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Let us know if you encounter something that is not working in your browser by clicking here. We will see what we can do to resolve the issue and get back to you.

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troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) noun. A person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Our advice: don't feed the godamned trolls.

Don't engage them, that's just giving them what they want, which is to watch you get your panties all in a knot.

Now trolling is different from somebody whose opinion is different to yours. That's just life. And for the record, you're wrong. You'll have to decide which is which - and of course, they could sincerely disagree with you and be a troll.

We have several ways of dealing with trolls that don't involve taking their bait.

• Block the thread. Click  If you're not interested in the topic make the whole discussion disappear from your feed.
• Block the person in question. Click  on any post and all posts by that poster will disappear from your feed.
• For racist or homophobic or otherwise abusive posts, use the Flames & Freaks button  to inform us of their misbehavior. Now we don't see every click of the button, but if enough people do it, we notice.

You can also control what level of trolling you are willing to tolerate by using the "Flames & Freaks" slider in the settings screen.

The quickest way for the whole thing to turn into a shitshow is to have it become a trollfest. Yes, sometimes it feels good to anger up yer blood.

But you're better than that.

Om.

The DataLounge has been around for a long time and one of the reasons is that we work hard not to let it descend into a cesspool of bitterness, tears and cheap vodka.

Ok, ok we lied about the vodka.

But there are a few rules that we strongly encourage you to follow. Otherwise the Karmic Boomerang is coming for your sorry <insert race here> ass.

Please DO NOT

• post abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libelous, or offensive material. 
• intentionally make false or misleading statements (or you may not get re-elected).
• offer to sell or buy any product or service. 
• post any personal information (scary people out there. seriously.)
• post material that infringes copyright.
• re-post entire or large excerpts of articles from other sites. Just provide a link and maybe a few selected quotes.
• post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law.

Please DO your best to keep all comments relevant and "on topic" to the particular thread.

Finally, and most importantly, The DataLounge will not accept responsibility for information posted in the forum(s). We are not your mother, though you may treat us like her. Why don't you write more often? And by the way, how dare you treat your mother like that!

If The DataLounge receives notice that any posting is not in keeping with these terms and conditions or the intended use of the site, we may remove that posting and/or any other related postings at our own discretion.

And yes, we are discreet. Sometimes.

Here's what our lawyers told us to tell you:

The DataLounge is covered by the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 codified at 47 U.S.C. § 230. Section 230(c)(1) which provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by others:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

Don’t try to sue us for stuff you read on the site: we are not the droids you are looking for.

The person you want is the person that posted it...and to get that information from us (if we still have it!) you’ll need a court order or subpoena, a pretty face alone won't do it. (Though feel free to send in the picture, it may get our attention).

There are a number of icons that will help you find your way around the site.

Recent  

List the most recently active threads in order of the most recent reply to the thread. This list remains in the same order as when the session began unless you click the "re-sort icon"

Active  

List threads that have had replies since the current session began.

Watched  

List threads that you have marked as watched (by clicking the "eye" icon next to the thread subject) or any threads you have started or replied to.

Ignored  

List threads and posts that you have marked as ignored by clicking the ignore thread icon or the ignore poster icon.

Search  

You can search for recent posts (last few months) or search the archive.

Settings  

Set you personal preferences for how offsite link previews are rendered and what level of trolling you can tolerate.

There are a few things you can do to make The DataLounge your bitch.

Offsite Link Previews

Use the checkboxes to show or hide the link previews and images. These previews can sometimes get a little (a lot!) risqué so at work you will probably want to turn them off.

Flames & Freaks

Adjust the slider to set the troll filter for your feed. If you like to angry up yer blood set this to "asbestos eyeballs." If you, like Barbara Bush, don't want to waste your beautiful mind on flamewars, tubgirls and goatse, set this to "delicate flower". Most people will want something in the middle. Reminder: PLEASE don't talk to trolls.

Permissions and Karma

Shows your current permissions on the site. These permissions are based on your experience (how long you have been on the site) and behavior (how others have reacted to your posts on the site.) Click here for more information on that.

This site is read only to non-paying members during times of high traffic. You can subscribe to the site for $1.50 a month (cancel at any time) to post during those times. Paid members also browse free of 3rd party ads. 

Permissions and Karma

Am I banned? Why does datalounge hate me?

If you have just discovered datalounge you probably can not post - yet. It's ok. Poke around. Get the gist of the place. The more experience you have with the site the more you can do.

• Users with some experience viewing the site are allowed to reply and vote in polls.
• Users with a lot of experience posting are allowed to start threads and mod others posts.
• Users with negative reputation (lots of flames and freaks and ignores on their posts) may be restricted from posting, modding and voting in polls.
• Paid members are subject to karma - paying is not a free pass to post here.
• In extreme case we may take various actions to ban posters. 

If you are using a new browser, you delete your cookies  or use "incognito mode" you will loose your reputation and your permission to post (paid members can log in to restore their reputation state.)

You can format posts as follows:

Separate paragraphs by pressing return twice.

[quote]A quote from another poster or an offsite article. Will be in the quote style until you press return twice

For inline text you can mark a word or phrase as:

[bold]This text will be in bold[/bold] but this will be normal text.

[italic]This text will be italics[/italic] but this will be normal.

Please make sure to close the tags properly.

To reference another post in the same thread, simply type R and the post number. EG.

You are absolutely correct R10 and you are obviously a lovely person. Thank you for your contribution to the conversation... (well, perhaps in an alternate universe's DataLounge anyway)

Web Site Link:

You can link to other sites but providing the url (starting with the http part) Where possible the system will generate a preview for the link based on the target sites policies.

Please note - do not copy entire article into posts. You may provide key quotes (see quote formatting above) and your own commentary but let the users click through if they want to read the entire page on the other site.