1. General
It is expected that each participant, whichever country he or she is from, will show respect to our Russian motherland, to her multinational culture and her main religions (Christianity, Islam).
It is forbidden to make personal remarks in polemics, and to use racial, ethnic, ideological, religious labels as defining characteristics of other participants.
2. Comments
The comments should be related to the article or the issues, raised by the article.
It is expected that each participant will defend his or her point of view, while tolerating other opinions. The attempts of hijacking the discussion are not welcome.
Expressing your opinion, try to show good manners. It never harms to be polite.
When entering a discussion, support your viewpoint with good arguments. Before disputing your opponent s view, indicate your points of agreement.
One participant may use one nickname. Using multiple nicknames is forbidden, a creation of the virtual “support team” leads to cancellation of the user s registration.
Avoid typing in all capital letters, this is equivalent to shouting in usual etiquette. Avoid extensive marking your text by color, etc.
In comments it is forbidden :
Quotations which are too long, using fiction literature instead of the arguments. It is recommended to minimally quote your opponent and show URLs instead of quotations, when possible.
Posting entire articles from mainstream media (use a two-sentence “teaser” and a web-link instead, or suggest your source for publication), flooding the discussion with short (meaningless) messages, duplicating posts.
Excessive use of taboo words (“adult language”). In many cultures it is considered as an offensive, and you may be qualified as a provocator, see below.
Personal remarks and threats to your opponent.
Discussing moderator s actions. In case of your disagreement over moderator s decision, you may justify your opinon by email. The answer is not necessarily guaranteed.
3. Moderation
The order at the forum is maintained by the moderators and administrators.
Comments are postmoderated, that is they appear under the article first and are checked by moderators afterwards.
Comments which violates the rules can be removed, partly or in full. Moderators may explain the reasons for editing, but are not required to do so.
First two occasions of breaking the rules of the forum are accompanied by notices by moderator. The third occasion is qualified as systematic and leads to a suspension of rights of posting. Multiple breaking of the rules leads to a cancellation of the registration.
If the off-topic comments contain provocative remarks, aimed at the emotional engagement of possiblly larger number of other participants, then it is defined as flame or trolling behaviour. It leads to a notice by moderators and a suspension of rights of posting.
The time period for suspension of the rights is decided by administration in each particular case, depending on severity of the violation.
Changes and addenda to the rules.
The administration can change these rules to prevent the violation of the general principles and to avoid fruitless discussions.
The changes to the rules are applicable starting from the moment of their publication.