# Anthrogenica FAQ

## Forum Rules

  


This is a condensed version of the forum rules as explained in greater detail in the Terms of Service. Please consult that document for further information or clarification.

1.) Persons must be aged 13 or older to participate on the forum.

2.) Administrators should only be contacted with questions or complaints if an issue is beyond the scope of forum moderators to satisfactorily address, or if a situation is serious enough (e.g., threats, violation of privacy) to warrant administrator involvement. Minor infractions should be reported using the "Report Post" feature located at the end of each post. Suggestions should be made in the appropriate subforum.

3.) Disclosure of personal, private, or otherwise sensitive information is entirely at the discretion of the user. Please be responsible. The administration of Anthrogenica cannot be held liable for any abuse that may occur should potentially compromising information be voluntarily disclosed by the user.

4.) Anthrogenica aspires to be a bastion of free speech, though this principle will be implemented with a few reasonable exclusions. These exceptions include the following: copyright infringement, violation of member privacy, spam, incoherency, patently off-topic posts, harassment, and any illegal activity or incitement to commit such activity.

5.) Multiple accounts are not permitted. Currently banned users who post using a different user's account or re-register under a new account will be promptly expelled.

6.) Users who violate the rules posted here or in the Terms of Service will receive infractions. The posts containing the violation(s) will also be removed. The progression is as follows:

  


· **1st Infraction** \- Formal warning and one week suspension

· **2nd Infraction** \- Permanent ban

  


The above is ordinarily upheld although the administration reserves the right to expedite larger infractions if deemed necessary. Any subsequent infractions will result in penalties as agreed upon by the administration on a case-by-case basis, up to and including permanent banishment of the user and any associated IP addresses. A suspension or temporary ban will result in a user losing all posting and viewing privileges for the lifetime of the ban.

7.) Any abuse of our administrative team will result in an immediate permanent ban without prior warning.

8.) The scope of the articles detailed in these, the Forum Rules, is at the sole discretion of the administration and may be modified at any time.

## Terms of Service

  


**Disclaimer**

These Terms of Service (ToS) set the conditions by the administration for the provisional use of Anthrogenica by registering members. These ToS are liable to change at any time and are effective immediately. These changes will be conveyed publicly in the Announcements section by the administration and adherence thereafter is expected. The administration additionally reserves the right at all times to permanently or temporarily revoke the privilege of membership based on failure of adherence to any part of the ToS (Section 5.5). In addition, the applicability of these ToS to forum content is entirely at the administrations discretion.

  


**1\. Administration Structure and Maintenance Policy **

1.1 The administrators of Anthrogenica support the forum both technically and financially. Their role within the community extends into moderation duties as well as the above. Registered members are advised that administrators must only be contacted directly if the query can generally be deemed to be significant in nature or beyond the scope of the channels provided publicly on Anthrogenica (Section 2.5).

1.2 Moderators on Anthrogenica are appointed by the administration and are active indefinitely. Moderator responsibilities include basic forum maintenance and the delivery of infractions, including suspensions and bans. Furthermore, moderators have access to user IP addresses. However, moderators do not have any access to personal user data. Surname project moderators are regular members who run specific surname projects in the Genealogy section only. In turn, they have specific maintenance oversight for their sections alone. As such, they do not have jurisdiction over other forum areas and do not have full moderator functionality.

1.3 Forum administrators have access to anonymous accounts (_"Administrator"_ and _"Moderator"_ respectively). These accounts are used at the discretion of staff to undertake forum maintenance. 

1.4 Further to the above, the _"Moderator"_ account serves as a 24 hour permanently active line of communication between the general administrative team and the community. All active administrators and moderators have access to it. Members with any specific questions that require some level of confidentiality are advised to send a PM to one of the active administrators. The _"Administrator"_ and _"admin"_ accounts cannot be contacted.

1.5 To minimize confusion, staff members are ordinarily expected to inform registered users of thread migration and/or modification through reputation point or private messages. Post alterations will be indicated by an "edit" signature. Expiring redirects may be set in place if deemed necessary.

1.6 Member requests to delete their own public posts beyond the 24 hour catchment period will not ordinarily be undertaken by any member of staff, with the exception of members residing or posting from within the European Union (EU). 

1.7 To foster a healthy but orderly free market environment, certified company representatives are permitted to be present on the forum. To maintain a distinction with other members or a representative's own personal account, such representation is facilitated through 'Company Rep' accounts, which can be created by request by contacting a member of staff. Additionally, a company-specific subsection may also be created by request at the discretion of the administration and based on perceived necessity and/or demand. With the exception of increased PM space, 'Company Rep' accounts possess no additional functionality compared to regular accounts, have no administrative oversight over forum subsections named after their companies, and have no access to any private forum or member information. Finally, 'Company Rep' accounts are fully under the jurisdiction of these Terms and will not receive any preferential treatment with respect to rule or Term adjudication..

1.8 Commercial activities in Anthrogenica operate on a largely free market basis. Should the administration receive confirmation that any commercial enterprises or their representatives are undermining this precept, swift action will be taken. This includes (and is not limited to) infraction delivery (in keeping with these Terms), limiting commercial functionality and/or blacklisting their representation on the site. What is construed as "anti-free market" is completely at the discretion of the administration.

1.9 If issues with inconsistency or failure to maintain any of these ToS by any members of the administration, members are required to contact one of the active administrators. 

  


**2\. Site Access and Functionality**

2.1 Children under the age of 13 years are denied access on Anthrogenica due to any adult material and/or language that may arise on the forum. 

2.2 The Lounge and all of its derivative sub-forums are accessible to registered users only and not viewable for guests.

2.3 Anthrogenica is fully accessible to registered users. Guests are provided with a several minute browsing period before requiring to register. Registrations to the site are open and can be initiated by clicking the "Register" button at the top-right of any page for users belonging to the 'Unregistered' usergroup.

2.4 Anthrogenica does not permit the use of multiple accounts under any circumstances. Users found with more than one account will be banned immediately and without prior notice. If a reasonable explanation for the multiple accounts exist which the administration are likely to not deem as an abuse of the site's provisions, such members are instructed to message through the "Contact Us" feature at the bottom of every page.

2.5 If members experience problems accessing the forum or their account (e.g. registration issue), they should contact _"Moderator"_ via PM or sending an email using the "Contact us" button at the bottom of each page on our server. Registered members must convey all other issues through the appropriate channels provided on Anthrogenica (the Forum Support section, appropriate moderators and PMs to _"Moderator"_).

2.6 Username changes on Anthrogenica are not routinely undertaken upon request. However, they will be considered if members have less than 30 posts and/or registered for less than one month. Members with exceptional circumstances (e.g. reasonable privacy concerns) must disclose these ahead of time with the forum team. Additionally, members are advised to carefully consider their username choices. **Please reconsider your username if it contains your real name**.

2.7 The administration at Anthrogenica reserves the right to reject or modify member usernames, or other public aspects of an account, if they are deemed to be grossly inappropriate to the forum's environment.

2.8 Member accounts are not normally suspended or closed once activated. Users wishing to remove themselves from the community are advised to simply withhold from logging in. In addition, we will not routinely entertain requests to completely clear a member's public history and/or permanently deleting their accounts.

2.9 All financial contributions made to Anthrogenica are non-refundable. Although we have kept our subscription fees exceptionally low, please think carefully before proceeding with your subscription payment or donations. Similarly, in the event a contributing user is banned, we will not accept any refund requests. Additionally, financial contributions to Anthrogenica will not result in changes to our application of our infractions policy or otherwise affect our administrative actions as mandated by our Terms of Service (ToS).

2.10 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and proxies are occasionally used by both members and guests to view the site. Unfortunately, VPNs and other proxies are routinely abused by ex-members of Anthrogenica. The administration considers the use of VPNs to be a 'yellow flag' sign. Further, the administration reserves the right to suspend newer members who are found to be using a VPN for further investigation. Based on any other available information, we reserve the right to consider newer accounts to be sockpuppets on a prima facie basis, resulting in their deletion per Section 2.5 above. In the interest of minimizing suspicion, we recommend prospective registrants to avoid using VPNs. Should a prospective registrant require the use of a VPN, we expect this information to be provided to us in advance. Finally, we clarify that this level of scrutiny will not ordinarily be placed on established members. 

2.11 On occasion, members may share devices or an Internet connection with other members (including friends, family or other relations). All registered users must disclose this ahead of time to the forum administration. Sharing of individual accounts is strictly forbidden in all circumstances.

  


**3\. Site Content & User Participation**

3.1 Anthrogenica supports the reasonable exercise of freedom of speech. Forms of expression considered unreasonable are detailed in Sections 3.2-3.12 below. No censorship of an individual's expression will therefore be taken by the administration/moderation provided the expression in question is not found to be in violation of the rules. Additionally, discriminatory language including (but not limited to) sexism, racism or other forms of bigotry are not tolerated.

3.2 As a general approach and as an extension to Section 3.1, intellectually meritless discussions which advocate pornography, illicit drug use, sexual paraphernalia that are illegal in the United States of America, piracy and violence are prohibited in Anthrogenica. Discussions of these topics as subjects in an anthropological context with a data-based approach may be considered permissible on a case-by-case basis.

3.3 Anthrogenica strictly prohibits the private sharing or public distribution of copyrighted material, in accordance with local and international laws. Any such items will be removed from the forum immediately and the member/s involved will be penalized.

3.4 Execution of illegal activity against the forum or its members (e.g., cyber attacks, physical threats, blackmail, etc.), or incitement to commit such activity will not be tolerated.

3.5 Disclosure of both members and unregistered user private information _(including and especially another person's DNA test results)_ , compromising details or similar items without the individual's prior consent will result in disciplinary measures. Please be mindful of what you share about others.

3.6 Anthrogenica caters to the discussion of personal genetic results from members who are customers/participants of unaffiliated projects/companies. Members who decide to post their personal results do so with the explicit understanding that they are contributing to the forum's content. The administration has facilitated the modification and/or removal of any member posts within a fixed time period (see Section 3.14) if desired. Beyond this period, the administration is not obliged to selectively remove personal genetic results from Anthrogenica under normal circumstances.

3.7 To maximize communication efficiency across Anthrogenica's diverse community, the primary written language in Anthrogenica is Modern Standard English (either American or British). Other variants of English should not be used. Posts written in languages other than Modern Standard English are only permitted in the appropriate dedicated sub-fora catering to those languages. The creation and organization of said language fora will be decided on an in-demand basis and at the discretion of the administration.

3.8 A reasonable degree of grammatical coherency and punctuation on public postings is mandatory. Any posts that are grammatically incoherent would be treated as 'invectives devoid of substance' and as a breach of section 3.11.

3.9 Tangents from thread topics are an organic feature of discussion and are to be expected, but threads should remain reasonably on-topic. The administration may split, delete, merge, or create new threads without notice should a need for such maintenance arise.

3.10 Spamming is tantamount to forum vandalism and will not be tolerated.

3.11 Certain standards of quality control will be enforced to ensure a productive forum atmosphere. Invectives and posts devoid of substance (e.g. threads or replies consisting solely of inflammatory content or triviality) will be considered junk postings and deleted. Breaches in basic forum etiquette include (and are not limited to) cross-posting different threads, consecutive posting in existing threads and reviving old threads whose course of discussion has long since expired ("necro-bumping"). 

3.12 Discussions pertaining to physical appearance and/or phenotype that are quantitative and accompanied with structured analysis are generally welcome in Anthrogenica. However, subjective and arbitrary discussions relating to either subject that are agreed by our administration to breach section 3.11 above are generally prohibited. What constitutes as the aforementioned, and whether further action is required outside of content modification, will be carried out at the administration's discretion.

3.13 Further to the above, threads or posts forwarding requests for ethnicity guessing or 'classifications' based on the pseudoscientific precepts of 'racial taxonomy' are automatically considered as both devoid of substance and trivial. Such content will be deleted without prior notice. However, the citation of basic 'racial taxonomy' categories as explicitly used in historical or modern literature is permissible. Please note members who persistently defy this aspect of content moderation will be sanctioned as deemed appropriate by the administration.

3.14 Anthrogenica encourages its members to participate in discussions in a topic-focused manner. Personalization of discussions is completely prohibited at all times. This includes (and is not limited to) direct personal attacks, accusations, insinuations and false disclosures. Additionally, discussions that degenerate into inconsequential flaming or inanity will be deleted without prior notice. Note that this discussion policy also applies to Anthrogenica's Private Messaging and Visitor Message functions.

3.15 Anthrogenica is a forum for free and honest discussion. It is not a pulpit to proselytize or to promote certain viewpoints that would be better-suited to a personal blog. Such behaviour is prohibited. What constitutes the aforementioned, and whether infraction delivery is warranted, will be determined at the administration's discretion.

3.16 Pseudoscientific material that is presented as scientific will be deleted immediately and without notice by the administration. Furthermore, it is the poster's duty to preemptively determine whether their imminent posts contain masked pseudoscience.

3.17 Users who disregard these aforementioned limitations to 3.1 will be found to be in violation of the Terms of Service and will be disciplined accordingly.

3.18 Posts made on Anthrogenica are editable by the post creator for one hour. Members should therefore exercise judgement in deciding whether their contribution to discussions or the forum's total content is final and representative of their views beyond this point. In the event that posted material is deemed to be compromising for whatever reason later, members are advised to PM the "Moderator" account (see Section 3.8).

3.19 Animated GIFs regardless of form (icons, avatars, personal photos and signatures) are prohibited on Anthrogenica to keep the primary visual presentation of the site exclusively on written/thread content. This restriction does not apply to static images.

3.20 Users may host advertisements on their public account profiles if they are in English. Furthermore, the only commercial advertisements permitted at Anthrogenica must be related to either genetics, genealogy or anthropology and are not associated with personal accounts. Furthermore, charity advertisements may only be permitted following administration approval. The administration has the right to modify or remove advertisements which do not conform with the above.

3.21 The Crowdfunding Initiatives section at Anthrogenica promotes funding endeavours in the amateur genetic genealogy community. Those seeking funding are expected to provide comprehensive detail with respect to the rationale for fundraising. In the event that a crowdfunding initiative is unsuccessful in reaching its stated goal within 30 days from the commencement date of the initiative, and the originator of the crowdfunding initiative does not wish to follow through with the project, testing, etc., an immediate refund of all donations received must be made. Special dispensations to extend the 30-day crowdfunding initiative period may be granted by the administration, at its sole discretion, if requested in a timely manner by the originator of the crowdfunding initiative and where good cause is demonstrated. Despite maintaining the above, the administration at Anthrogenica will not be held accountable for any permanent financial loss through the crowdfunding initiatives. Please think carefully before donating to your initiatives of choice.

3.22 Any and all current or modern political and religious discussion is prohibited on Anthrogenica. Historical political or religious discussion is welcome in the appropriate History subsection, provided that it doesn't veer into the modern era. Further, material in signatures or avatars deemed by the Administration to be of political or religious activist nature will also breach this Term. Members are advised to limit the scope of organic tangents arising from discussions and actively discourage others from doing similarly. Failure by participants to limit said tangents will be construed by the administration as a breach to section 3.10 and/or 3.12 above.

3.23 Members have the capacity to express themselves through a variety of modern and historical flags. The administration will routinely upload flags per member request to facilitate the means of reasonable self-expression. However, not all flag requests will be permitted on the basis of socio-legal considerations. Flag requests which our administrations deems to meet any of the following criteria will **not** be uploaded by us: 

  * Modern separatist flags from entities that are unrecognised by their derivative nation or the UN
  * Modern flags from self-declared autonomous regions that are unrecognised by their derivative nation or the UN
  * Historical flags where the administration considers as being co-opted by highly inflammatory modern groups
  * Any flags subject to copyright or other legal restrictions for use



3.24 As a discussion forum, Anthrogenica largely caters towards the lay public. Occasionally, members with qualifications in areas directly relating to the subjects discussed in this forum register and participate. To combat potential abuse associated with the professing of expertise in a lay environment, such members are obligated to produce evidence of their educational background. This may be undertaken either publicly or privately (presenting the evidence to a member of staff as third party verification).

  


**4\. Intellectual Property and Copyright Infringement**

4.1 Anthrogenica only permits the posting of publicly accessible publications that have been properly attributed to their authors. In the event that a piece of literature is behind a paywall but the supplementary data is freely available, members are welcome to share the supplementary items in posts or threads. If both the paper and the supplementary are behind a paywall, neither are permitted to be shared publicly. 

4.2 To avoid future disputes in ownership members of Anthrogenica are advised to personalise or sign off any original pieces they may create, including but not limited to text, diagrams, maps, pictures and charts. Otherwise, in the event of a dispute over ownership, Anthrogenica is not obligated to support the claim made by its' user-owners on unsigned materials.

4.3 Illegal file sharing is strictly prohibited on Anthrogenica and any illegally shared files will immediately be removed as per the conditions agreed by Anthrogenica's website host and our continued support for current online legislation(s).

4.4 Anthrogenica employs a zero tolerance policy towards fraudulent material or behavior irrespective of the perceived fulfilment (including but not limited to personal, financial or ideological gain). What constitutes as sufficient evidence of fraud, together with subsequent infractions, will be determined entirely at the administration's discretion.

  


**5\. Privacy Policy**

5.1 Anthrogenica is committed to upholding the privacy of all of its members. Please do not give out any personal information such as phone number, postal address, zip code, last name, or anything you do not wish others to know. Users have complete control over what information they wish to share about themselves on their profiles. If a user chooses to ignore this Term, the administration of Anthrogenica cannot be held responsible for any possible consequences. 

5.2 The administration of Anthrogenica assure their users that PM's will not be read under any normal circumstances except for the scenario outlined in Section 5.3 involving law enforcement.

5.3 Registration at Anthrogenica requires a username, password, email address and birth date to ensure you are at least 13 years of age. None of this information will be disclosed to any other individual in ordinary circumstances, with requests from law enforcement being the only citable exception. In such a case, any information about a user may be shared to protect Anthrogenica from liability in complying with potential legal processes, including but not limited to court orders, search warrants, subpoenas and other legal document requests.

5.4 With each page visited, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from the forum or your ISP is contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of the ToS.

5.5 Anthrogenica collects a limited set of private user information from its members. This includes IP address data, registered email address and cookie data. In keeping with Section 5.1 and 5.2, the administration will not disclose any of these to any third parties, outside of a written and direct request from law enforcement. Should members request to view their own information or wish to learn why each are used, they should contact an active member of staff.

5.6 Anthrogenica stores cookies to personalize or enhance your user experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server and is uniquely assigned to you. They cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer and can only be read by a Web Server in the domain that issued it. Cookies provide a convenience by storing information regarding any personalizations you've made on Anthrogenica. They save your preferences (i.e. forum skin choice) as well as remembering your login information during sessions for quicker site access. We employ only one third party tracking cookie (Google Analytics) for general activity monitoring. Members have the ability to accept or decline cookies at any stage. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but members can usually modify their browser setting to decline cookies, which may disable some functionality on Anthrogenica. 

5.7 This site is fully backed up on a weekly basis. The data is kept secure on three offline portable devices with an established contingency plan. The site's data is managed by one of Anthrogenica's founding administrators (considered the 'data manager' for these purposes). This data will never be conveyed to any parties outside of the current administration. Should the 'data manager' resign from their voluntary role within the site's administration, these duties will be transferred to a nominated colleague. 

5.8 Anthrogenica complies with the right to erasure ('the right to be forgotten') for members posting from within the EU. Should an EU member decide they wish to have personal aspects of their online activity on this site removed, they should contact an active member of staff. In this context, we draw a distinction between public personal data (e.g. voluntary posting of surnames, birthdates) and privately collected personal data (e.g. registration emails, birthdates). **Please refer to Section 6.9 for further stipulations.**

5.9 Per the totality of these Terms, Anthrogenica is fully compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy requirements, which we fall under the jurisdiction of, as 'data collectors' of private user information. Although our servers are based outside of the EU, we nonetheless comply with these legal rulings as a general policy. A one-time active consenting prompt will appear for new users or those accessing the site from another device. 

5.10 Anthrogenica is an independent non-profit online discussion forum. Members of our website frequently share results or services offered by third party providers. The administration neither endorses nor guarantees the authenticity of any services shared by our members. Further, we cannot be held accountable for any potential loss of data, breach of privacy or other adverse outcomes that our users may experience should they decide to solicit the services of these third party providers. **We therefore advise both members and guests alike to proceed very cautiously when interacting with any of these services, particularly if financial, personal or genomic data is involved.**

  


**6\. Infraction Guidelines**

6.1 For minor infractions and violations of the rules, please use the "Report Post" feature located at the end of each post. All moderators of that section will be notified automatically. More serious offenses (violation of privacy, threats etc.) can be communicated directly to the moderation team and _"Moderator"_ via PM.

6.2 Posts or actions deemed to violate these ToS (Section 2.3-5, Section 3) and Forum Rules will be punished with infractions and removed. A user's first infraction will result in the user being subjected to a one-week probationary period. Any subsequent infractions will result in penalties as agreed upon by the administration on a case-by-case basis, up to and including permanent banishment of the user and any associated IP addresses (Section 6.4).

6.3 A suspension or temporary ban will result in a user losing all posting and viewing privileges for the lifetime of the ban. Users in this category cannot post new posts or threads, send messages, or view forum content until their ban has been lifted.

6.4 Permanently banned members cannot access the forum for any reason. The user's account will be disabled and all associated IP addresses will be blocked from accessing the website. Users in this category do not normally receive the opportunity to return to Anthrogenica, although individual cases may warrant exceptions.

6.5 All member infractions are assessed on a case-by-case basis through the consultation of all available staff members. With the exception of circumstances deemed urgent by the administration, all decisions pertaining to infraction delivery are adjudicated by available staff at a given time.

6.6 Individual bans/suspensions are not for general discussion on the forum as they distract from the forum's intended focus. Any open threads or posts relating to these will be managed accordingly. Instead, if members of the community wish to learn about another member's ban/suspension, they must contact a member of the administration via PM directly to address their inquiries. Additionally, existing members must not post any content on behalf of banned members. 

6.7 Public discussion or criticism of all administrative decisions is prohibited and will result in a suspension. Furthermore, abuse of moderators or administrators in the course of their duty will not be tolerated and will result in a permanent ban. All queries regarding administrative decisions are welcome, but must be communicated to us either through PM or the "Contact Us" feature at the bottom of any page for our review.

6.8 Members of the forum administration frequently engage in on-site discussions with the rest of the community. In the event that our Terms of Service are breached in said discussions and to minimize bias, participating staffers will recuse themselves from adjudication. Instead, the remaining active team will assess the content in question. If the offending members were found to exhibit undue hostility towards staff in said discussions, escalated infractions are to be expected.

6.9 The administration reserve the right to ban new members who demonstrate continued defiance of these Terms following the delivery of informal warnings and/or a first infraction. It is the responsibility of all members to adhere to these Terms. Per section 6.5, at least two members of the administration are required to apply this section. What constitutes a "new member" or the rationale for applying this section is entirely at the discretion of the administration. This section does not apply to longstanding members. 

6.10 To minimize the potential for abuse, EU members requesting for the removal of multiple portions of public personal data they had posted after the announcement of this section (announced around 2/23/19 23:00 UTC) will be subject to disciplinary measures. Despite our Terms indicating otherwise, please participate on the site as if all future contributions are irrevocable.