Well we tried it without moderation but it appears the forum is being used for pointless flame wars by a couple of old rivals. At some point I have to be mindful of the quality of the site and the potential for making other visitors uncomfortable. Monotreme just e-mailed me and said he thought it was enough and issued a warning. I fired my warning shot across the bow a day or two ago. So we’re going to try limited moderation. I will consult with everyone over a suitable set of guidelines but let me be clear; our time is just as valuable as yours to be spending it playing hall monitor. And once again I do not wish to create an echo chamber. I will not play favourites either. I’ve already zapped someone for making uncomplimentary comments about the spouse of a commenter who is probably 180 degrees my alter-Universe equivelent. So my suggestion for now is that you treat people on here like you would in public. Anyone who wants to disagree with our stated liberal views is welcome to do so but we will start sending the attacks, egrigious profanity, and any threats off into the aether.
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— Paul Krugman on Paul RyanActions
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Thanks Mr. Universe, Personally I don’t care if one curses, its when they start threatening that I become alarmed. We aren’t in middle school and as you point out you are not a hall monitor. For the most part 99% of commentators are civil, despite their politcal philosophy. And in the two years that I have been at 538 it seems to be only one commentator who’s becomes unglued.
aether?Your classical education is showing
PS… I think group moderation is best. If enough people flag a message as “offensive” it automatically gets dumped.Removes the onus from one person, and the room doesn’t require constant babysitting.
Yes, I spell some words with the British flare as well. Colour, theatre, etc. My only guess was reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as an impressionable kid sometime. I finally gave up correcting it and told my spellchecker to ignore it. Some things get really ingrained when you’re young.You should see the weird way I hold a pen between my index and bird finger. It was a result of a genetic rash I get where my fingers crack open and bleed. TMI. SorryI like the group moderation as well as long as it can’t be abused. HuffPosters sometimes go on ‘flag as abusive’ sprees and flag eveything.
bird finger?Is that a south’n thang?
Is that a south’n thang?Why yes m’am. It cuhtainly iyuzz. It happens t’be the mannuh in which we suthunner’s salute one anuthuh politick’ly. On oppsit sahdes, of cowuhse.
Oh, THAT bird. (Sorry… it’s the wine
Gotta admire southerners. The only people on the continent who can make “damn” into a three-syllable word….
dah-yum-nWe do it to other words as well.ex:she-ii-uhtThe southern drawl tends to drag sylables out a lot longer. It’s also dialect specific. South Carolinians sound like sissies to the rest of us. Texans have this George W. brevity about it. Georgia accents are the more genteel, speak-through-gritted-teeth variety. People from my home state of Alabama often require an interpreter. Just like real Mainers
(Ayeuh, the lobstah is lookin’ fahn) Hi, Mainer.It’s like Bar-B-Que sauce: each region has its own speciality.
Neither here nor there as I was going thru my saved emails.One of the many mini-dramas at the political forum I used to frequent, Joker’s, which I was banned. Some of you may have looked at Joker’s rules and regulations posted here a couple wks ago and the name Strkaholic appeared as an administrator. She was the conservative who permanently banned me.And not too long after I was banned a liberal buddy, who was also banned by Strk about a year after me, sent me this email sent to her by another liberal who was a Joker’s mod who had inside info:There is something that has been bothering me that I want to correct, since the party involved hasn’t corrected the misinformation. Strkaholic went to Iraq to work for a sub contractor of Halliburton. She worked for a company that was supposed to restore water services to Baghdad and was one of the one’s cited for mishandling of funds. She was paid app. 4 times her normal salary tax free as an incentive. She was not and never has been a member of the US Armed Forces and why she hasn’t corrected this misinformation is beyond me. I’ll also say BJ did not get along with Strk and they never spoke much the last two years, mostly for this reason. Her diatribes on Americans keeping quiet about dissent don’t win any points with me. I don’t want to start a big hooplah on Joker’s, hence my email instead of a PM. I just did not want the misinformation to continue. I also reported that asshole BBVoyeur for his post. He is nothing but a right wing racist jerk.~~~~~The back story being for about (2) years, Strk gave the impression while she was working in Iraq and still posting occasionally in the political forum defending cheney/bush, that she was active duty military. I thought she was in the Reserves and had been called up as many Joker members thought the same and kept thanking her for her service, which is what the email is referring to: She was not and never has been a member of the US Armed Forces and why she hasn’t corrected this misinformation is beyond me.So after I was banned found out I was banned by a total frickin’ asshole! B)Left the BBVoyeur part in because he was like Mule w/out the bad language
as he had many aliases at Joker’s and was a computer expert who used an Anonymizer to change his IP addy for all his different names. He was an over (60) conservative w/wayyy too much time on his hands. He too was eventually banned …The moderator who sent my buddy the email, sent it after she had thanked Strk for her service. And everyone knew Strk was a die hard conservative and liberals were still thankin’ her anyways and then “we” all found out she was a frickin’ liar and a money grubbing (fill in the blank!)Ah the mini soap operas on the net lol where adults come out to play as kids.btw, BBVoyeur was a much better baiter than me, if that’s possible! 
And “our” political debates about cheney/bush’s Iraq War were frickin’ (((epic!))) 
I’m in favor of full (selective) enforcement of private property rights, including moderation and censorship to match one’s home decorating tastes, even (especially) if it entertains the easily amused (me) and annoys the easily annoyed (everyone else). I personally prefer the Yossarian school of censorship, but a MadLibs version of it would be entertaining as well. Either way, it’s too bad the moderator can’t edit within other people’s posts. 2nd best thing would be a curse replacement script that changes “fuck” to “love”, “shit” to “roses”, “I’ll gut you like a fish” to “Do you have any Grey Poupon?”, etc. A creative new curse would warrant a creative new addition to the replacement dictionary.
WA7th..Love your ideas on moderation. In the crisp freshness of early morning, they smell like roses.Do you have any Grey Poupon?
That’d be pretty funny to replace all cuss words with innocuous friperie.
I suggest “I’ll gut you like a fish” should be replaced with “I’ll kiss your whole face.”"Fuck” is difficult to replace with anything as it is the only word that can be used as every part of speech including interjection (though it does require some creativity to use it as a conjunction.)I think it should be replaced with “cheese”.”Asshole” could be downgraded to “sneeze.”I really like the sound of “I’ll kiss your whole face, you cheesing sneeze.”
WA7thWhat a great app that would be. Fun to play with, too.How about replacing “Porkulus” with “Barticle”?
I think we should replace “Porkulus” with Stimulus. Wouldn’t that be neat, if all the Banal Barticles automatically reverted from quasi-obscenities to ordinary speech?Now, that’s censorship I could support!
Oh, no. Leave the Bart words alone. If you replace them, you eliminate a good chunk of what highlights his blind partisan nature.
filistro, there you go, being practical and non-vengeful.You’re right of course (head hanging in shame). Your way is far better. It make the site admin look better, and takes no additional work. Clever, huh?
shrinkers, don’t be hard on yourself.After all, you were just expressing your opinion. And opinions are like cheese, right? Everybody has some in the fridge.
Sorry, sorry… I’m having way too much fun today. After all the scolding I’ve done about the expectations game, suddenly I’M the one having trouble controlling my giddiness. I imagine Bart’s discomfiture when the MASSIVE HISTORIC MONSTER TSUNAMI 90+-SEAT(have I missed any?) wave fails to materialize… and the delicious image of a Bummed Bart just tickles me so MUCH… (memo to self.. 5 more days. Must… retain.. control… 
shrinkers, don’t be hard on yourself.After all, you were just expressing your opinion. And opinions are like cheese, right? Everybody has some in the fridge.
Sorry, sorry… I’m having way too much fun today. After all the scolding I’ve done about the expectations game, suddenly I’M the one having trouble controlling my giddiness. I imagine Bart’s discomfiture when the MASSIVE HISTORIC MONSTER TSUNAMI 90+-SEAT(have I missed any?) wave fails to materialize… and the delicious image of a Bummed Bart just tickles me so MUCH… (memo to self.. 5 more days. Must… retain.. control… 
Double post. Oh, roses!
As much as I don’t appreciate disrespectful or foul posts, I’ll go on record as being against any moderation except outright threats or spam. I feel that we as a group should continue to apply appropriate social pressure to miscreants, who may actually learn to tone down their rhetoric for the sake of having a good conversation. I think it’s appropriate for our moderators to warn or chide when things get offensive, but I’d rather not have things get deleted if we can help it.As much as it pains us, I think we should leave the curses and insults. (OK, I must admit to finding the idea of word-replacement quite amusing!) Leave the cantankerous arguments, too. The way I see it, the uglier the post, the worse it makes my opponent look.
And I’ll take whatever advantage I can get to make sure my side looks like the sane, reasonable, adult side of the argument. So, when someone drops 20+ F-bombs, he automatically concedes the high ground to his opponents in the discussion. It makes anything else he says seem questionable while simultaneously making his opponents seem reasonable and intelligent in comparison. If one wants his points to be taken seriously, then he’ll learn how to say things in a more reasonable fashion.:-)
@mcleverSo, when someone drops 20+ F-bombs, he automatically concedes the high ground to his opponents.~~~~~Actually, said childish malcontent concedes the high ground for the rest of their life … having repeated the same infantile pattern/behavior over the past 2+ years at the same liberal blog notwithstanding!Continually using the ‘F’ bomb became quickly stale/borish after said toddler used it initially in 2008 …solo estoy diciendo
Lolx..:D