These are not official rules, and as such breaking most of these is not punishable, but we recommend that you adhere to them as often and as best as you can, as it will keep the subject focused and prevent you from sounding like an idiot:

1. No actual hate speech. By hate speech, we do not mean "I disagree with some aspects of this sub-culture", that's fairly intelligent, non-malicious, does not show a desire to kill, and addresses culture rather than race. By hate speech, I mean "kill the n*ggers!" We do not recommend you say that unironically here. However, on a group dedicated to free speech and detailed discourse, this is liable to happen on occasion, so it's not exactly an official rule so much as it's not recommended because it's a terrible argument. However, as this group grows, we might put an official rule on an actual form of hate speech, which is of course advocating the murdering of other races, arguably the least acceptable kind.

2. Do not get disproportinately offended at various opinions. This is a discussion group that will showcase all kinds of contradictory ideas, and be used to promote and preach various religious values. It will cover controversial material and some of it may come across as offensive. We suggest that you expect it.

3. No strawman arguments. Come to understand what anybody who thinks differently from you is actually thinking before making any assumptions. This is important to me because how many of us have been accused of being SJWs over not hating a stupid movie, or have been accused of being a Nazi over a harmless joke? Exactly, we all have.

4. Don't play the "troll" card when trolling is not actually happening. Trolling is when somebody posts something obviously (and often in obvious charicature meant so that only those with no sense of humor would react in the first place) provocative for the sake of creating a reaction. Which since most FIMFic users know trolls when they see them, and most of FIMFic's trolls tend to make it obvious that they are trolling anyway, trolling is not punishable either.

5. Don't play the "circlejerk" card when a circlejerk is not actually happening. An actual circlejerk is a highly specific event that is not that common on FIMFic, but is extremely common on rapid message boards, because it's difficult to argue with a short character limit and with no time to explain before somebody changes the subject. An actual circlejerk is when not only are almost all the people involved in absolute agreement with the OP and each other, but praise each other for this agreement, and shun the few who don't agree. A circlejerk is not when more people are in general agreement over a principle than not, but still have their differences and discuss these in a civil fashion, which is more common on FIMFic. However, if we are engaging in an actual circlejerk, you can always point it out, but I suggest you call it an "echo chamber". Choice of words alone can prevent a conversation from devolving entirely.

6. Deliberately repeating, save misspelling, an argument somebody made to make that somebody look stupid won't make that somebody look stupid. It just just makes you look stupid.

7. What goes around comes around, so treat others with respect. Do not use "love your neighbor" as an excuse to avoid getting called out on hating others. How many times have we seen a user being hateful to others, and then when somebody gives a rebuttle, that somebody is told to "love your neighbor"? More times than can be counted. The problem with this is that the one user who started with the hating should have realized that what goes around comes around. Love others before you expect to be loved by them. Do not use the "defend what others have to say" care to avoid being called out for not being tolerant towards other viewpoints.

8. Do not use unfounded sweeping stereotypes, like "all Catholic priests are pedophiles!" Yes the Catholic church has a sex offender problem in parts of the world in which it can have influence, but they aren't all like that. And that's just one example.

9. Sassy gifs don't equate to a good argument.

10. If somebody does not repond to your argument right away, please don't make a big deal out of it, that person just might not be confrontational and just wants to avoid making enemies.

Basically, these guidelines help ensure that the users of this group don't argue like this:

Basically, we ask that you don't be petulant. However, these are not rules to be enforced through punishment, merely tips so that the users here don't argue like idiots.

So, what do you think of these guidelines?