Despite all of this oh-so-clever diatribe going down, there are human hands building this community and this head honch-ess moderator is human too – honest, my name's Lee ... yes, really.

This online community will be as colorful, contradictory and chaotic as any physical get together can be. Any diverse group of people that gathers under one roof can all at once be brash and shy, hyper and chilled, shouty and quiet, sharp and squidgy, snappy and musing. This site is no different. Keep that in mind and let's aspire to take a leaf out of Ms. Tolerant's book (she's so good natured as well as gorgeous, darn her).

Humans can be fickle and fallible, bless us. To an extent we'll feel our way through establishing our community. Sure we know what we're doing; we bring a lot of feminine (as well as manly) wiseness to the party, but we might make some smelly mistakes along the way. But we'll admit it when we mess up like responsible grown-ups, chalk it up to experience, add it to our bank of wisdom and move on.

Shortsshowcase.com is run on good stuff. And it only works if you take the good stuff and spread it far and wide. Ultimately we'll find our own balance and help each other out, but in the meantime if there is a dispute the hand of Lee has the final swing. Don't make me angry – you won't like me when I'm angry.

Here are some essential social graces to abide by:

And if you need more detail than that, here goes:

A long time ago, on a message board far, far away... flame wars! Someone posted a rude comment, someone got all snidey, someone came over all righteous and crash, bang, wallop what a ding-dong it was. Solution? Step away from the flame. Do not go near the flame. Do not pour fuel on to the flame. Don't even flounce away from the flame with a swoosh of your cloak in melodramatic fashion. Simply take a deep breath, agree to disagree and move along now, move along...

We love a passionate debate and the key to not continually getting knocked (and, even worse, suffering the dreaded 'delete' at the hand of Lee) is to never descend to playground behavior; no name-calling, getting personal and throwing the virtual mud around.

We welcome constructive criticism of articles, but ShortsShowcase.com is no place for potty-mouths with their below-the-belt shots. Hate-speech, anything that can be interpreted as racist, sexist, homophobic, looks like it has a commercial purpose or in anyway smells of spam will be removed by the hand of Lee. Remember – just good stuff.

No one likes the 'me, me, me' party bore who hasn't quite mastered the knack of how a conversation works. A good chat can cast a wide range but remember where you're posting and whom you're talking to. If your comment veers wildly off course, is inappropriate or just plain wrong then it's back in to the naughty corner for you.

Would you take a trip in to town, head for the nearest random group of people, barge in among them, shout out 'the price of fish these days!' and expect be treated as a sane and rational person? Not in this town. If you have a legitimate comment, issue or discussion to instigate then simply take a little time to mooch around Shortsshowcase.com and find the right place to have that conversation where you're more likely to get a meaningful response.

The trouble with this newfangled text-based wizardry is that your tone of voice gets lost on the way and tone of voice in conversation helps everyone get where it is you're coming from. Sarcasm and humor is a lot harder to convey in online chitchat and you can easily get misunderstood. Stop and think how your post may be open to misinterpretation, make sure you are being ultra crystal clear with what you're saying and only then hit the submit button.

Keep your sensible hat on and make sure you filter your content like a nice, responsible adult. If you wouldn't say it in a room full of strangers listening in then is it really safe for the whole wide world of the international web to hear? Remember – when you post it's there for all and such to see, under your name – possibly forever and ever and ever.

Don't be a silly willy and idly hand out personal information about yourself or anyone else, and likewise – don't ask for it from others. No phone numbers, email or home addresses, passwords, or any other stuff that should remain private and that you want to keep secure. Would you have your phone number, bankcard pin number, weight and name of your secret crush put up in neon lights in Times Square? (The answer's 'no' by the way).

Don't submit stuff that is blatantly illegal or prohibited and not even yours in the first place. That'd be just plain dumb and Lee really will get angry and probably turn green and call the Internet cops.