Welcome to all our new members!

Welcome to Free Jinger!  We hope you enjoy your time here.  Free Jinger (FJ) has a somewhat specific board culture when new members may not be used to from other forums.  We have put together some tips to help new members integrate successfully into the community.

* Be sure to read our rules

* Read the TOU and Privacy Policy while you are at it

*  If you do not email us when people that live with you have accounts, you WILL be banned for being socks.

* We have an amazing set of FAQs  (thank you @HerNameIsBuffy)

* Since history has taught us since most people don't read the rules, we do not allow hate speech here. That means we do not allow words like retard/retarded, fag/faggot, gay (used as a slur), the n-word, etc.  We also don't allow symbols of hate in avatars or cover photos.  This includes swastikas and confederate flags.

* Please read this post by Happy Atheist before you jump right into posting.

* We have a whole forum set up just to help new members get acquainted with Free Jinger. You will find it here. It's not mandatory, but you won't have to worry about being scolded by long term members for making mistakes if you post in that particular forum.

* Please take a moment to read this great post by Church_of_dog and this one too to help you avoid running afoul of our board culture.

* We have such a wonderful community here that people do things like write summaries on the families and organizations we talk about, maintain a blog list and maintain an FJ specific dictionary. We also have a handy acronym feature.  Hover your mouse over acronyms that are underlined and you will be shown what they stand for.

* We also have subforums dedicated to the people we discuss.

* Please make your post readable.  This means:

• Post in English only
• Don't use excessive formatting
• Remove formatting from pasted text
• Put animated images under a spoiler
• Put excessive (more than 2) images under a spoiler
• Snip quotes
• No text speak
• Mark links NSFW
• No NSFW images

* You need 6 months membership to start new threads or read our Are You There FJ area.  You can start new threads in the SOTDRT and a helpmeet will move it to the appropriate forum for you.  If your post does need to be moved, please report your post with a note that it needs to be moved.   We don't always catch those kinds of posts right away.

* Please keep the majority of your comments/snark based on the beliefs/ideology/philosophy of the people who you are speaking about.   It is natural for a snark site to have some "bitch eating crackers" (BEC) type commentary and that is fine, but please make it the exception, not the rule.

*BEC =/= snark.  If you don't understand the difference ask!

* Expect push back if you let your xenophobic, islamophobic, racist, homophobic, misogynist freak flag fly.

*Before you post about how mean it is to "pile on," please read this great post by Lurky

* Words have meaning on FJ. The majority of members are going to take what you say in the plain English meaning of the words you use.  You will not be able to "baffle them with bullshit" here.  Use "word salads," mainsplaining and your own definitions of words at your own risk.

* If you state something as a fact (rather than your opinion), you should expect that someone will ask you for sources to back up your claim.  If you use crazy, biased sources you will likely receive mocking and push back.   We do not allow links to hate sites (Stor*mfro*t, Brietbart, Infowars)

* We currently support tapatalk, however tapatalk does not fully support us.  Please make sure your signature is turned off in your tapatalk settings. If you are having problems or wonkiness when using tapatalk, please make sure to check out tech support forum to see if your issue has already been addressed.

* We use post count titles.  The first one is "You're Going to Hell."  No one will be upset when seeing this title above your name.  Just make 5 posts and you will get a new post count title.

* No one owes anyone an explanation for downvotes and they can be given for any reason, from serious disagreement to an avatar that doesn't amuse you.  Don't ask about downvotes in the threads - that's not drift it's disruption.  Also remember that people accidentally downvote when on mobile so if it happens and there is no other reason to believe your post is objectionable do everyone a favor and let it go.

* We heavily discourage 1-2 word/emoticon/emoji posts.  We do not allow posts like "I agree" or similar variants at all.  Please use the like button for those types of posts instead.  We do realize that on occasion a very short post is used to make a point or a joke and that is fine.  Please don't make these types of posts the majority of your contributions to discussions.

* When you post an article, particularly from a mainstream site, please don't copy/paste the entire article. Post the link and then a few bits that you feel are important and then let people go read the rest of the article themselves. it's not really very copyright friendly to post the whole article.

* If you find an article on a fundy site and you think they will delete the article and it may be useful to have the whole thing to refute them in the future  (ie: Kendull's I "spanked" my kids all day post)., a screenshot is best in this case rather than a full copy/paste.

* When you post your article that you have found, please add a sentence or 2 of your own commentary so people know why you felt the article is worth their viewing time.

* When you start a thread, making your title relevant to the subject will get you more input and it helps reduce duplicate threads. Instead of saying just "This is crazy" say "Zsu believes Obama is a hologram. Crazy!" (not actually true... that I know of)

* Please scan the first couple pages of a forum before you post a new thread to make sure it's not a duplicate.  If you do accidentally make a duplicate thread, just report your post and a helpmeet will be along to merge it with the original topic.

* If you post "insider" information, we may ask you to verify your identity to the admins.  Any information you provide will be kept confidential.

* If you want to post about a controversial topic, please use the No Holds Barred (NHB) forum.

If you have any questions, comments or problems please feel free to PM a Helpmeet and they will be able to assist you.

Welcome to the community!

(Updated Janurary 23, 2019)