I think it’s high time that we decide on the moderation rules.
As there will be quite a lot to discuss I am going to try to break into bite sized bits.
How do we want to handle:
NSFW content (has to be marked?)
(allowed as avatar or inline?/allowed as link?/disallowed?)
1a) swear words
1b) racy/suggestive images
1c) nudity
1d) pornography
1e) gore/disturbing or violent images
copyrighted content
2a) copy/paste articles?
2b) allow discussion of pirated content?
2c) allow links to pirated content?
interpersonal conduct
3a) insults
3b) ‘fighting words’
3c) wishing harm (“I wouldn’t mind if you stepped on a lego”/“I hope you stub your toe”/“diagf”/“go kill yourself”)
3d) posting personal information of another user
Would not censor any text. Don’t mind nudity/porn/gore as long as it’s behind spoilers and clearly marked as such. Would definitely not like that kind of stuff out in the open.
I want as much open information as possible, but this seems like more of a legal matter. I’ll just go along with whatever the experts in that arena think is the best policy.
I have no problem with “insults” or “fighting words” personally, though I think something like “go kill yourself” is over the line. The biggest problem with allowing insulting language is that it can lead to an awful hijack/derail of the topic. Doxxing should be grounds for an immediate perma-ban imo.
My 2 cents, but here’s stuff that I think we probably can all agree on:
Nothing that gets the owners into legal trouble: i.e., nothing that violates US copyright, no links to pirate sites, no speech that would not be Constitutionally protected (no incitement to violence, harassment, nothing that’s defamatory in a legal sense, etc.).
Put NSFW (not safe for work) stuff like nudityor really racy pictures in spoilers. It’s gonna be terrible for participation if people think they might get fired for checking 2p2on their lunch break. I think mandatory spoilers is a reasonable compromise.
No “doxxing”: don’t post personally identifiable information (PII) of anyone without permission. Mods should be expected to delete PII on request within reason, but it is your responsibility to keep your personal info safe.
No self-promotion without checking with the owners first.
Don’t tell people to kill themselves, even as a joke.
No hate speech --obviously there’s a long argument to be had about what constitutes hate speech.
If you grab your opponent’s topknot you will loose the match.
Don’t be an obnoxious ass. Again, it’s on the mods to make reasonable judgements about how they define that.
If you’ve found an exciting new way to be a nuisance that isn’t explicitly against the rules, just don’t.
fwiw, I’m probably the most legally exposed in all this and I have a pretty high tolerance for risk. I’d obviously not be OK with blatantly illegal posting, but I’m not going to ask anybody to self-censor over liability paranoia. If it’s acceptable under the law and not offensive per community standards, I think it should be allowed.
The boiler plate rules are fine as a starting point. They are rather vague though and it will make moderation more consistent and easier if we spell it out in more detail.
I’ll add:
1f) offensive words
I assume racial slurs are definitely out. The same for homophobic slurs.
What about other offensive words like retard (libtard, conservatard, etc.), bitch, ■■■■ and similar?
Can I call SHS a bitch? Are sweeping statements about groups allowed (all Dems/Reps are…, Tory bastards, etc.)?
We need to be able to turn avatars off, I don’t like having dancing women gifs in bikinis on the page when I’m at work( if I ever get to be able to browse this site at work).
Any photos or images that are nsfw need to be spoiler’d and clearly marked as nsfw (racy, suggestive, or violent)- hopefully there aren’t many of these). Some spoilers are SFW. No hate speech against groups, and if people don’t want personal attacks then I’m fine with that although I myself don’t mind personal attacks as long as race/religion/sexuality/etc is not included in that.
I’d prefer there be no nudity period, this is political discussion and it makes it easier to get this site to not be filtered by work blocking software, anyone if they want can get it elsewhere.
Article snippets can be posted with links to the article, same as most other sites. Think that’s the policy on most sites and should be the same here. No personal information of other users should be posted, unless it’s publicly available.
Few rules. Conventions by way of generally accepted standards and culture. Lots of people speaking up when someone or something is out of line directly to the person doing it. As little running to and depending on mods as possible.
Racists and bigots can come post here if they keep their words and behavior in check. But there’s no way we’re going to be forced into welcoming them into the community by a set of rules designed to force people to play nice with each other.
This place just isn’t going to be the place for some people. We are not going to accept racism and bigotry as “normal” and if that upsets racists and bigots well that’s too bad.
As eyebooger noted in Lc thread if you post a link discourse tries to create a snippet of text to give a little context. While not perfect it helps when posting links.
That is kinda what I am trying to say. But it is used on this site as “voted for trump”.
I don’t think that’s true. It may be used by people here as a synonym for “supports Trump in 2019”, which I have a tough time disagreeing with.
If you are a Trump voter and have lived through 2+ years of this and still actively support him, I have a tough time thinking that you’re not a deplorable.
The reason Trump supporters will not feel welcome is because they all (as in literally 100%) argue in bad faith.
And we’ve seen it all: The outright lying, the both sides-ing, the “just asking questions”, the stupid conspiracy theories, the whataboutism. Every regular has seen all of these and then some.
If someone wants to come here and argue that maybe a 70% marginal tax rate is too high or suggest a trade policy that’s a little outside the mainstream, there will be a place here for that person.
But the Trump presidency is about kids in cages, white nationalism, denial of science, hypercorruption and much more. There’s no defending this shit, and most here don’t want to hear any more of it.
I certainly don’t want to hear about how those people are just good old fashioned normal people. And then from the same poster get a passive aggressive reference to it in OT. And then a meltdown when called out on it with subsequent attempts now at both sites to control the rules to facilitate that bullshit.
