Introduction: This primer is unique in that you probably shouldn't be reading it. Close your browser, don't ever send your fucking kids, and pretend this entire business doesn't exist. You don't want to be involved in this. If your kids are psycho, call a local shrink (and go to therapy with them), and if they're breaking the law, call the cops. If, on the other hand, you're a former victim (or a teenager realizing what's about to happen to you- a very rare breed indeed) you should be able to quickly figure out what our various agendas are, where to post, and who to send private messages to if need be. That brings us to our first lesson...
1. Everyone has an agenda. To be precise, there are practically no regular, recognizable main-forum posters without agendas. There might be a few occasional posters without them, but they don't show up often and are of little consequence. There are also plenty of people who read, but don't post on, Fornits who have an agenda or two, involved in various organizations with their own agendas. I've got about five at the moment.
What did you expect? It's a fundamentally unmoderated forum about organized child abuse. You'd have to be a sick bastard to come here just for fun, but even the sick bastards here have agendas.
Some of the agendas here are altruistic, some are financial, some are insane, and some are completely insane and deeply disturbing. Figuring out which is which could be an unpleasant process, particularly if there's something on the line (large amounts of money, your self-respect, your kids...)
The program, whatever it is, has an agenda; do you think they make money without one? Remember, a car salesman's agenda is to sell cars and probably wouldn't want you walking off the lot without one. Do you think a realtor really wants you ending up in a house where he doesn't get a cut?
And, let's face it: unless you're just here out of sheer morbid curiosity, you probably have an agenda too.
2. With lesson 1 in mind, remember that arguing posters on Fornits have a dual goal: to drive each other out of the argument and cause you to believe as they do- whoever you are. Nobody is going to let their foes get the upper hand and so they will continue this practice more or less indefinitely, accusing their opponents of having agendas and being disingenuous. (Why do you think programs like the word 'manipulation' so much?) A common practice is attempting to align their words to what they think you want to believe; if you want to believe anything, you shouldn't be here and you definitely shouldn't be involved in this.
3. With lessons 1 and 2 in mind, verify absolutely everything you read or hear from anyone. If it can't be corroborated from an unrelated source, it's probably bullshit. Various people with agendas (remember, that's everyone) like to pretend to have unrelated sources backing them up. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Treat it like a government investigation. You might hear a lot of claims and see a few pictures. Where did they come from, who put them there, and why? Modern browsers have a search-engine taskbar. Make use of it.
Various posters with various agendas will be by shortly to make various claims about this post.