Forum Guidelines - PLEASE READ

Forum Guidelines

This forum is for reasonably civil discussion of the matches in this group. Please follow these guidelines while posting here:

1. Supporters of all teams and nations are welcome. Posts must be relevant and on topic to the teams or matches of this group.

2. Exuberant support for you team is welcome. Trolling, deliberately winding up your fellow posters, personal attacks, and foul language (not allowed by the censor) is not. And if your team wins, try to be gracious about it. For posts with an edge, there is a World Cup rivalries forum, with different, more relaxed posting guidelines than here.

3. Critiques of play or arguments are fine. However, attacks on posters or players based on identities or aspects thereof, such as race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality are not allowed under any circumstances. This includes slurs based on national identity. Some examples:

Acceptable:
"I've never liked the Martian team. They dive too much."
Not acceptable:
"I've never liked the Martian team. They dive too much, because they're a nation of criminals and perverts bred from goats."

Acceptable:
"You don't think that's a foul? Of course that's a foul! Holy shit, that's the foulingest foul that's ever been fouled and I can't believe you don't think it's a foul."
Not acceptable:
"You don't think that's a foul? Of course that's a foul. Only a *****ing moron raised on juice boxes, pointy ball, and too much red meat with no knowledge of the game would not see that's a foul."

The two "not acceptable" examples (and other, similar posts) would likely get that poster banned from this group forum, and possibly the entire World Cup forum.

We're aiming for the kind of conversation that would keep a bar filled with a multinational, multi-allegianced crowd of patrons reasonably calm. If you start saying stuff that would cause someone in that hypothetical bar to throw a punch at you, chances are good the mods will step in. Normal moderating guidelines still apply (warnings, private messaging, etc), but due to the fast moving nature of the conversations there will be times that quick decisions might need to be made.

Thanks and enjoy the Cup!

 

Mod note: it is expected that you read the above as if you are warned, it will be referenced. Further, these are the guidelines for all World Cup forum posting, aside from World Cup World Rivalries. If you post there, a different version of the guidelines are posted. Read them, too, before posting.