There are oodles of weather discussion boards, and lots of climate blogs, and some people like Facebook and Twitter. However there aren't too many options for people who aren't bloggers but who occasionally want to write something about climate change when they think of it.

HotWhopper Chat was conceived as a place where people with a common interest in climate change can develop a real sense of community - a climate community, that they can own (not someone else). A place where everyone can feel welcome, from scientist to complete climate newbie.

If you want to become familiar with how the HotWhopper Chat forum works, look at this introductory video. It shows you how to navigate the board, how to register and sign in so you can join the discussion, and some of the basic features of the forum.

There are a number of features not described in the introductory video. For example, you can:

• add images and files to your comments in the chat forum
• edit your comment for up to an hour after you post it
• bookmark discussions so you can come back to them later
• send a private message to another forum member, and receive them
• flag comments that you want a moderator to look at. You'll need to say why you've flagged it. It could be that you'd like it promoted as a “sticky” (it's a great comment), or because you think it doesn't comply with the Terms of Service (it's an inappropriate comment).

If there's a feature you'd like to see, post a suggestion in the Suggestions and Feedback forum.

1. Play nice.
2. You can flag a comment if you think it isn't in accordance with the Terms of Use. A moderator will look at it and make a decision.
3. Avoid writing in ALL CAPS. It is the equivalent of SHOUTING and is generally considered to be rude.
4. Duplicate comments will usually be removed. Avoid writing the same comment in different forums on HotWhopper Chat.
5. Respect the moderators. Their job is to keep the forum safe and harmonious.

When you post a comment, work from the assumption that climate change is real and we are causing global warming. “Climate hoax” conspiracy theories aren't welcome here, except to point out where and why they are wrong. If you believe climate science is a hoax or that mainstream scientists as a group are faking data, then you would be better posting your ideas on one of the climate conspiracy blogs. Defamatory comments will be deleted.

That doesn't mean that questioning of a specific scientific paper isn't permitted. It's encouraged. Bear in mind that if you are challenging well-established theory you'll need to back it up with very solid evidence. Just saying “the data is fudged” isn't evidence. That's conspiratorial thinking and will get you the Tin Foil Hat award. Referring to denier blogs to support your argument won't wash either. Pseudo-science isn't welcome here. Data from reputable sources will win you friends at HotWhopper Chat.

HotWhopper Chat has some policies for your protection and ours. They are:

• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Terms of Use

In addition to HotWhopper Chat, there are two other main areas of HotWhopper:

The HotWhopper website has links to data and some articles and papers. It also has up-to-date charts (mostly) relating to climate, which you are free to use (with attribution, preferably).

There is, of course, the HotWhopper Blog, which has been in operation since December 2012. The main focus of the blog is on replacing what is promoted on climate conspiracy websites (denier blogs) with science and facts about climate change.

Material created and owned by HotWhopper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.