Welcome to Tangent21! As a member you're able to participate in our discussion boards and chatroom community. We try to keep this place a clean, warm, friendly environment for people to chat, communicate and develop friendships but in return we ask that you read and follow these guidelines while at T21. (You should also look back over the Terms of Service.)

"A Safe Place to Play". Tangent21 is a site for people of all ages, of all backgrounds. We ask that you not swear and that you not be offensive towards other members. Respect other members, and treat others as you would like to be treated by them. Discuss issues, but do so in a spirit of community, not adversity. Strong bad language is never appropriate, nor is any language used as an insult (and we should state here that in our opinion obscuring the words (e.g. partially starring them out), where the original meaning remains clear, has the same effect, and isn't therefore any better than the use of the original language). When posting relevant quotes from TV shows/films in which swearing occurs, please use common sense and avoid the more severe and offensive terms. Please do not be offended if it is edited. Keep posts family friendly -- we believe 'the birds and the bees' are best left to parents to explain so please keep sexual references and anything a parent would not want a 13-year-old hearing away from T21. If you're not sure whether something you want to say would be inappropriate according to these rules you should email staff@tangent21.com or contact a staff member in chat before posting it.

NB: In the Chatroom a "Watershed" of 9:00pm (UK Time) applies after which these rules are weakened slightly. Please contact a staff member in the chatroom (those with an @, or + by their name) for more information.

NB: Note also that the "Fanfic" forum operates under more relaxed rules - for obvious reasons.

The Members

Member - Anyone who has completed the membership details and holds an ‘account’ with the site.

Initiate - The initial status on the posting boards given to a member when they join.

Convert - Status given to any member on the boards who has made more than 50 posts.

Acolyte - Status given to any member on the boards who has made more than 400 posts, and has been a member for over 2 months.

Adept - Staff or Members with an interest in a specific show who help in the running of a particular section/forum, and bring to the attention of Staff posts which may need deleting or editing.

The Staff

Hosts are responsible for maintaining the atmosphere and community of Tangent21, and for the well-being of its members. You will have a host assigned to you when you sign up who will act as a point of contact if you have any problems at the site (their email address is included in the welcome email), they also staff the main site Chatroom (#tangent21), they will have an "@" by their name while they are hosting, or a + if they are in, but not active.

Hosts are also responsible for policing Tangent21; they edit, delete and move posts where necessary. If you have a problem with another member, or wish to check a post before posting it, you may want to email the staff at staff@tangent21.com.

Since we cannot possibly hope to possess as much knowledge as many members in every show we cover we appoint Adepts -- Volunteer forum Hosts -- to take editorial control of certain forums. They're responsible for keeping discussion going, selecting certain topics as Recommended Topics in their forum and generally trying to make their forum the best there is. See the FAQ for more information about becoming an Adept and about suggesting new forums.

Admin are those with final say over the rules that Tangent21 has and the way the site works. They act as a final court of appeal.

We're a UK Site, so many members have not seen the latest episodes of certain shows. Please be careful of Spoilers, post them only in clearly marked Spoiler Forums. A Spoiler is anything revealing details later on in a series than many people will have seen. You may have Satellite/Cable, but others don't - unless you're in a forum specifically set out to discuss episodes seen on Satellite/Cable assume anything past that shown on terrestrial (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, 5) television is a spoiler. Most popular forums will have subforums for Spoilers/Non-Terrestrial discussion, if you think there should be one for a forum that doesnt have one, contact one of the adepts of the forum.

If you're not sure what has and hasn't been seen on UK terrestrial television, ask! Tangent21 is designed primarily with a UK audience in mind. If you live in a country which is behind UK Terrestrial television, use the site at your discretion - you may find posts that are spoilers from your perspective.

Spoilers are never allowed in the Chat Room except in rooms set aside specifically for this purpose.

You're Responsible for what you Submit

Anything posted to our message boards or said in the chatrooms is the responsibility of the person who posted it or said it. The Hosts will try to ensure that things stay within our Terms of Service, this Member's Guide and any other applicable rules but they can't take responsibility for doing so. If you put something up here you and not us are responsible for the consequences. This also means that since we don't pre-screen stuff that gets posted we also do not endorse it (even where we've seen it and not deleted/edited it) so you should make your own choices about the validity and appropriateness of anything you read here. Maybe the person with the member name "William Gates" really is the leader of the largest company in the world. But he probably isn't :-)

The legal words for this are in the Terms of Service, but here's our copyright policy in clearer language: You do have to agree to let us use all the stuff you submit; distribute it, copy it, create derivative works etc. etc. (otherwise we can't use it on the site), you also have to give all our other users the right to download it, print it, email it to other people and so on (because we're not about to stop them doing that, even if we reasonably could). It's your responsibility to ensure that you have the legal right to grant us these permissions - so you must not post copyrighted material up on Tangent21. On the other hand we only want a non-exclusive right to do that stuff; you still retain all of your rights, and you can still give those rights to other people as well as us.

Discussion Board Etiquette.

Try to post in the right place -- "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" discussion in the "usa cult / buffy" forum, Off-Topic stuff in "General Chat". If you post in the wrong place it'll be moved (or removed) by Site Staff.

Kewltok isn't cool, nor are ALL CAPS POSTS!. Please post in English. Avoid typing either IN ALL CAPITALS (that's interpreted as shouting) or by shortening words (e.g. m8, u, 2) - It's hard for people not used to it to understand quickly and it's just plain rude. Take the time to write it out properly, it shows more appreciation for the people reading it.

Signatures? Leave them at the door please! Signatures confuse a lot of members, whether they be long monologues or just your name (which is on the top of every post anyway). Please refrain from signing posts to make life easier for everyone.

Don't post just to increase your post count. Pointless posts will just get deleted -- we can always just zero your post count back down again! :-)

Posting URLs/Links to other websites. The posting of messages principally for the purpose of advertising other websites is not allowed outside of forums specifically for this purpose.You can post URLs relevant to the discussion topic as part of a wider message, and you can include a homepage as part of your Member Profile.

Posting for commercial or promotional purposes (outside of forums created specifically for this) is forbidden unless express permission is given by an Administrator.

We're proud of our staff. If you disagree with a decision contact an Administrator (see the staff page). This is the only way in which a staff member's decision can be re-examined. Site staff will not enter into a dialogue with members to debate the decisions made by other staff. Ever.

Take care of your Member Account. You may only have one account per person at a time. Deliberately or accidentally owning more than one account may lead to termination of all of them. If you have a problem with your existing account, or wish to have your existing account deleted, please contact Site Staff. You are responsible for the use of your account. You will be held responsible for any violations of site rules committed by ANY person using your account (unless through no fault of your own) so make sure you keep your password to yourself and keep your account secure!

For guidelines regarding Real Life Meet-Ups, see The Meets Guidelines