01-01-2009, 09:37 PM
Bring4th Guidelines
Thank you for joining the Bring4th Forums!
The purpose of our forum is to provide seekers like you a safe meeting place conducive to conversation regarding the fascinating and inexhaustible field of spiritual evolution as understood through the eyes of the Law of One material, the Confederation philosophy, and the work of L/L Research.
These forums represent a sacred meeting place where people from a wide range of backgrounds, temperaments, and orientations converge to share themselves on the common ground of service to others, love, light, unity, and joy. In order to better facilitate and safeguard this incredible and rare environment, we have established guidelines (below) and principles of Bring4th. This forum is private and participation requires acceptance of the guidelines and the Community Stewardship Circle's ability to enforce them.
1) The Cornerstone: Mutual Respect
The key governing principle is the request that all members treat others with respect, especially when disagreeing. The participant may disagree with an idea without personally attacking the author.
'Specific Boundaries’ Wrote:The following behaviors are subject to moderation:
- Behaving as though others must hear and accept or are dependent upon our wisdom offerings.
- Engaging in critical personal analysis of another member.
- Insulting the character of another member.
- Harassing other members by following them into various threads in order to continue an argument.
- Excessive profanity or name calling.
- Conducting interpersonal disputes in public. (See Guideline #16 for more.)
- Excessive use of capitalized text for impact as this is commonly interpreted as "shouting."
Members are encouraged to:
- Be sensitive to the request/need for service.
- Be careful about assessing the (often difficult-to-discern) intentions of others.
2) Service to Others
The Bring4th Forums are designed to facilitate and encourage the increase of the positive polarity. While this leaves plenty of room to discuss the negative polarity, we ask members to examine all subjects from the perspective of service to others.
3) On Topic
We ask that members of the forums keep their posts on topic. Please endeavor to:
- Create threads in alignment with the intended purpose of the forum or sub-forum
- Make posts in alignment with the intended purpose of the thread
- Maintain the bulk of discussion through the lens of the L/L Research material
4) Focus & Source Material
Because Bring4th’s principal focus is the Law of One and the Confederation philosophy, members are expected to have read some of these sources and to share their thoughts on that basis. To access this material, please visit L/L Research’s free online Library at http://www.llresearch.org/library.aspx.
5) Negative Philosophies
Promotion of negative philosophies is prohibited, which may include but not be limited to:
- Deceptive or manipulative language
- Fear mongering
- Rejection of universal love
- Promotion of control of self or others
- Black magic texts, rituals or channeled information claiming to be from STS sources.
- Practices or theories which promote the subjugation of other people and/or deny universal love.
- Messages which speak of spiritual doom
‘A Note About Proclaiming Oneself as STS’ Wrote:The words we use are important in an online forum. Service to self (STS) was a phrase used in the Law of One many times and it has a very specific meaning that denotes a choice centered on separation, control and manipulation of others.
We understand that not every person uses the term STS to mean those things, but we ask members to be considerate of the audience that they are speaking to when being in this environment. Having shared definitions of words is important for productive communication. Therefore, making the statement that you are an STS individual is akin to proclaiming that your philosophical position and the way you relate to others diverges far from the principles to which this community is grounded in. We are not making a judgement on anyone who makes this choice, but Bring4th is simply not the right place for you.
6) Self-Promotion
We ask that members do not promote/showcase themselves, their own websites, philosophies, products, services or other unrelated teachings. Embedding a commercial link in your signature is prohibited.
It is acceptable to recommend and/or promote a product or service within certain limits in The Corkboard, a forum designed specifically for this purpose. Please refer to The Corkboard's posted guidelines.
7) Impermissible Speech
Discussions that promote or endorse racial / sexual / national intolerance, hate speech, politically subversive acts or planning, will not be tolerated.
8) Discussing Sexuality
Sexuality and our sexual natures represent very important, foundational, and profound portions of our evolutionary experience. At all times please attempt to discuss sexuality—whether anecdotal or abstract—with the aim of understanding it in terms of spiritual evolution, polarity, self-knowing, and self-accepting. If such topics are relevant to your post, please be as sensitive as possible to all forum members, exercise the highest discernment, and use respectful terminology.
Sharing pornography or other NSFW content for its own sake is prohibited. Moderators may remove any explicit content they feel is inappropriate.
9) Drugs
We ask that the following guidelines be honored when speaking about drugs:
- The means of creating, obtaining, or distributing any illegal substance will not be allowed.
- That discussion of drug use be placed within the larger context of spiritual evolution.
- That use of illegal drugs never be promoted to other members as a means for evolving, healing, growing, improving, etc. Members may report of their own experiences, but are not permitted to suggest that such experiences may be replicated. It will always remain to the reader’s discrimination whether any particular drug is worthy of further consideration.
‘Commentary’ Wrote:Many if not all of us have had—or know someone who has had—experience with drugs. We have likely seen at first hand both the joys and the sorrows of drugs: the memorable moments of communing in the open heart with others; the destruction of self and/or others caused or exacerbated by drugs; and, at its best, the spiritual insight and understanding that variably result from non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by chemical substances.
Notably, in the dozen or so instances where the Confederation has been questioned in channeling sessions at L/L Research through the years, their answer has always been that there are unintended negative consequences that may accompany the use of drugs. They suggest progressing naturally.
10) Mental health and medication
Please practice extreme caution and sensitivity when addressing mental illness, atypical psychology or neurology, and psychiatric medication. Do not attempt to offer unsolicited feedback or advice about mental health, psychiatric issues, and other aspects of neurodiversity. Do not dissuade members from their current psychiatric treatments.
‘Commentary’ Wrote:It is possible to share your personal experiences, or your general philosophies, without directly prescribing, diagnosing, or discouraging another member from their own treatments or approaches. Also, the Confederation has expressed the importance of remembering that allopathic healers are, indeed, healers.
11) Politics and Conspiracy Theories
We ask that discussions of politics and conspiracies arise only when they are a natural outgrowth of the larger spiritual perspective that Bring4th is intended to cultivate. In other words, please do not create threads or posts intended to focus only on political discussions surrounding current events, places, people, and conspiracy-oriented content.
12) Multiple Accounts
Owning multiple accounts is prohibited. Any Bring4th member who creates more than one account will be subject to immediate account deletion, and potentially banning.
13) Sharing Links
When sharing a link to a webpage (including to something within llresearch.org), please either:
a) provide a short description of the page in your own words, or:
b) provide an excerpt of the material (one to three paragraphs) along with the link.
Doing this rather than posting a "blind link" prevents confusion and saves time for readers.
Likewise, when posting outside material to the forums, limit the amount of text posted to one to three paragraphs along with a link to the material, if possible. This avoids readers having to scroll through massively long posts.
14) ID Theft
Revealing your identity is not required for participation on Bring4th. However, intentionally misrepresenting your identity in order to manipulate or deceive is prohibited and may result in an immediate ban.
15) Applying Guidelines to the CSC & Website Owners
Moderation is conducted by the CSC, all long-term community members who enjoy participating in the forums. They are supported by the website owners. These guidelines not only guide their online participation, but they also apply to how they are to be treated. It has been found that having a policy of allowing open public criticism of moderator decisions and owners has led to circumvention of the guidelines and impairment to the mental health of those freely offering their service here, therefore we ask that any queries or complaints be directed to this inbox instead of made publicly.
16) Member Issues & CSC Support
In order to avoid public dispute, we encourage discussing issues with other members using the PM system if all parties are in agreement, with the understanding that PMs are not monitored or moderated. If you require mediation with another member then contact a CSC member. If you feel that another member has targeted you, then please contact the CSC or report the post.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read Bring4th’s guidelines, which are intended to help members participate on the forum with the least possible degree of difficulty. They cannot define or measure each and every situation. The moderators will do their utmost to interpret and apply these guidelines to the unique situations that arise.
Always feel free to contact the Community Stewardship Circle with questions and concerns.
[Do you have any ideas for refining the guidelines? Please send them our way using the Contact Us page.]