Welcome to the Off Topic Forum! The following is an introduction to the forum, and a current list of rules specific to this fourm. Special thanks to Jazzbo, JMX, Odie, John Turner, and Blackbird for their help in shaping these rules.
==Who are the Moderators of Off Topic?==
Current moderators are John Turner, embellisher, Major Metal, HeavyDuty, Pacman and Ívar Þórólfsson.
==What topics should be posted here?==
This forum is for non-music-related discussion. Any discussions regarding music, even if it doesn’t pertain to the bass, '''belong in another forum'''. If no other forums fit your music-related thread, it belongs in Miscellaneous[BG] and not in Off Topic[BG].
==Rules and Guidelines==
===No Political or Religious Threads===
Please do not create threads on the topic of specific religions (for example, threads that debate the merits of a particular religion), or political debate. Religious/political discussions are challenging enough to moderate when people are face-to-face... In an impersonal, anonymous medium such as this, such threads tend to require constant moderation, create enemies out of prior friends, and generate more hate and anger than anything else. There are a plethora of other forums on the internet dedicated to such discussion, if that's what floats your boat. If you want to discuss religion on TalkBass, the limited-access Lounge Lobby forum is available for such discussion (Supporting Membership required).
===Do not slam other forum communities===
Please don't bad mouth or talk down about other forum communities on the web. We don't like it when they do it to us, and it only creats bad blood between people.
===Be aware of the core forum rules===
Please read and be aware of our forum-wide rules, all of which also pertain here:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/faq.php?faq=forum_rules
Top on the list is "Respect for all members". If someone is not being respectful towards you, do not reply in kind, but rather report their post by clicking the 'report post' icon on the post. This will notify all forum mods.
==For further reading==
If you're interested in the history behind these rules, the original "OT FAQ" thread can be viewed here:
4U2C: OT FAQ. It contains some good reading by former OT mods.
