Civility subsection suggestion

[vulcanlogician]

Maybe I'm being overly charitable, but I feel people here are generally good about following the rules. If someone wants to shit post, they have the entire rest of the forum to do so. I can't fathom why any person would have such a hard time with this.

I don't browse specific forum sub-sections. Ever. I use the new posts button pretty much exclusively so all I see is a list of threads and I don't bother (nor would I want to have to bother) to pay attention to which sub forum a particular thread happens to be in. It has nothing to do with not wanting to follow the rules, I've got no problem with that. Its that you will have people who genuinely aren't aware of what sub forum they're posting in. 

And besides that, I'd be a bit concerned about a sub forum with rules that are so subjective. No offensive posts? Who gets to define what qualifies as offensive? Who gets to define what is considered an insult?

I think homosexuals are choosing to be homosexuals and I think those who support homosexuals are ruining this county. That is a valid opinion and contains no four letter words nor name calling. But I find it pretty offensive and insulting. And I sure I could find statements that I personally do not consider to be offensive or insulting but which others would be upset by.

I get the idea and I understand why it seems appealing. But ultimately you're just going to end up including people of one opinion of what's offensive and excluding those with valid but differing opinions.

I think you made some valid points here, but others I challenge.

You're so right about using the "new posts" button. I often browse the forums this way, and seldom do I check where I'm posting. Unless there is some way to signify that you are posting to the subforum, a lot of people are going to break the rules accidentally. Is there a way to resolve this? Because there would almost have to be.

"I think homosexuals are choosing to be homosexuals and I think those who support homosexuals are ruining this county." Would have to be allowable in any part of the forums as far as I'm concerned... as well as a possible response to it: "I think that is a bigoted position that is born from ignorance." Both of these must be allowed anywhere on the forum. "Fuck you, you homophobic dickwad," would be an example of something disallowed in the civility section, as well as any slurs or inflammatory remarks from the theists about homosexuals.

I see what you mean though about it being a sticky issue. As I said before, I like the sentiment, but it could turn out to be problematic. One solution could be to go ahead and create the subforum on a trial basis, completely enforced by self policing with occasional reminders from mods... but no real consequences for breaking the subforum rules. After all, the introduction threads are handled in that way, and things seem to work there.

Anyway, I like the idea for what it's trying to achieve, but I do have some reservations.