Hi Wilhelm,
Welcome to the site. Have a read through the stuff in Susan's Announcements. Lots of basic rules are covered that we want members to follow. The site is moderated by Mods, they have the blue squares next to their names. If some one breaks the rules they can be penalised or warned. At a low level they are watched, which means Mods will pay attention to those posts to make sure they are OK. At a higher level they are 'moderated' which means their post will not be accepted until they have been cleared by a Mod. At a higher level again they can be banned for a period of time. In cases when people have been very rude or attacked policy consistently, or try and post nasty stuff the person can be banned permanently.
Mods are there to protect people at Susan's and if you ever receive a post that you are unhappy with report it to a Mod, rather than responding to it in an angry manner because then you will be held as guilty as the original poster.
The 0+/0- system comes with the software that Susan uses for her site. You can award a person a plus if you like their post or smite them if you do not. I would be careful using smites as they are reviewed and if someone is smiting for no good reason they will awarded those smites themselves. A number of people dislike the feature and there is no reason to use it at all if you do not wish to do so. Also in the rules ToS Terms of service, is the condition that you NEVER retaliate to a Mod or any staff in public, if you disagree in how you have been treated or seek clarification report it to the mods or to Susan herself or the Forum Administrator (FA). They are quite neutral and will review the situation and respond severely to a Mod who has stepped out of line. Susan expects her staff to perform at a very high level of responsibility and are held accountable for their actions.
So read the rules which do explain it all including when you can modify your profile and add an avatar etc.
Hugs
Cindy
