"Being a jerk" or: What can earn you an instant ban from this forum.

Consider this an inexhaustive set of things that can earn you an instant ban.

I have no interest in playing bush lawyer with anyone on these things, and I have no interest in dealing with anyone who wants to try brinking or otherwise skirting the rules. But it is worth keeping a record of the sort of jerky things that will see people banned.

Flaming, trolling or insulting someone who is independent of any conversation.
With 'lighter moderation' comes some tolerance for minor flaming of people that you are debating in a given thread. However, this is on the basis that if someone doesn't want to engage in that style of debating, then they can just stay out of the thread / forum. Flaming someone who is not there to defend themselves, or trolling them, is a jerk thing to do. This extends to not flaming someone in a different thread as well.

As a clarification of the 'jerk' rule, if A and B are discussing something, then each has some freedom to play rough with the other, and even C can enter the thread and enjoy some of that same freedom in relation to both A and B. But if A and B are holding a discussion, they can't just randomly start trolling or attacking C, who isn't present, and isn't a party to the discussion or thread. To troll or attack C in such circumstances is to be a jerk.

Please note that if A and B continuously make full use of the latitude afforded, such that they tend to damage threads into which they both walk, their behaviour could be described as jerkish, due to its cumulative effect.

Remember that although the boundaries set by the 'jerk' rule allow you a certain amount of freedom in your posting, lower quality posting is not an activity you should aspire to partake in. The Tavern does, in fact, have minimum standards.