Forum Rules

What This Site Is

This site does not condone violence. As the name suggests, we simply document the reality of the world we live in. Sometimes that includes violent acts, but we do not condone them — we only document the fact that they occur. Mainstream media and true-crime shows cover violent events without condoning them; the same applies to Documenting Reality.

This is not a hate site. If you came here hoping to find a home for your racist or phobic beliefs, you've come to the wrong place — save yourself the disappointment and go elsewhere.

How Rules Are Enforced — Three Strikes

The rules are enforced through a 3-strike infraction system: accumulate more than 3 points and your account is banned permanently. The number of points depends on the severity of the infringement — a 3-point infraction is an instant ban.

Rules of the Forum

1. No pornography

   DO NOT post anything pornographic. Nudity is allowed inside the Water Cooler, and inside any forum if it relates to the content of the thread. If you do not know the difference between nudity and pornography, don't post it.

2. No racist or derogatory language

   DO NOT use terminology that would conventionally be considered racist or derogatory towards a specific ethnic group, a slur against a person's gender or gender identification, or derogatory towards a person's sexual preference. Site administrators have the final determination on what words are in violation.

3. No doxing or posting members' personal information

   DO NOT post any member's personal information or pictures, including edited/unedited pictures of members posted on this site or any other. Posting personal information for harassment — or any form of doxing — carries a zero-tolerance policy: no warnings, you will be banned for good. This applies to public messages as well as PMs.

4. No animal cruelty

   DO NOT post any animal cruelty, dead animals, or the torture of animals anywhere on the site. This includes linking to another site.

5. No bots, scrapers, downloaders, or ad blockers

   DO NOT use any automated tools (bots, scripts, browser add-ons, or configurations) designed for scraping, ad blocking, downloading images, videos, or text, or making automated connections to the site. The only exception is search-engine crawlers indexing the site. We have measures in place to detect and ban unauthorized automated activity.

6. No sexual comments about minors

   DO NOT make sexual and/or suggestive comments about children under the age of 18, dead or alive. We are not a site that tolerates pedophilia — any such comment results in a permanent ban.

7. You must be 18 or older

   YOU MUST be 18 years or older to view this website. If at any time a member of this forum thinks you may be under 18, you will be banned.

8. We reserve the right

   These rules cover most common situations but can't anticipate everything. We reserve the right to take any action we deem appropriate to keep these forums from being disrupted or abused — including removing any post or thread at our sole discretion, whether it violates a stated rule or not.

9. One account per person

   Having more than one account here is not allowed. Those caught with more than one account will have both accounts deleted and their ability to register on this forum removed.

10. Respect the moderators

    Abuse of the mods will not be tolerated — any disrespect or abuse towards a mod results in a permanent ban on the first offense. If you have an issue with a mod, PM them or PM me; public shit-talking against a mod is not tolerated. We may also need to contact you by private message — failing to answer can result in a ban.

11. No account sharing

    Sharing your account with others, or passing it along — what's typically referred to as a "slut account" — results in an immediate ban. The strikes system does not apply.

12. No helping banned users back in

    Giving access to a previously banned user gets your account banned immediately. This is easily tracked by mods; there are no warnings.

13. No trolling outside the Water Cooler

    You cannot stalk, harass, start arguments, or otherwise disrupt normal on-topic discussion outside the Water Cooler. This includes constantly low-starring or disliking members' threads, and all talk of politics or hot-button social issues in threads outside the Water Cooler.

14. No threats of violence

    Threats of violence towards other members, the public, or any person or group are strictly prohibited and result in an immediate ban — and I will personally contact law enforcement if I feel it's warranted. Don't do it.

Also Worth Mentioning

• Please upload all images and video through the attachment form. Content linked from other sites tends to disappear, leaving threads with no pictures or video in them.
• If you insist on sending me hate mail or other stupid shit, expect me to post it on the forum and across the internet for others to laugh at. You have no expectation of privacy when sending me death threats, hate mail, or stupid questions.
• The moderators are here to bring content and enforce the rules, not babysit the members. A zero-tolerance policy applies to trolling, flaming, politics, etc. anywhere outside the Water Cooler.
• Documenting Reality will not host content related to school shootings that happen inside the United States. I don't want the people who commit these attacks thinking they'll get their 15 minutes of fame here. Discussing these events in the news section and the Water Cooler is allowed.
• Posts and comments must be written in English, and please don't post comments that are only smilies outside the Water Cooler. Accounts that do this repeatedly may have all of their posts removed.
• As a paid-membership site, we take certain precautions to protect our community and prevent scammers from gaining access. If the site detects tools or settings that attempt to bypass our security measures, your account may be locked or permanently terminated. Questions? chris@documentingreality.com.

Username Colors

You'll see usernames in different colors on the "online users" list and around the forum: