This News item will be used to host the current Guidelines for members of LAShTAL.COM. They are re-stated here in light of some recent developments.
LAShTAL.COM hosts a number of collaborative features that are intended to provide an opportunity for members with an interest in Aleister Crowley and Thelema to exchange information. These features include, but are not limited to, the Forums, Galleries, Downloads, Reviews, Bibliographia Thelemica and News items.
All members of LAShTAL.COM have the authority to submit information to these features and to post on the Forums provided the post has been submitted to the Moderators for consideration. As a matter of course, however, it is the policy of LAShTAL.COM that the requirement for pre-moderation is waived for as long as the member demonstrates willingness and ability to comply with the guidelines set out here. In other words, authority to post material on the site without pre-moderation is a concession, not a right of membership. The Moderators may withdraw that concession from individual members without notice or explanation.
LAShTAL.COM representatives (the “Moderators”) will monitor and moderate the Forums and other collaborative features. Any submission that, in the opinion of the Moderators, violates these guidelines is likely to be deleted or edited. The Moderators will not explain such deletions: if your post has been deleted, you will be expected to re-read these guidelines for examples of why. Extreme or repeated violation of these guidelines will result in the termination of membership.
The Moderators’ decisions are final: complaints about moderating decisions are likely to lead to the immediate termination of accounts.
Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Criticism is the right of anyone, though: if you don’t want to be subject of reasonable criticism, then don’t subbmit material to the site.
Members must not engage in disruptive activity on the Forums, such as persistent off-topic postings or comments, or statements that might incite other users to violate these guidelines.
Offensive or abusive behaviour is not permitted: submissions must be constructive and polite, not mean-spirited or contributed with the intention of causing trouble. Unlawful or objectionable content is not permitted: harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, racially offensive or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable. Posts that promote or appear to promote activities unlawful in either the UK or USA are specifically prohibited. Material – or links to material – breaching or appearing to breach copyright must not be included in submissions. Similarly, attempts to solicit the provision of such material or links to such material will result in robust moderation.
Do not rely on the sitefor the safe and secure storage of any material, such as images and documents. LAShTAL.COM is not responsible for the alteration, deletion or loss of any such material.
You are responsible for any actions you may take based on information or advice you receive while online. Please use your own good judgment when evaluating information provided through the site. The decision to share information or conduct transactions with anyone is your own – please conduct your own research prior to making any decisions.
If you use multiple logins for the purpose of supporting your own arguments or opinions, disrupting or annoying other users, then all your accounts will be terminated.
No advertising – except where the product mentioned is likely to be of genuine interest to other users of this site. The Moderators’ decision in such cases is final. Appropriate advertisements may only be posted in the For Sale forum. You must not use the site to promote publicity for Auctions without the written pre-approval of the moderators: unauthorised posts relating to Auctions will be deleted except where they are intended solely for the raising of funds intended exclusively for LAShTAL.COM.
All submissions must be in English.
Submissions to the Galleries and the Bibliographia Thelemica will not ordinarily be removed when members leave the site. Posts – especially abusive or insulting ones directed at the moderators – are liable be reproduced in full or in part either elsewhere on the site or on other associated websites or in other media. This applies also to communications sent to the moderators by means of the Private Messaging system regarding moderating decisions.
Forum posts should NOT take the form of newbie questions along the lines of “Where do I find information on…” (unless the question is quite specific and of a reasonably scholarly nature, and/or the information being requested is not generally known or available). Posts of this kind are likely to be deleted by the Moderator. Such questions are by their very nature distracting, and it is not the job of any member to perform the duties of a researcher for anyone else. This policy is to the advantage of the forums as a whole, since it is normal for genuinely knowledgeable persons (those best placed to answer such questions) not to reply to that type of question; and so any replies are likely to be written by other novices, and will therefore tend to be incomplete or even misleading.
Submissions should NOT contain false or misleading information (which is obviously not the same as posting a differing opinion or interpretation of a subject, which is the spice of all academic debate). Such posts are frequent on other sites and e-groups, and usually go unchecked. If a member is unsure of his sources, he or she should say so. In all cases where the Moderators detect inaccurate information, they may either append a query to the post or delete the post altogether. Repeat postings of false information are strong grounds for negative sanction. Genuinely absurd messages are always obvious and may result in the member’s account being disabled.
Posts of an inane nature will be deleted by the moderators.
Good submissions are those which are relevant, intelligent and above all sincere. “Interesting” or “witty” are bonus attributes! The ethos of the site is neither highbrow nor domineering – we encourage anyone who has anything worthwhile to write to contribute, since the whole purpose is for the exchange of ideas. Deep and extensive knowledge of a subject is not a prerequisite, since the purpose of the site is to foster an environment where it is possible both to inform and to learn; and since the internet is increasingly the only source of information for casual researchers, it is quite reasonable to expect that a large portion of our contributors will be newcomers.
LAShTAL.COM is not an occult site; it doesn’t even profess to be a Thelemic site. It doesn’t promote a particular interpretation of Thelema and it doesn’t seek to teach or initiate. LAShTAL.COM is devoted to the legacy of Aleister Crowley: it is home of the Aleister Crowley Society.
These Guidelines last reviewed 11 February 2008.