The TOS – The Survival Podcast Forum’s Constitution

Several months into doing the podcast a group of listeners basically demanded a forum.  That core group along with new people who were hand selected over the years evolved into an amazing staff of moderators who run, manage and enforce the forums rules.  The rules on the forum are not my rules, they are not the rules of any individual moderator they are in fact the community’s rules or what we call the Terms of Service or TOS.

The TOS is really more than a list of rules it is in effect our community constitution.  To be a good member of the community it would be a great idea to read our TOS for the forum before making your first post.  They are not long, not written in legalize and anyone posting is expected to have read them before joining in on the community discussions.  Do that and you will have great experiences in the forums.

Getting Along in Forums in General

Our forum is extremely welcoming and made up of a great group of more than 6,000 people.  Many have become great friends and even connected off line and work together on prepping, modern survival or just hang out and drink a beer or grab a bite to eat together on occasion.   Like any community there are existing relationships and existing etiquette that the group has come to expect.  It isn’t a clique and everyone is welcome, there is no “good old boys club” that excludes others but it is a social group, being online doesn’t change that.

Often in internet forums a new person comes in with a thought or idea or something to share and just tries to ram rod it into an unrelated discussion or makes the same post in 5 different sub boards and gets upset if not quickly responded to.  Sometimes they come off rude, even if they do not intend to.  Many times they post a link to their personal website as a first post which is generally seen as spam.

Think about it this way, if you walked into a bar, a business mixer or a PTA meeting for the first time, would you start off by shoving business cards in people’s faces or telling everyone the way you think everything should be run at the event?  Of course not, if you did you would probably be unwelcome and sent packing, trust me it works exactly the same way on any well run forum.

What people tend to do in social meetings offline like a business mixer or a PTA meeting is listen more than talk at least a bit at first.  Then, they introduce themselves, they add to existing conversations, they ask questions, etc.  This can be a very short process as the point is simply to learn the feel of the group, what they are all about and where you have common ground.  Along with that you also get a feel for basic etiquette and that allows you to fit into the group as you contribute to it.

Most people would never show up at a business mixer and say to everyone they see, “hey go to my website and buy my stuff” or show up and pick a fight about religion or politics with folks they just met.  Those same people though sometimes do exactly those types of things online in a forum as if basic courtesy don’t apply simply because the group is “virtual”.  Please remember our virtual group is made of of real people.  I promise you that if you approach our forum with the same attitude you would go to a first meeting of a church group, business mixer or social club with, you will have a wonderful experience with our forum.

Rules are Rules – Free Speech Does Not Apply

We believe in freedom of speech, we just don’t believe you have a right to your free speech via the private property of another person.  The forums are not a public resource, I pay for them and their upkeep, your free speech doesn’t give you the right to break the community’s rules.  No you can’t just say anything you want, if you are in doubt of the rules, again just read the TOS.   Let me explain this in an easy to understand analogy if you find this an oppressive attitude.

I believe in your free speech and if you wanted to spray paint something in big red letters (even something that highly offends me) on the side of your house I would defend your right to do so.  Why?  It is your house, it is your property, you can use it as you see fit.  But, should I be required to allow you to spay that message on my house as part of supporting your free speech?  Very few people with an IQ higher then 14 would ever expect that.  So why should you expect the right to use my site or my community’s forum free of our rules under the auspices of “free speech”?

Your free speech applies with your right to speak and be heard via public resources and your private property.  You can say anything you want on your website or your blog.  You can say anything you want that complies with our TOS on ours, we hope that makes sense.

Fighting the Moderators and the Rules a Bad Idea

On occasion we get a person joining the forum with their own ideas of how our community should be run and what the rules should be.   Most of the time these folks are swiftly warned by a moderator that they are in violation of the TOS and asked to refrain from such behavior in the future.    Many understand that rules are rules and either comply or find a community more in tune with their particular agenda.

Then we have the occasional assclown that insists on trying to tell the moderator staff the way things should be.  They generally tell the moderators no less then screw off and state some version of  “I will damn well do as I please”, such users get banned permanently and swiftly.

Humorously such people often appeal directly to me via email and plead either ignorance of the rules or more likely that they were falsely accused.  I do not run the forum the moderators do, if you violate the TOS and get banned emailing me is a complete waste of your energy.

Lastly on this, snipers have a old saying, “if you run you will only die tired” on the forum we say, “argue with our moderators about rules and you will only be banned and frustrated”.    Simply put if you are advised that a post of yours is a TOS violation, it is a TOS violation.  Arguing the point is not advised.  If you state that you will continue to post similar posts, we will believe you at your word and ban you.

We Really are Friendly People

The above sounds strict but only for the benefit of the community.  The forum and our moderators are very friendly and open people.  There are boards on many subjects and odds are no matter what part of prepping you are most engauged in is discussed in the forums in one of the boards.

Don’t let the tone of the above put you off, 99% of the people who join the forum probably don’t even need to read this page.  I put it up for the 1%.  This 1% is the group that takes up 90% of the moderator staffs time, energy and resources.  To provide the best forum we can for the 99% that understand basic courtesy and rules we have decided that the 1% need a cut and dry explanation and therefore get a very short rope as it pertains to the community’s rules.

In other words the rules don’t exist to oppress the majority, they exist to prevent the minority from ruining the community for everyone.  In essence, we are a constitutional republic where the rights of all are protected.  We are all bound by the rules even me.  That is true equality in a community.

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Comments

Getting Along in the Forum — 13 Comments

  1. Hi, I am a daily listener and love it… I would also love to watch the contest videos – and especially the winner’s – so I can share it …however, I cannot FIND them anywhere…not sure why this is such a challenge – I see Jack’s video, but not the others…what am I doing wrong??? thanks.

  2. Hey jack listen to your show recently read a article on yahoo about a family that opened a safety deposit box and found 10 coins woth 80 million and took it to the Philadelphia mint to get it authenticated and the us government seized it and a us judge gave the money back to the government kind of a interesting article you should look up

    Also my mom was talking about how good clinton was during his presidency and how he paid off the us debt so I showed her how no us president in the last 15-20 years through Wikipedia why is it that so many people believe Clinton payed down debt? I was a democrat but since listening to your show and have opened my eyes and no longer believe in all of the above thanks for everything I also have a small garden and started some cucumelons

    • @Greg, I support that court decision. Why? Those coins were turned in during the gold grab under FDR. That families ancestor took the gold that was paid for with federal notes and put it in a safety deposit box. IN OTHER WORDS HE STOLE IT.

      Now people that DIDN’T turn in their gold have popped up and they were able to keep their gold. That isn’t what happened here. People you have to read beyond headlines and opinion blogs about the core story.

      Was the gold grab wrong, YES, but that isn’t what the legal decision was about here it was a chain of custody question.

  3. Jack, I have 2 water wells. They are about 100 feet each, 30 years old. Is their a way to use a hand pump on a well that deep? I used them years ago (electric pump) ,before I got city water . If the electricity goes down, I wanted to have a water source.

  4. Barbara,
    Yes, I saw a few different types of hand pumps in a lemans brother catalog one type is for shallow and the other is for deeper well they have them in stainless and I think it was cast or metal. hope this helps out a little they also sell the sleves if you need them as well as other parts.

  5. @Barbara
    Well pump. Hey I too started thinking about all the what-ifs, if the power went out. I started looking, like you, for a more primitive (pre-electric) way of managing the modern things we take for granted today. Needless to say the task grew and grew as I realized just how much we use power. So I started looking at a different way. Instead of looking back, I started looking forward. I thought, wouldn’t it be easier to just find alternative power than to revert back. I thought generator. No, fuel would run out. Then I thought small solar panels with a small inverter & some batteries. You know for small stuff. It grew and grew over time (4 years). Now with the flick of a few switches my whole house (all 110v, no 220 yet) goes completely solar. The price isn’t too bad if you do a little at a time. So why buy an antiquated hand pump when you can do like always and just turn on the tap? I would say that having a hand pump available just for an emergency is wise. You can really cut costs with solar these days. Do some research and you can see just how easy it is to build your own panels. I didn’t have a clue until I started small and the project as well as knowledge grew from experience. If you wanted to have just enough power for a 110v well pump it wouldn’t be that expensive or difficult even if you bought everything off the shelf. Just an idea. Like I have told friends over the years when pulling out all sorts of contraptions from my backpack “just because we’re camping doesn’t mean you have to be uncomfortable.”
    So those are my thoughts, as with anything else, you are welcome to take it or leave it.

  6. Hi Jack… I was wondering what your thoughts were on being involved with CERT teams and or State Guard. A lot of sites paint CERT as a FEMA tool to control the public. Can’t it just be about serving the community you live in without it being evil? And what do you think the State Gaurd will be utilized for in a disaster?

  7. I have a request that somewhere easily seen, you post the payment methods we used for the MSB Brigade/membership. I’ve spent about an hour searching all the pages. Which btw is very easy and maneuverable. Ended up in the forum section and discovered… AH!! paypal… my concern was recent CC changes in my life and wanted to make darn sure I was still keeping up to date with our subscription. And yes there behold it was listed in paypal. However, it sure could have saved me a ton of time. I did see links on how to pay with crypto. But nothing reminding me how I set up payments for you sir. And I’m not perfect so perhaps I did miss this info if it is posted.

  8. Hey Jack,
    I’ve listened occasionally since 2015 but lately started listening daily. This is an honest question; my intention is not to be an a–clown. If I had a forum, it would have rules similar to the TSP forum’s. I particularly like the section, “Rules are Rules – Free Speech Does Not Apply”. If that is different than Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., banning whomever they want, please explain.

    • Because our rules are the same for everyone, or at least were, we took the forum down as it was no longer being used enough to make it worth the cost to maintain it. Almost all talk is now on social media.

      Anyway that is the most basic difference there are others as well.

      We are a single community not a hub of discussion. TSP is a private company owned and run by one man who pays for everything, not a single investor or public dollar has funded us ever. Facefucker and Shitter along with Goolag all are public companies and have also received billions in tax payer money.

      And in the end they still have the right to censor but you also have the right to stop using them.

      Additionally my issues with them are about more than censorship, it is about the collection and sale of your data to corporations, our government and foreign governments.

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