Forum Charter - Last Update 28 AUG 2023

Hagar

Read this Charter before posting.

Purpose

The purpose of this forum is the discussion of matters military. As the Irish military is an executive arm of government, it exists within the political framework. As such, some discussion of the political environment is inevitable, but for most discussion of matters of political significance (eg "We need more money for hospitals" or "taskings requiring an air force are pointless" sort of thing) the politics subforum is this way: https://www.boards.ie/categories/politics-politics .
Thus, discussion should primarily revolve around more on the execution (the 'how') of government policy, less so than the 'what'. Those decisions are made elsewhere. For more on this, see paragraph below entitled "Good Behaviour"

General

This Forum is open to all posters. Posters may choose to identify themselves as serving or past Defence Force Members at their own discretion. It may earn your opinions some extra respect, it may also act as a critic magnet. It’s your choice.

Important. If you are, or have been, a member of the Irish Defence Forces or the Defence Forces of another State you will have been sworn to secrecy regarding certain aspects of your profession. It is your duty not to betray the trust placed in you by revealing privileged or militarily sensitive information, by breaching military regulations or by endangering national security in any way. Be aware that members of the Irish Defence Forces are bound by the Official Secrets Act, 1963.

Take heed, anybody deemed to be in breach of the above will be banned on the spot, no ifs, ands, buts or maybes.

Discussion of military information already in the public domain i.e. in publications like Jane’s, on the web or published State documents, public accounts estimates etc. is permitted. Do not put confidential information into the public domain by disclosing it on this forum.

Apart from that quite serious note this forum is here for your enjoyment and will run much like any other.

General Boards.ie rules apply. Do not post any thing that could bring Boards.ie into disrepute.

Text speak is forbidden.

Video Clips:- These are welcome, however many battle clips can be disturbing. Please remember your intended audience may include younger posters and posters who don't appreciate how gruesome warfare can be. Include a warning with any video you suspect may be too graphic for general viewing. Gore for the sake of gore will not be welcomed. If you want to post a clip that is borderline PM a link to a mod and await a response before posting on the forum.

If you have a complaint to make, please do not complain on threads, use a PM or take it to Feedback.

Please use the "Report this post" feature (visible on each and every post under the user's profile) whenever you see something which breaches the charter or the general rules of boards. Use it even if you want to make a private comment to the moderator regarding the post/thread. The report will not be visible to the person who made the post unless they have access to the "Reported Post" sub-forum of the "Moderator" forum.

Good Behaviour

Trolling and personal abuse will not be tolerated.

Postings prejudicial to the good order and general enjoyment of this forum will be considered unwelcome and acted upon. This is not to say that minority viewpoints are not encouraged, but if the purpose appears more to stir discontent than discussion, be warned. Manner shall also be taken into consideration.

Further, Von Clausewitz may have said that war is an extension of politics by other means, but he died before the Boards.ie military forum was established. We have a politics discussion for discussing politics, this is a military forum for the military practicalities and ancillary discussion. Posts whose primary purpose appears political will be reviewed for applicability. More specifically, posts whose primary purpose appears to be to take a dig at a military, particularly when only tangential to the discussion, will be considered as prejudicial to the good order and enjoyment of the forum and acted upon.

The phenomenon of multiple posters attempting to advance a particular perspective for the sake of public perception (such as, but not only, those commonly known as "Trolls from Olgino") will be addressed by a subjective assessment of intent of the posts and posters. Usually such posters are low post count and little productive use for discussion. Their loss will not be mourned.

Recruiting

Since it seems to come up every now and then: There are two notable legal restrictions on recruiting for the military on the statute books for the Republic of Ireland.

“Domestic Military”

There is a legal prohibition on recruiting for the Irish military: Defence Act 1954 S216.

“If any person without due authority, the proof of which authority shall lie on such person,—
(a) acts or purports to act as a recruiter or a person authorised to enlist recruits, or
(b) publishes or causes to be published notices or advertisements for the purpose of procuring recruits for the Defence Forces, or in relation to recruits for the Defence Forces”

As it is impossible for us to verify whether you have a note from your commanding officer on your person when you are posting up an advertisement for a recruiting day at your local RDF unit, we have to prohibit such a practice. However, we shall not be taking this to the extreme that linking to an extant external website shall be prohibited.

“Foreign militaries”

The target audience for this board is Irish people on the island of Ireland. It is inevitable that eventually users will seek information on joining their local military and for six of those counties, this means the British Army in particular, and they are as entitled to assistance as any other user. Occasionally also information is requested regarding the joining of other militaries such as those of the USA or France. However, as an entity in the Republic of Ireland, Boards.ie is subject to Irish (Republic) law on the matter, specifically the Defence Act 1954, S312. It lists two significant prohibitions:

1) “to induce, procure or persuade any person in the State to accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement in any military, naval or air force maintained by the Government of any other State, or
2) to print within the State or cause or procure to be printed within the State any notice or advertisement in relation to the procurement of personnel for any military, naval or air force maintained by the Government of any other State.”

The ‘so what’ for posters is as follows:
1) Do not attempt to persuade or recruit persons on this board to join a foreign military. This does not mean that one cannot engage in factual discussion or that people who are already interested in joining a foreign military cannot ask for neutral information to make their own decisions. The decision on whether one is attempting to persuade or recruit shall be taken on the face of the posting. Statements of personal experience shall be presumed not to anything other than an exchange of information unless the situation suggests otherwise.
2) Do not link to websites whose primary purpose is to recruit personnel for foreign militaries.

“Non-State Actors”

Mercenary organisations (Private Military Contractors) are not proscribed from recruiting in the Republic of Ireland unless specifically declared an illegal organization under Irish law. However, for simplicity’s sake on Boards, the same rules will apply as apply to foreign militaries. Factual discussion is fine. Active recruitment is not.

Additional

There will be no offering for sale of weapons or offensive materials of any type even if they are legal where you are posting.

At the request of Irish Military Online we will not include them in our "Useful Links" thread.
There is no reason to prevent posters having appropriate links in individual posts.

Banning will be swift and sudden. As they say “You will never hear the one that hits you”.

This Charter can and will change over time. The title will be changed to reflect the date of the most recent change. Please take the trouble to re-read it now and again.

Enjoy.

Poccington / Manic Moran / Riamfada

Hagar

7th July 2006 - Minor change re Irish Military On Line link policy.

Hagar

17 Aug 2006 - Change to charter to include policy on video clips.

Hagar

The report will not be visible to the person who made the post.

Now reads as follows:

The report will not be visible to the person who made the post unless they have access to the "Reported Post" sub-forum of the "Moderator" forum.

Hagar

15th November 2008 - Amended to disallow recruitment to foreign armies.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Lads we all know what they are, and for the civilians reading this board, they're rumours going around the barracks.

We all know that operationally they are very dangerous and can be very damaging for moral.

In future they won't be allowed in this forum.

For every 'Ball Hop' posted God kills a recruit :P and I get to flex my muscles

Thanks for your co-operation.

Poccington

After the Company Sgt incident, any incidents of posing will be met with serious punishments. This is includes false claims of Service, false claims of anything you may have done whilst Serving etc.

Let it be known, if you wanna throw your weight around by making claims regarding what you may or may not have done or where you did it and there's any suspicion of porky pies being told... You will be called on it.

If you're found to be lying, there's a good chance you'll be going walkies. Posing is something I refuse to entertain and it's something I consider to be unforgivable. It's a matter of respect to those that have gone before us, to weed out anyone who may not be who they claim to be.

This rule doesn't just apply to the DF either.

arybvtcw0eolkf

'Off topic posts'' - will either be deleted, left in place but the originator issued a warning/infraction and for serious breeches of this rule or for ignoring warnings/infractions or engaging a Moderator in an argument you can expect an instant banning from here.

Moderators here are not totally unapproachable, try PM'ing us with any issue's you might have or alternatively take your complaints to HELPDESK.

.

Hagar

Added quick PM links to original Charter with current mod names.

Manic Moran

Update to clarify posts prejudicial to the enjoyment of the board, and to expand upon recruiting policies.

Manic Moran

Fixed a couple of typos, added new policy regarding co-ordinated pushing of a specific perspective.

Manic Moran

Additional tweak (Purpose/scope) given some of the discussions started over the past few months.