Who Is This For?
This forum was built by churchmen for the building up of the church of Jesus Christ. Our hope is that this site will strengthen local churches to be unapologetically Christian, reformed, and culturally engaged. You can read more about our reasons for creating this platform here.
This discussion site has two main categories: The Public Square and Hrothgar’s Hall. Anyone can sign up for an account and post comments and questions in the Public Square, and anything posted in the Public Square is public. That’s intentional on our part: we don’t want to take our Christian convictions into the back room, out of the public eye. We want the world to know what we think.
We hope there will be genuine Christian community here in Sanityville, to the degree that’s possible online. Real community and intimacy inevitably leads to conversations that require more privacy. Hrothgar’s Hall is a “private”* category, and only full citizens of Sanityville can view, comment or post new topics in Hrothgar’s Hall. Additionally, only citizens can create new topics in the Public Square. If you’d like to become a citizen, first fill out your profile, then click the “Request” button at the top of this page to complete your application.
* “Private” is in scare quotes because nothing is truly private if it is online, even if Google can’t index it.
This Is A Place For Gracious Public Discourse
Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. - Colossians 4:6
Here are a few rules that should go without saying:
- Don’t be rude or nasty. Treat others as you would like to treated.
- Keep it clean. Search engines index these discussions. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit. Keep the language, links and images safe for family and friends.
- Respect each other. Don’t harass anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
- Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
Gelded Discourse
“Gelded discourse,” sometimes called “feminized discourse,” is a way of speaking that communicates a lack of conviction or certainty. The speaker uses hedge words and weasel words to communicate a willingness to be “reasonable” and non-dogmatic. Our post-modern culture denies the authority of Scripture and denies the existence of authortitative truth, and so it demands that we all speak as if nothing is true and nothing is at stake. But should we?
No, we shouldn’t. Not in every day life, and not on this forum. Say what you think. Say it matter of factly. Say it without hedging your bets.
Clarity in thought and word, coupled with deep Christian conviction, is not antithetical to grace, humility and tenderness. A clear explanation of sin and our need for a savior may get you accused of being “hateful” by a mob of protestors out on the street. But “gracious speech” is defined by Scripture and our consciences, and not by the mob.
On Judging Motives
Evangelicals have swallowed the belief that we should never judge someone elses’ motives. More than that, we must assume that everyone’s motives are pure as the wind-driven snow. That’s ridiculous, and we don’t think you should have to assume it here on this forum.
God alone can see the heart, and we have a duty to be charitable towards each other in our discussions. And yet, it is foolishly naive to act as if we have no ability to discern motives. If this is a new concept to you, start here:
Moderation and Discipline
Moderators
Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. You can do quite a lot to help the moderators in their work.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.
Discipline
There are a variety of ways that someone can be disciplined here if they act up:
- Flags. Flags can be given out by both moderators and other users.
- Warnings. Warnings are sent by moderators, and they can only be seen by the user and other moderators. There is no hard-and-fast rule about warnings, but users should assume that multiple warnings will lead to further corrective action.
- Silence. When a user is silenced by the moderators, he can log in, but he cannot post or start topics.
- Suspension. When a user is suspeneded by the moderators, he will no longer be able to log in at all. As all content is publicly accessible, he will be able to continue reading public posts.
If someone is silenced or suspended, it is almost always for one of two reasons:
Lying will not be tolerated on this forum. The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote the truth, and that we protect our neighbor’s good name, especially in bearing witness to what they’ve said or done. It forbids whatever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbor’s, good name.
We do not allow liars to post here. Such men destroy loving community among Christians and unbelievers alike and we won’t tolerate them. This includes men who lie about their name, their email address, their church or pastor, or the nature of their opponents’ arguments (although this last one needs to be demonstrated as a habit before we act).
Heresy will not be tolerated on this forum. Simply put, heresy is error of belief that will put souls in danger of Hell. This forum was established by pastors, and as shepherds, we are duty bound to protect the sheep and silence those who spread heresy. If someone is actively spreading heresy on this forum, our usual policy is to give the individual a warning. If he’s willing to cease and desist, we will generally permit him to continue to post on other subjects.
It’s a Community Effort
Improve the Discussion
Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.
Your Participation Counts
The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.
Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.
Let’s leave our community better than we found it.
Keep It Tidy
Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:
- Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
- Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
- Don’t post no-content replies.
- Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
- Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.
Finally, no animated GIFs or memes!
Seriously. They are annoying.
Post Only Your Own Stuff
You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.
Powered by You
This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.
Terms of Service
Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.