MOD Senate Floor Rules and Policies

The following rules were proposed, amended, and adopted by the consent of the moderating team on 3/31/14, in order to better facilitate the unique goals of the latest iteration of the Senate Floor. As always, these rules are a supplement and subservient to the Terms of Service and Rules of the Jedi Council Forums, and all clauses and articles of those rules are applicable in this forum. These rules are applicable to both opening posts and thread replies, and will be enforced accordingly.

These rules are subject to addition and/or modification following review and approval by a majority of the Senate Floor moderators. They were last altered on 3/31/14.

1. All posts should be at least five three one sentences in length. The Senate Floor is a place for serious, in-depth discussion, and to encourage this one-liners, video/image responses, etc. are strictly prohibited. Posts under five sentences in length will be edited out by the moderators.
2. Active voice only. Posts in the Senate Floor should strive to meet the grammatical criteria of any serious academic journal or discussion.
3. Cite all sources when they are an academic or trademarked source. As befits an arena for ideas of such grave import, all assertions and sources are expected to be fully sourced in proper MLA, APA, or Chicago style format. Varying citation styles is a bannable offense.
4. Proper user tagging is mandatory. When addressing another poster, the full name of the user, in conjunction with a tag, is both expected and required, as a sign of the respect we have for each other as participants in the debate.
5. Proper thread tagging is mandatory. Similarly, for the purposes of facilitating navigation of the Senate Floor, it is required that any new thread be filed under the correct applicable prefix prior to posting. Threads which are not prefixed correctly or at all will be subject to immediately locking and/or deletion.
6. No joke/satirical posts. Clear and concise discussion cannot be fostered in a non-serious environment -- as such, obfuscation via humor is strictly prohibited.
7. No liking posts. A sufficiently salient and compelling argument can stand on its own persuasive merits, and does not require meaningless seconding. If you strongly agree with another user, explain why -- remember, this is a meeting of the minds, not a sporting event.
8. Proper en-dash/em-dash distinction must be observed. The modern, text-based grammatical interchangeability of the characters "-" and "--" will not be tolerated.