I haven’t talked to my co-bloggers about this, but I’m taking this opportunity to repost the posting rules. If I say something out of line, I’m sure they will set me straight. In other words, to quote the Vigilantes of Love, "I could be wrong, I could be wrong, but I really don’t think so."
We have had about four examples of threads which have degenerated into hellish examples of ugliness while us regular posters have been on vacation.
Quit it.
I will be the very first to admit that I have, on occasion, responded inappropriately to people. I’m not as good at setting the tone as Moe was. But people… please try to respond to ideas. Please try to explain ideas. Please try to come up with ideas. Please try to think things through. Please respond to people who disagree with you without becoming monsters. I think we have an excellent site here, and it is one of the few places where people have been able to come from different sides to talk about lots of different things. The blogosphere doesn’t need dKos III, FreeRepublic IV, LGF V, or heaven help us WashingtonMonthly II.
So I’m reposting the posting rules. But as we know from the discussion of law around here, the letter of the law doesn’t always cut it. Fortunately we are all adults here, (or if you aren’t we are going to give you the courtesy of treating you as one) so think about the spirit of the rules–pointed discusssion without vilification. So without further discussion, the posting rules…
Be reasonably civil.
No profanity. For the record, ‘hell’, ‘damn’ and ‘pissed’ are not considered ‘profanity’ for the purposes of this rule; also for the record, the more offensive racial slurs and epithets will be deemed to ‘profanity’ for the purposes of this rule
Don’t disrupt or destroy meaningful conversation for its own sake.
Do not consistently abuse or vilify other posters for its own sake.
Like Tac, we don’t ban for ideological reasons (unless you’re a Nazi or something equally vile) and/or simple disagreements (never mind that it’s not the easiest thing in the world to find someone who can manage to disagree with Katherine, von and me on the same topic). We’re all adults here, so I’m sure that this should be sufficient – with one caveat: there are a couple of notable trolls out there who will be banned the moment that they show up. As of 1:18 PM EST, Sunday, November 30, 2003, they haven’t, so if you’ve made a post here before then I’m not talking about you.
Lastly, just a reminder that Left and Right have very broad definitions and that people are going to take it personally if you inform them that of course all Xs eat babies, should they themselves be Xs (or Ys trying to keep things cool).
UPDATE (05/19/2004): As you may have noticed, we delete and ban spambots on sight. This is because comments sections are for original and/or interesting thoughts, not mass postings. Therefore, please note that if I come across a overly-long comment that is obviously a cut n’paste job, out it goes, no apologies, no regrets. Small cut n’pastes are fine; entire articles are not: when in doubt, it’s too long. Mind, if you have seen or made a comment elsewhere that would be perfect for a particular thread, you are more than welcome to link to it; just don’t give us the entire thing. We don’t have unlimited storage space.
ANOTHER UPDATE (10/24/2004): Calls for the assassination of any politician will be subject to immediate banning. An exception is made for legitimate military targets in time of war; due to the unique nature of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, members of the Palestinian Authority are to be considered ‘politicians’ for the purpose of this rule.
The above should be explicitly not read as being a prohibition on (but is not limited to) criticism, vituperation, espousal of conspiracy theories, disagreement, speculation on personal habits and/or motivations, expressions of contempt, unfavorable extrapolations of past behavior in order to guess future behavior, mild cursing or any other traditional method of expressing disapproval with a politician’s policy positions or personality, provided of course that such behavior does not violate another of the Posting Rules.
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