First Rule Is

[ProvincialTwit]

Really Important - Don't Get Banned

• Limited Prime Directive: Don't fuck with people and places featured on Vivisector.  Do not harass or troll them, do not attempt to change their behavior.  Don't contact them or tell them they were featured.  Watch and enjoy, but don't interfere with the exhibits.  However, we know members of these forums are members of the community we discuss.  Interact with the culture as you normally would, be honest if asked about your involvement, do not carry the name of Vivisector or do any works "in our name".
  
• Interference: Freely participate in, but don't derail/spam/harass any conversations/fights on other sites linked to from here.
• Trolling: Don't harass other posters, either.  If a poster needs an attitude correction be honest.  Staff will attend to it.
• Personal Details: Real names are often acceptable, but avoid posting phone numbers or addresses and the like.  Link to another site with the information if you must.
• Private Matters: Deep dark secrets shared in complete privacy among the closest of friends alone are "too far".  LJ friendslist garbage is fair game.  Have discretion.
• NWS Images: Post a link, don't embed or attach the picture.  Warn us about the content unless it's in a Fuck-Awful section.
• Illegal Material: Obviously.  This includes links to torrents and direct links to pictures of real world objectionable material.
• Obsessions: If all your posts are strongly worded attacks on some group of people, you will need to take an extended vacation.  For your own health.
• Ignorance: Have a working set of social skills.  If most of your friends hate you and this is just the next community you haven't yet been kicked out of, be careful of what you say.

Useful - Respect Is Everything

• Unless you have a story to tell you don't need an introduction post.  Have something to share.
• Follow a thread's topic.  If you have something to ask another poster and the answer would interest none but yourself, go to personal message or the off topic forum.  Contribute to the thread (meaningful posts).
• Check your language.  Avoid slang from furry, :Something Awful:, the chans, or any other community you're from.  We will respect them but we don't necessarily think they're funny.  Decent English is still important.
• Avoid image macros we've seen a million times, old stupid memes.  Be funny, be original.
• Don't pretend you're important because you run another site, are an artist, or have so many sychophants on your blog.  Likewise don't assume you're so crazy and intolerable because you have some stupid fetish or are a member of another community.  You're judged by what you say and do here.
• Likewise, furryness: it's okay to enjoy your fetishes in private or among friends, you don't need to post about them here.  If it comes to light that a member is a twisted little freak on his own time please don't harass him.  What people do in private isn't our concern unless it affects what they do in public.

Disputes
If someone here is attempting to harass you then you're welcome to PM a staffmember.  (If someone here is harassing you and you aren't a member?? then register first.)  Staff will consider your problem, possibly deliberate together, and then do something.  Possibly ban you if you've had harassment problems in the past.  We do not have an ignore function.  You are an adult and expected to handle yourself like one, particularly toward forums on the Internet.  Admins are not bound by these rules and will act at their own discretion, with the best interests of the site and community in mind.

[Kindrift]

To clarify what fair use covers, allow me to drag up the guidelines from our copyright act.  As Vivisector is a forum for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (black days as these are), scholarship, and research, the rules of fair use are most certainly in play.  However, to better protect yourself, be certain your decision to repost material here takes into account the factors from the act itself:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Considering the topic of interest at this site, point four up there is pretty much a bonus square.  Copyright holders whose works have been used for illustrative purposes on the site should consider these points as well.  Do try to only hotlink images from sites that allow you to hotlink, such as Photobucket or Tinypic.

[Kindrift]

Additional Suggestion

• "The best journal/submission/comment ever" always has an unfortunate tendency to be deleted.  News articles are sometimes moved to archives or disappeared.  Content on imageboards lasts between months and minutes.  When it's hilarious enough to link it's hilarious enough to repost and save.