any abusive language towards their ethnic / national / religious identity for any purpose.

Profanity

Please, try to be courteous as you would be in public. This is a public forum and there are real people behind the keyboard. Therefore, kindly refrain from using curse words or offensive words to a particular group such as, Youthia or Gangu or Noora along with racially charged slurs as well. This would result in penalization. This is for the general decorum of the forum.

Promotion of a business

PDF is meant for intellectual discussions and not business promotions. In case you have such an idea where you think it would be productive then kindly contact at email address: contact@defence.pk before making any such threads/ posts.

Impersonating / multiple accounts

Everyone on PDF is allowed one account; usage of multiple IDs or impersonation of any user for any purposes would result in a ban. Users are requested to contact the management in case of dual accounts may be used in order to not be penalized for multiple accounts.

Spamming

Repeated messages either nonsensical or intended to scam people would ensue a permanent ban. Posts of business promotion would be considered spamming unless the senior management has been informed before postage.

Commenting on Management decisions

Any protest or questions on management decisions should be done at the GHQ section or via communication to contact@defence.pk email if the member is already banned.

Photos and Videos

Please, try to share multimedia covered by creative commons or those in public domain. Sharing copyrighted materials should be with consideration to copyright laws. Violation of this rule may result in moderation or further actions. Always credit the original poster with permission to resupply.

Off-Topic Posts

Anything that does not add value to the discussion being had or does not say anything about the thread may be liable for deletion and repeated violations may result in penalization. Please, do know that going into tangents is encouraged (something related to the thread, such as discussing a conflict economically rather than militarily) but off-topic derailment is not encouraged (bringing in social issues in order to derail a thread about geopolitics, for instance).

Use of foreign languages

PDF welcomes all users from the world; however, for ease of communication all posts should be in English. Use of other languages is acceptable, if proper translation is provided within the post if the article or material being presented is not in English (this translation should not be controversial). Secondly, in regional sections casual threads made for members to relax; however, in case of abuse the regional mod’s ruling would be final; so, please, maintain the decorum

Thread/ Post Rules

Please make sure that your threads are:

- In the right section, read section descriptions and decide, ask if you’re unsure. A mod may move your thread if it is not in the correct section

- Please cite the sources clearly and within the post

- Type simple language and avoid using casual language or colloquial e.g. Pakistan to play India in Cricket soon: PCB rather than P@k vs InD $00n!

- Avoid colors, unnecessary font size/format. You may bold the text to highlight certain content in special cases.