Tangent21 is a website and it's a community of people. If you want, it's a discussion board where you can chat about life, the universe and anything. Or it's a cult tv and science fiction discussion forum that loves all that's new and all that's old and all that's strange. Or it's a real-life community that meets up all over the uk at official and unofficial meets. It's probably some combination of the above. It's definitely more than any or all of that. At the end of the day, T21 is what you make it :).
Using the site
You'll find navigating the site much easier if you set some "favourite forums", these appear on the right hand side of every page you visit with a little indicator of whether there are any new posts. You can also watch topics in a similar way by clicking the "watch topic" link at the top of every topic page.
The best way to get involved is to read a few posts and reply to whatever gets your interest, or post a new topic in General Chat introducing yourself. The site staff are here to help, you should see us around the boards, or you can email at help@tangent21.com.
How Things Work
The Coffee House Rule
We see ourselves as a diverse and welcoming community of people with common interests. T21 is the internet equivalent of a friendly family coffee shop, we welcome new people and diverse discussion. Strong language and some topics dont fit with this, although after hours there's a sideroom where more heated discussions take place in a similar environment (This is the After Hours forum in General Chat).
Spoilers
We're a UK site and a lot of member's hate to be "spoilered", which means told what's going to happen in their favourite shows before it airs on the channel they watch them on. Obviously a lot of shows air first in the US or even on SKY before BBC. In show discussion forums the "New Topic" pages allow the poster to select the "spoiler level" of the post, you should make sure that you don't post spoilers past whatever the spoiler level of the topic.
Advertising and General Rules
In general advertising on Tangent21 is not allowed without the express permission of one of the Admins (email admin@tangent21.com). That includes posting commercial stuff on the boards and linking to unrelated sites - if in doubt, just ask a staff member, we're not trying to impose unnecessary rules, just to keep the board uncluttered and not allow it to become a commercial venue.
The Staff
The site hosts are here to serve the coffee and clean the floors, but we like to skive off and join in the discussions whenever the managers aren't looking. If you want to get an idea of what the Hosts do, you can read the Hosts Guide that they follow.
