Writer's Guidelines and Policy

Reasons People Get Banned from this Site

We are trying to build an online community, and that community requires comity and courtesy. People will get their points across with much more force if they are logical as well as polite as opposed to illogical and irate.

Anger doesn't sell a point. Logic and respect of others are more effective.


Folks at this site should be honing their debating skills not their yelling skills.

We don't like to ban people, but we have rules that we won't tolerate being broken. Here's a list of actions and behaviors that will lead to banning:

-Hate speech-- in comments, diaries or other content. No second chance. Immediate banning.

-Name calling, ad hominem personal attacks. Usually a warning unless particularly egregious

-Spamming the site-- posting the same comment on multiple articles, also known as 'astro-turfing'

-any abuse of editor in response to rejections

-abusing the messaging system

-making threats

-attacking the website or posting emails or inside information from the site in any content on this site or other site, or emailing. (You have every right to attack the site, but we don't have to keep you as a member if you do.)

-Repeated episodes of uncivil postings on the site.

-repeated violations of copyrights

-illegal activity

-posting pornography, or links to pornography to the site

Most of the people who are banned from this site have been members for a short time, often one day. They come in, think they can get nasty and leave. But consider this-- being banned on this site is recorded. You are banned by your IP address and email, not only from this site, but from all the sites in the populum.com system. That system is growing. Do you really want to risk not being able to access other sites as well?