(November 19, 2018 at 9:39 pm)Shell B Wrote: In light of recent events, the staff would like to open up some discussion on balancing free speech with an at least somewhat welcoming environment that's conducive to on-topic discussion. We would like to take suggestions from the forum on how we can promote an attitude to that end without inhibiting our ability to share our opinions and criticize each other's world views. This is where you can share those suggestions.
It is a bit like what you said in another thread:
Bring the forum back to be a welcoming place and allow the more harsh comments only in R'lyeh, as it was always intended to be, but seems to have been lost along the way.
I know we are all for free speech and let others develop their thick skin, but I've always felt that the spirit of this forum was one of inclusion and respect. Let the nastier aspects thrive only in R'lyeh.
To me, harsh comments are not necessarily coincident with foul language.
Comments like "that's bullshit" should be allowed across the board, as they pertain to the content of whatever the previous person posted.
Comments like "you're a dumbass" should only be allowed in R'lyeh, as they pertain to another poster and tend to breed animosity between people, but that's the sort of thing that section was made for. For the thick skinned ones.
I admit that it's sometimes difficult to discern between these two and that's when the warning system may come into effect. Provide a warning to the person posting dubious content that may be interpreted as personal insults. Warnings here have a time duration of a few weeks. Perhaps Tibs can increase that to 3 months or so and, with that, it gets easy to see who keeps pushing the limits, or who just skirts them occasionally. Each warning of this sort increases the level by 25%, when it reaches 100%, the 4th offense in 3 months, a temp ban may ensue... a 3 month ban? Or simply a ban from most of the forum except R'lyeh, if that's not increasing the admin workload significantly?
Also, if someone reaches 75% in their warning level, perhaps it would be helpful to mention that in the staff log - maybe the public eye will help keep that person more in self-check and avoid it reaching 100%... Of course, there will be those who take offense to this and will immediately do their best to reach that 100% mark, as if it's some sort of derp medal, but, as inclusive as I like this place to be, are these the kind of members the forum wishes to have around?
And, just like we have R'lyeh for the thick skinned, we can have a foul language free section where, instead of saying "that's bullshit", we'd have to say something like "that does not make sense". The intro section is already a bit like this, so it could be a sub-section called "Discussion Starter" within the intros for the thin skinned ones, or just for those who don't like foul language.
