Since the redesign and switch to disqus last year, the Posting Rules are not easy to access and some do not even realize we have them. When I first came to RedState, I read them frequently to keep me on course with the purpose of RS. Also, I used them to confront those who mistakenly think we are here to debate liberals. For all the trolls reading this, please take note of the section listing the “purpose” of RS, as well as rules number 13 and 14.

Sidenote: We realize that liberals have little respect for laws and/or rules, but don’t pretend you don’t know what they are or act surprised when you are confronted and banned.

Posting Rules

The purpose of RedState.com is:

to promote conservative ideals within the vehicle of the Republican Party,
to clean house in the Republican party,
to help elect conservative Republicans,
and to encourage and educate conservative Republican activists committed to the above.

While the established community on site is valued, RedState.com’s registration, comments, and diaries are open to the public. In order to assure the site’s continued achievement of its purposes, this site has rules. A person’s failure to comply with the rules can result in deactivation of the person’s account. The proprietors of this site and their appointed moderators are the sole and final judges and enforcers of this policy.

Users who are banned may contact the proprietors to appeal any moderator action, or to lodge a complaint about moderator behavior.

The rules are as follows, and apply both to the comments and diaries on this site:

1. Profanity and vulgarity are not allowed. Disturbing and/or pornographic images are not allowed to be included on the site.
2. Namecalling and personal attacks directed at other users is not allowed.
3. Following a user on the site to abuse, harass, or disrupt is not allowed.
4. It is forbidden to single out a user for abuse or harassment for any reason, including being new to the site, being suspected of breaking site rules, or for supporting a particular candidate for office. If you suspect that a user is breaking site rules, contact the site or a moderator directly.
5. Offtopic commenting for the purpose of disruption is not allowed.
6. It is forbidden to promote or give any kind of support for parties other than the Republican party, or candidates running against Republican primary, caucus, and/or convention nominees. Exceptions to this rule are granted when announced prominently on the front page of the site.
7. Promotion of certain theories and ideas contrary to our site principles is not allowed. These ideas include, but are not limited to:
Discrediting of opinions based on one’s service in the military, or lack thereof, commonly known as “Chickenhawking.”
Violent Jihad
The violent overthrow of the United States Government
Racism, and particularly theories of superiority or inferiority, racist stereotyping, and the use of racist epithets.
Baseless conspiracy theories of Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist control of American foreign policy or the American government. Baseless accusations of “dual loyalties” to a person solely for being Jewish or being of Jewish descent are not allowed.
Theories that Barack Obama is not eligible to the Presidency of the United States, or political movements based on that idea. Birthers must post their theories elsewhere.
Theories of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that suggest the US national, state, or local governments allowed, encouraged, conducted, or were in any other way involved with the attacks, including the “9/11 Truth movement,” or theories that buildings were intentionally collapsed on that day. Truthers must post their theories elsewhere.
8. Generalized attacks on mainstream, peaceful religious beliefs and practices are forbidden. RedState.com is firstly a political website, and is not an appropriate venue for debates on comparative Christianity and Judaism.
9. It is not allowed to use a username or alias of a known public figure without permission, or to take other steps to impersonate a known public figure.
10. No attempt must be made to use multiple accounts or team efforts to manipulate the Recommended Diaries feature, and no person is allowed to use the Recommend feature on his own work with any account.
11. The use of multiple accounts by a single person in a covert, deceptive way to provide the appearance of greater support for his views, which is the practice commonly known as “sock puppeting,” is not allowed.
12. Re-registration under a new username by a person who has been banned on a previous account, without permission from the site proprietors, is forbidden. Circumventions of site bans is not allowed.
13. The dissemination of talking points from the Democrat Party, or its politicians and allies, is not allowed.
14. It is forbidden to attempt to discredit or bring disharmony to the site, the Republican party, any of its candidates, or the conservative movement by pretending to be something one is not and posting maliciously. The practices known as “concern trolling” or “mobying” are included in this ban.
15. The closing of comments or deletion of content by anyone other than the proprietors or moderators is not allowed.

Note: Rule number 10 is no longer applicable. Since the redesign, we no longer have the Recommended Diaries feature. (And it is really missed.)