[Jason]

Freemason Hall Forum Rules & Conduct

FREE SPEECH This is a constitutional right afforded to citizens of most countries in the world and while you are free to say what you want, you may NOT do so where you want . Freemason Hall (FMH) is a privately owned forum, funded with private funds, legal advertising and donations from users that go toward paying for bandwidth, software licenses and servers. As a privately owned and financed forum we are not subject to "Freedom of Speech" legislation. With that said, we will allow "free speech" insofar as that free speech does not contravene our forum rules. The rules of the forum are in place to protect the forum and the environment where all our members interact.


ADMINISTRATORS
While our rules cover the majority of incidents that may occur, we cannot anticipate all circumstances, and as such, the Administrators of Freemason Hall (FMH) reserve the right to adjudicate, and take ANY actions we deem appropriate, in any circumstances. This is to ensure that the forum is not disrupted or brought into disrepute, either willfully, or by association with a member. An Administrator's decision in any matter referred to him/her is final.
We further reserve the right to take any of the following actions, either ourselves, or by other staff members who are empowered to do so i.e. Forum Managers, Moderators or Mentors:

* To remove or modify offensive posts without notice.
* To restrict the permissions of a user, or their ability to access any specified forum.
* To ban anyone who violates the forum rules.
* To delete any thread which is in breach of the rules, without notice.
The Administrators and appointed staff members also reserve the right to share e-mails, personal messages and information from users relating to forum management issues, among themselves, for the purpose of decision making. If you feel that your issue is too personal to be shared or discussed, please stipulate this fact in your correspondence clearly, and in ALL subsequent correspondence.

GENERAL
This is a family forum and as such you will notice some of the text in your posts being blanked out by asterisks (*) from time to time. This is as a result of an "auto censor" which censors certain words. Censoring of undesirable words is also carried out by Moderators or other Staff members, but you will see an "edited by" note at the foot of your post, with a reason for the edit, in this case. PLEASE NOTE that using "alternative" spelling for swear words or using undesirable words, phrases, usernames, locations, place names or in fact anything visible in a user profile, is strictly forbidden and will result in action being taken by Staff.

All staff members and registered members are subject to the rules and conduct guidelines for FMH and actions taken for contraventions of the rules will be equally meted out for staff and members alike. PLEASE NOTE the rules are in force within and outside of FMH, whether association with FMH is implied or explicit. NO member may bring the name of FMH into disrepute by his/her actions or by associating FMH with illegal activities. Contraventions of this nature will result in immediate dismissal from the forum.

RULES AND RULE CATEGORIES
The following rules are guidelines for all users of Freemason Hall (FHM) and also stipulate how one should participate. The Administrators of FMH reserve the right to alter, remove or add any guideline or rule at their sole discretion. If you have any questions about the rules or guidelines, please contact us or a staff member for clarification. Pleading ignorance of our rules, if you transgress, will not be a suitable excuse in mitigation of your actions.
The rules below are categorized for convenience sake but any staff member, at their discretion, can verbally or officially warn someone. If you are officially warned you will receive a PM about the warning and a warning type.
We have indicated the warning types, categories and warning points and validity period for points awarded. When you reach 10 points you will receive a temporary ban. When you have received three temporary bans' you will unfortunately be permanently banned


FORUM RULES

MULTIPLE POSTING
This refers to posting the same question or same replies in multiple areas of the site (also called flooding). Please only post only once. If you feel you have posted in the wrong forum, contact a Moderator or Manager, who will move the post for you.


MISUSE OF VB or HTML CODE
Overuse or misuse of HTML or VB codes could be seen as an offense at a Moderator's discretion. This includes, but is not restricted to particularly annoying large, flashing, or otherwise unnecessary overuse of such special features.

INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE
Freemason Hall (FMH) is a family orientated site. We do not allow "adult" language.

CRUDE OR RUDE BEHAVIOUR
While debate and discussion is acceptable; personal attacks, rudeness to, or posts insulting other users or FMH staff members will not be tolerated. This does not only apply to the public areas of FMH, but also to the content of private messages, email, chat or any other messaging methods utilized by FMH or its members. Responding to personal attacks with further abuse is inflammatory and unnecessary and will also result in disciplinary action against you, in addition to any action against the perpetrators of such attacks.

THREATS OR HARASSMENT
This includes threats of bodily harm or other violent statements as well as any type of personal harassment from a user, whether by email, in PM, on the forum or, by means of any other messaging methods utilized by FMH or its members.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
Users may not post hacks, cracks, or give instruction how to pirate any type of software, or anything similar, in any forum of FMH.

TROLLING
If you are found causing trouble on the forums or generally harassing users, you will be considered a troll. The definitions of this type of behavior are many and are by no means exhaustive. You can, however, get a very good description by visiting this site to see this author's point of view on the definition of a Troll.

Trolling by FMH's definition could be any of, but is not restricted to the following:

* Flooding the board with comments arising from a single point of view in every reply.
* Intentionally posting something that contravenes our forum rules.
* Deliberately posting inflammatory comments in order to start a "flame war" or to cause difficulty for the moderators.
* Posting continuous snide or personal comments about other users.
* Posting continuous or unwarranted criticism of Mods and their moderating decisions.
* Behavior which is continually disruptive to the general membership of the forum.

FLAMING
Flaming is expressly forbidden in FMH. It serves no other purpose but to show disrespect to other users and to the forum environment. If you don't agree with what someone has posted, that is your right - that is what a discussion forum is all about. DO NOT, however, turn the thread into your personal soapbox and let situations spiral into a "bar room brawl". The cardinal rule is "attack the post , not the poster". Always treat people with the same level of respect which you yourself would expect in return.

SPAMMING
The definitions of spamming are endless but the most common appears to be "to indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities". You may also NOT place affiliate,live or dead links for purposes of advertising, in any post or in your signature.

ADULT CONTENT
You may not post replies containing commentary, links to, or images of pornography, race-hate or other illegal material on the Internet, in any forum of FMH. Please note that FMH is a family forum and as such you may also not post adult content of an educational nature. Remember our younger members do not need to be subjected to this type of material even if it is educational. If you are not sure about a post, please PM a staff member for advice.

USER IDENTITIES
You may not register an account for purposes of deceptive behavior or register more than one account in this forum. If you are found doing so, it will be assumed that you have done so for less than savory reasons. There is no need to have more than one account and should you have problems logging in, send a PM, as a guest, to an Administrator, by clicking on the user name, with details of your problem.

Exposing Masonic Secrets
This includes but is not limited to; secret passwords, describing or naming grips, or describing the degree work of Freemasonry or any other organization.

RULE CATEGORIES

CATEGORY 1 (WARN POINTS= 1, VALIDITY PERIOD 30 DAYS)
Multiple Posting
Misuse of VB or HTML code

CATEGORY 2 (WARN POINTS= 3, VALIDITY PERIOD 30 DAYS)
Inappropriate language
Crude or rude behavior

CATEGORY 3 (WARN POINTS= 5, VALIDITY PERIOD 60 DAYS)
Flaming or harassment
Illegal activities
Exposing Masonic Secrets

CATEGORY 4 (PERMANENT BAN - NO WARNING)
Trolling
Threats
Spamming
Adult content
User identities

NOTE FROM THE ADMINISTRATORS
Unfortunately having rules is something we all live by everyday and the rules in FMH are no different. A forum the size of ours needs structure and one way of ensuring that is to make sure everyone knows how to act when using our site. We trust that you will enjoy your time in Freemason Hall (FMH) and look forward to our continued association with you.

[fredmlee@yahoo.co.uk]

Dear brother,

can you advice me how to join groups and also the Hall in Kenya? i'm a Kenyan living in Nairobi.

[fredmlee@yahoo.co.uk]

Can someone please guide me how to join the hall in Nairobi?