ATRL Administration

Frequently Asked QuestionsModerators consider the full context of a discussion, including a member's overall pattern of conduct, when making moderation decisions. Because every situation is different, similar posts may not always receive the same outcome. If you believe a post violates the rules, please use the Report feature and allow moderators to review it. The questions below explain how the Civics Guidelines are generally applied. Can I criticize politicians, governments, countries, or political parties? Yes. Public officials, governments, countries, political parties, and political candidates may all be criticized, including harshly. However, threats, calls for violence, or statements advocating physical harm are not permitted. Is criticism of Zionism considered antisemitic? No. Zionism is a political movement. Like any political ideology or movement, it may be discussed, supported, debated, or criticized. Criticism of Zionism is not automatically considered antisemitic and is permitted in Civics. However, criticism that relies on antisemitic rhetoric, stereotypes, discriminatory tropes, or targets Jewish people rather than the political movement itself may violate the Zero Tolerance Policy. Is criticism of Israel considered antisemitic? No. Criticism of Israel, like criticism of any other country or government, is not automatically considered antisemitic and is permitted in Civics. However, criticism that relies on antisemitic rhetoric, stereotypes, discriminatory tropes, or targets Jewish people rather than the Israeli government or its policies may violate the Zero Tolerance Policy. Can I criticize religion? Yes. Religious beliefs, institutions, and practices may all be discussed and criticized. However, attacks on people because of their religion or other protected characteristics may violate the Zero Tolerance Policy. Can I criticize another member's political views? Yes. Debate another member's ideas, arguments, or political positions. Personal attacks, harassment, or repeated attempts to provoke another member are not permitted. What does "good faith" mean? Good-faith discussion means engaging honestly with the topic and with other members. Deliberately misrepresenting another member's position or participating primarily to provoke others may be treated as trolling. What if another member doesn't respond to my argument? They don't have to. Members are free to disengage from a discussion at any time. If someone asks to end a conversation, respect that request and move on. What happens if a political discussion starts in another section? Moderators may move political discussions to Civics if they become the primary focus of a thread. Repeatedly steering unrelated discussions into political debate may result in moderator action. What is considered discriminatory rhetoric? Discriminatory rhetoric includes language that attacks, dehumanizes, or promotes hatred toward protected groups. It also includes promoting, defending, or glorifying hateful ideologies, using discriminatory tropes or coded language, denying, justifying, or celebrating genocide against protected groups, or advocating violence against any individual or group. Can I use strong language? Yes. Strong language directed at politicians, governments, public policy, or political issues is generally permitted within Civics. Death threats against them are not. Personal attacks directed at other members remain subject to moderation.

Civics GuidelinesCivics is ATRL's space for discussing politics, current events, public policy, and global issues. As a progressive and inclusive community, ATRL encourages thoughtful, good-faith discussion while expecting members to engage respectfully with one another. Community StandardsWhen participating in Civics: Debate ideas, arguments, and public policy, not other members. Personal attacks, harassment, baiting, antagonistic behavior, and trolling are not permitted. Engage in good faith. Deliberately misrepresenting another member's position or arguing primarily to provoke others may be treated as trolling. If another member asks to end a conversation, respect that request. Continuing to quote or pursue them afterward may be treated as harassment or trolling. Challenge ideas, not another member's right to participate. Retaliatory or bad-faith reporting may result in moderator action. Posting GuidelinesPolitical debate is encouraged. Passionate disagreement is expected. Personal hostility is not. Keep posts relevant to the topic. Avoid intentionally derailing unrelated discussions into political debate. Engage with the discussion rather than spamming slogans, talking points, or inflammatory rhetoric. If a discussion has reached an impasse, move on rather than prolonging hostility. Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP)The Zero Tolerance Policy applies in full throughout Civics. Content rooted in hatred, discrimination, or the denial of another group's humanity is not protected as political opinion and will be moderated accordingly. This includes, but is not limited to, promoting, defending, or glorifying extremist or hateful ideologies, discriminatory rhetoric, the denial, justification, or celebration of genocide against protected groups, threats or calls for violence against any individual or group, and attempts to evade the ZTP through coded language, euphemisms, discriminatory tropes, or by reframing discriminatory rhetoric as legitimate political discussion. Political Base ThreadsCivics includes two types of base threads: Casual Conversation For lighter discussion, quick reactions, and general political conversation. General & Casual Politics Thread Debate Threads For structured discussion and sustained political debate. US Politics Thread UK Politics Thread Moderators may redirect discussions when appropriate to preserve the purpose of each thread. Moderation & EnforcementModerators may address conduct that undermines productive discussion or escalates hostility, even if it is not specifically described above. When determining appropriate action, moderators may consider a member's overall pattern of conduct, not just individual posts. Political discussions can escalate quickly, so Civics is moderated more actively than most sections of ATRL. For answers to common questions and examples of how these guidelines are applied, please see the FAQ in the second post of this thread.

Welcome to ATRL. Yes, this place is real. And yes, you found it. If you are new here, this thread is your official entry point. ATRL has been around for a long time, and while the layout may change, the core of the community has always been the same: pop culture obsession, strong opinions, and people who care a little too much. In a good way. Start Here First Before jumping into threads, take a minute to look over the basics. Please review the ATRL Rules and the ATRL FAQs. These explain how posting works, what is and is not allowed, how promotions happen, and why certain features may be unavailable to new accounts at first. In addition to the global rules, each section of the forum has its own set of guidelines that govern how threads should be titled, formatted, and posted. When visiting sections like Music News, Charts, Celebria, Base, and others, take a moment to review their individual rules before starting or participating in threads. About Thread Creation and Promotions If you cannot start your own thread yet, do not panic. This is normal. New members are randomly promoted based on a mix of overall activity, time since joining, post count, and warning history. There is no set number, no application, and no way to rush it. If your thread permissions have not activated after three months, you may message @Rian or @Lee for assistance. Post, engage, and let it happen naturally. Introduce Yourself You do not need to answer every question, but this is a good way to break the ice. What name should we call you? Stan list, if applicable Favorite performer right now Arts or charts, or both How did you find ATRL? Preferred pronouns What kind of music are you into? Hobbies or interests outside of music Lurkers are welcome, but this is how people start remembering your username. ATRL Culture, Quickly ATRL is an inclusive community. Conversations can get loud, opinionated, and occasionally chaotic, but hate, harassment, and bad-faith posting are not the vibe. Disagree freely. Debate passionately. Keep it about the topic, not the person. A lot of members have been here for years. Many have made real friendships here. Give the community a little time, and it will usually give something back. Welcome to ATRL. Enjoy the ride.

Request for your ATRL account to be permanently deleted here. Reply to this thread with "My username is [---] and I confirm I want my ATRL account permanently deleted." Your request will be hidden once it has been fulfilled. If you request account deletion, you will not be able to rejoin ATRL, ever. Any posts not requesting account deletion will be banned.

The Headquarters is the main thread to interact with ATRL staff and fellow members concerning the ATRL community. While this is a fairly casual thread, it’s not meant for excessive general banter that you may find in Random Thoughts. For your convenience here are some quick links you may find useful: Rules & Guidelines | FAQS | Help Request (HR) Here you can: Discuss and ask questions about ATRL's rules Discuss changes to ATRL or suggest new changes Request threads to be closed, merged or opened Request other minor things that only the moderators can do for you Ask questions about ATRL in general Discuss other things that are happening on ATRL Tag an administrator if you have an emergent issue While there are usually moderators around to answer, other members are also free to help you out. You're not guaranteed an official answer by posting in ATRL HQ. If you need one, send a help request. However, it may take several days for help requests to be answered. Be reminded that moderators are also not obligated to reply to help requests. Always be respectful to staff and to other members. A hostile or disruptive attitude will result in a thread ban and a permanent warning point. The following can only be done by help request: Complain about warning points that you've received Bring up rule-breaking posts that were left unwarned Bring up avatars/signatures that you find vulgar or offensive Request dupe checks Request thread bans Complain about harassment Do not: Use the thread to report threads or posts Talk negatively about other members or fan bases Start or encourage fights or arguments Argue with moderators after being given an answer Post or discuss PMs you have received from other members Post a query or complaint more than once (send a help request if you need an answer) Repeatedly ask when your HR will be replied to or demand an answer

Hello ATRL Universe! Welcome back to ATRL. It's been a long 3 days but we have nearly completed our migration plans. Music, Celebria, Entertainment, Base, The Lounge and Civics were the sections affected by the change. We are looking at this as kind of a fresh start, and as such, some of you who have had your certain section bans in place or thread making abilities restricted will notice you now have access again. Don't mess it up. Threads Many threads were recreated to avoid the mass rush to claim OPs. Check to make sure your thread hasn't already been recreated before posting. You can find your threads in your profile. You can also check the A-Z Lists in Base and Entertainment to see if a thread already exists in those sections. Any OPs that say they are up for grabs can be requested. Don't steal OPs. Random Thoughts is officially reopened. The Roof You'll also notice that the The Roof is reopen for business! Members of the ATRL community who have full membership (ie not lurkers or newbies) can access it. Over the coming days and weeks we will be upgrading members access to that location. So If you don't have it yet, you may soon. The Roof is the place for your smut. Wanna make threads about hot guys? Do it there. A celeb posts something sexual? Post it there. Do NOT post it in Celebria. Wanna have 18+ discussions? Have suggestive or inappropriate gifs? Post it there. If you post it anywhere else, moderators will fully enforce the content rules in place. This is our compromise to the community. Please meet us halfway and don't make us regret it. The Theme The theme broke. We know. Hopefully it'll be fixed when Bloo has the chance. Until then we're on the default theme. No there isn't a dark option. No we don't have a timetable. No we're not going to make a dark option. Future Work We are continuing our plans to update certain server settings and bring them into compliance with Invision software. We also have seen that Cloudflare is an issue with 503s and hope to bring that to the owner's attention. To Our Community We know it's frustrating but we're doing the best we can with the limited access we have. We fight for you guys all of the time and fight for giving you the community you deserve -- No 503s and downtime and stuff. We hope our efforts to get the owner on board and future advertisements will help us raise enough funding to hire developers who can fix what is necessary. This thread will be left open for your questions and feedback. @Lee!! & @Ryan BTE - ATRL Administration

To the ATRL Community: We wanted to inform you all of some major changes coming eminently to the site. After years of setbacks due to issues on the back end of the site, ATRL hasn't been able to run as smoothly as we had hoped. The administration has decided to try to take matters into our own hands. We need to reduce the size of the database as it keeps timing out when automation happens. As a result we came up with the idea of spinning off all existing threads and posts into a semi-archive that we can “drop” into a separate database, reducing the load. As such, this will likely cause most existing threads to become non-existent. This shouldn't affect post counts, warning histories or other mod related necessities. Most data will be retained on the back end so the administration will still have access to that information, but for all intents and purposes, the site will be purged of the majority of past threads and posts creating a fresh start, similar to when we transitioned to the new site back in 2017. We will be giving members the opportunity to save their OPs and any other content from their current threads and bases — but all will need to be recreated when the site returns from the refresh. Members will have until April 10, 2022 to save whatever content they wish before it disappears. We will do our best to retain the data but cannot guarantee it will be able to return. We understand losing this content and history will be a drag, but we hope this will be a start to getting the site to a more reliable and stable state. If you have any other questions or thoughts please don't hesitate to ask. This thread will be left open for your questions and feedback. - @Lee!! & @Ryan BTE ATRL Administration

The Official Introduce Yourself Thread.. Are you a new member to this forum? Don't know anybody? Well, introduce yourself here. We all want to know what a cool person you are. First, familiarize yourself with our rules here: https://atrl.net/index.php?/guidelines/ If you’re wondering why you can’t make a thread, it’s because you must: - Be a member for a finite about of months - Have over a random number of posts (usually 500 but it varies) - AND have a decent warning history before you’re eligible. What's your name? Favorite artist of the past year? Favorite former performer? Do you stan music or the charts? How did you come across ATRL? What are your preferred pronouns? What type of music are you into, etc...? ..share and learn from one another. ATRL is an inclusive community and we want members to be able to have great (sometimes messy)discussions and forge long lasting friendships. Interact, rejoice, love, laugh, and get to know one another without spitting hate or negativity.

Dear ATRL Community: During yesterday’s mandatory community meeting, many issues were brought to the administration’s attention concerning moderator conduct, specifically that of Reinvention. After discussing the concerns internally, it was decided that Reinvention will be removed as a moderator effective immediately. That said, we encourage the members of ATRL to not use this announcement as an opportunity to bash, smear, mock, or further litigate Reinvention’s past. Excessive attacks/harassment can be met with a WP. Members should not be afraid to speak openly about the moderation. There would be no community without you. It is important that members see moderators as impartial enforcers; trusted support who can address concerns that arise within the community. Moderators cannot be seen as part of the problem. In the interest of transparency, the following will be taking place: 1) The administration will be implementing a new moderator code of conduct that will go into effect in January. 2) We are reinstating our quarterly moderator audits that reviews moderator behavior, enforcement of policies and their contributions to the community. These audits will allow us to pre-empt issues arising and address them before it reaches critical levels. We thank you all for continuing to visit ATRL and look forward to working with the community for the betterment of all. Please direct any comments or questions to the HQ thread. Thank you, @Lee!! & @Ryan BTE

As of 8:35 PM/EST the member involved in this heinous plot has been removed from ATRL. We want to thank the members who came to us on the condition of anonymity and did the right thing. You stood up for what was right at the potential expense of your “friendship” with this person. If that’s who you’re hanging around with though, maybe you should reevaluate your associations. If he’ll do this to one, he’ll do it to you.

Some of you aren’t going to be happy until you’re sitting in a jail cell. Threatening to extort or blackmail ANY member, let alone a member of the ATRL staff, with nude photos is tragic, pathetic, unstable behavior and illegal. Over a pop culture message board? Because your online friend was banned from the forum? Disgusting. Seek mental help, We will be cooperating with local law enforcement to file criminal complaints, including asking the district attorneys to subpoena all social networks where such blackmail/extortion was discussed, planned and plotted. Fuck around and find out just how serious we are. - ATRL Staff

Earlier today, there was an incident involving the posting of another member’s personal information. We want to state that under no circumstances will this be allowed. Doxxing is grounds for a permanent ban, and should a member opt to press charges, ATRL will fully cooperate with their local law enforcement. Don't let anything take you to the point of doing something like that. Even as a "joke". Just don't.

Hello, At ATRL we welcome healthy discussion and criticism of any country or world power is acceptable. However, we have seen an increase of rhetoric that is disconcerting to our team and we want to put a stop to it. Conflation of Israel and Jewish people as a whole is considered Anti-Semitic and against our ZTP, as is conflating Muslims and Palestinians with terrorism. Any posts assuming a Jewish individual is acting behind the scenes to support Israel or that Jewish people control the media, finances, etc will be warned appropriately. Thank you.

Welcome to the first ATRL Town Hall of 2021. The Town Hall thread will help members provide feedback and discuss upcoming or potential changes that may or may not happen to the site, as well as giving users a way to communicate directly with the administration and moderating team. Please feel free to comment with any issues, concerns or suggestions you have that will help our ATRL Community. Let us begin! Your Administrators: @Ryan @Lee!! AGENDA Community Updates Ongoing rules overhaul Duplicate account amnesty Overhaul of thread creation guidelines Banned Topics Thread Etiquette ATRL Hall of Fame Creation of political forum Permanent closure of SYG ZTP 2.0 Feedback Future Outlook Open Discussion COMMUNITY UPDATES As you are aware, ATRL has undergone a bit of a visual makeover. We are working diligently to ensure your ATRL experience is aesthetically pleasing. Right now we have two themes -- The Light (our iconic Red and Grey scheme) and The Dark (based on our Twilight theme that is Black and Gold) Please keep the following answers in mind to frequently asked questions in ATRL HQ: There are no plans at this time to add additional color schemes. It is very time consuming to have to edit our themes with every major code revision. Circle Avis are here to stay for the foreseeable future. Warning Point History: Members are able to see their warning point history once again. Though the issue remains with points not expiring on their own, we remain determined to fix that issue. If members obtain 10 Active warning points, they will be suspended. If you were suspended and don't have 10 active warning points, please submit a HR and we will review it. HQ Avis: High Quality Avatars have been indefinitely disabled until we can only have them seen on desktop. Members have frequently complained about ATRL eating their data, and part of that has to do with people having 300MB avis. Members may set their avatar by visiting their profile and clicking on image to the left of their post count (on desktop). Media Embeds: After months of issues, we are now able to properly embed Spotify links again. Some members have experienced issues linking videos from YouTube. Please keep in mind that some YouTube videos are blocked from embedding. Keep an eye out for the notice that will appear if the link is unable to be embedded. Instagram links have not been resolved yet. It is an issue on THEIR end, not an ATRL issue, affecting all Invision forums. Giphy Integration: Giphy integration will allow members to click and select GIF images, directly from the editor. This will pull and search gifs on the popular Giphy platform, allowing for ease of use, and expression. RULES OVERHAUL Looking at the Rules page in its current form, it is overwhelming and confusing due to 19 different rules. After an internal team discussion, moderator @Oxygen led the team in proposing a simple, compact Rules framework which states various prohibited content with more detailed examples underneath as well as the penalty. These rules are almost entirely the same as the previous rules. They are rearranged or rewritten for more clarity, but there are no major changes to the actual rules. There are a few rules/issues that have been added that were never explicitly there before, but have been enforced in some way for a long time. DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS As the standing policy has always been, duplicate accounts are not allowed on ATRL. For those unaware, if you are found to have a duplicate account for any reason, the dupe and the original account will be permanently banned. If you do have a duplicate account and do not want to be penalized, for a limited time, you can advise the staff and the duplicate will be permanently banned with no penalties applied on your main account. This will be our version of dupe amnesty. You have until February 20 to inform ATRL staff of your decision by sending a help request. THREAD CREATION GUIDELINES The amount of low effort discussion threads (threads that do not foster any kind of meaningful discussion / threads that just you cannot have a proper discussion in) is out of control. In an effort to combat the reductive, repetitive and unimaginative influx of these threads, we have come up with the following guidelines. Any thread that consists of one of the below listed topics, or breaches an above rule, will be considered as a "Banned Thread Topic" and may be locked or hidden with no further explanation given. THREAD ETIQUETTE There's been a lot of threads created lately that are improperly formatted. Please familiarize yourselves with the guidelines below when creating threads. ATRL HALL OF FAME Last fall, a few members suggested in ATRL HQ that we create an area to house "iconic threads". We agree that housing such threads in one place would be a good idea to allow members to relive the mess to their heart's content. We are still working on what criteria a thread will need to pass in order to be considered "iconic" enough to be in the HOF. But like Rihanna's new album, it's coming. LAUNCHING POLITICAL SECTION There is a lot of interest in politics within the ATRL Community, and we want to allow these topics to flourish beyond just one hub thread. After much discussion, we have decided to launch a political section. This area will have its own list of criteria to follow that is yet to be determined. We are looking towards our civically engaged members to help us establish this section. Additionally, we will be looking for help to keep watch on the section and ensure its being used properly. More details are to come. But we are excited to see what this new section will inspire. Should there be a select number of politically minded bases? Should there be "topics of the month" that will house major policy debates? How will international politics be included in the section? Questions like these are things we're looking at. PERMANENT CLOSURE OF SYG Stand Your Ground is done for. It's not coming back in any shape, fashion or form. It is a relic of the ATRL of old and does not comport with the policies of the current administration. As we look forward to expanding ATRL's branding opportunities, having a section that allows the worst of the worst to be posted is just not okay in 2021. This decision is final. ZTP 2.0 FEEDBACK As of June 16, 2020, we introduced the second iteration of the Zero Tolerance Policy which is as follows: An Offensive warning will include a three month ban from the forum, alongside the 2 warning points with an expiry of one year. If you accrue three Offensive warnings from the date of this policy being in force, a permanent ban from the forum will be issued with no appeal process. However, in exceptional circumstances, the ATRL staff reserve the right to issue a permanent ban at their discretion before reaching your third offense. We would like to know how you feel about the implementation of the policy and if there are tweaks that need to be made. FUTURE OUTLOOK Since becoming administrators, @Ryan and @Lee!! have sought to bring ATRL into the present. We frequently hear from members about how they want "old features" to return. Many of the features requested (reported/already reported/warning received) don't add any actual functionality to the forum other than laughs (which, we admit, are funny sometimes). But it is important we look forward, not backwards. By focusing ATRL on the present, we can also look towards the future. Server optimization and stabilization will always be our main priority. We believe we have narrowed down a few areas that may be contributing to the 503 errors and are in the process of hiring a developer to assess and fix the issue. The following features are in development for future implementation: Warning points removal upon expiration Content can only be warned once Content can only be reported once Three Most Recent Topics in Header (We are currently in talks with a developer to modify code written by the admins and mods) Return of ATRL+: What even is ATRL+ anymore? This is something our administration is discussing and will be looking to at ways to enhance the ATRL+ user experience and access. ATRL Originals: A way for members to contribute original, high-quality and/or fun content pertaining to music, pop culture, television, film or other forms of entertainment. These posts will be promoted on our social media and spotlighted on our soon-to-be redesigned homepage. OPEN DISCUSSION This is your opportunity to talk directly to the admins and fellow members and post any new ideas, complaints, suggestions, etc. that you may have about ATRL.

The Official Introduce Yourself Thread.. Are you a new member to this forum? Don't know anybody? Well, introduce yourself here. We all want to know what a cool person you are. First, familiarize yourself with our rules here: https://atrl.net/index.php?/guidelines/ If you’re wondering why you can’t make a thread, it’s because you must: - Be a member for a finite about of months - Have over a random number of posts (usually 500 but it varies) - AND have a decent warning history before you’re eligible. What's your name? Likes/Dislikes? How did you come across this amazing site? What type of music are you into, etc...? ..share and learn from one another. ATRL is an inclusive community and we want members to be able to have great (sometimes messy) discussions and forge long lasting friendships. Interact, rejoice, love, laugh, and get to know one another without spitting hate or negativity.