General Announcement from the new Owners / New Forum Ruleset

[Lorizael]

Devil's Advocate, Lori:

This is a very geeky bulletin board for a very, very geeky computer game. There aren't going to be a lot of racial minorities posting here, relative to the general population. So a comment like "Blacks are incapable of monogamy" would be unlikely to personally hurt other posters. Would such a post be allowed? You seem to be saying yes, it would be. By that logic, I can't see any reason why "Gays are incapable of monogamy" would be allowed, as we do have many homosexual members.

Intentional hurt is the key here. I really don't care if people happen to get hurt because they choose to listen to offensive things. I only care if one poster intends to hurt another poster with what they say here.

Also, did you just say that black people are dumb?

[notyoueither]

How do you know what they intended?

[Lorizael]

It's subjective, of course. Moderation depends on judgment. And I'm sure there will be disagreements as we move forward. In the end, everyone should remember that this is just the internet.

[MikeH]

For me "hate speech" that required moderating in Off Topic would be something a bit stronger than Ben's normal level of homophobia. He treads a fine line though and I do understand how offensive he can be especially to our gay posters. Most Off Topic posters are so good at defending themselves and pointing that out that their rebuttals are probably more valuable than deleting his posts.

[Asher]

Delete his posts, ban him. He serves no purpose other than being a hateful, bigoted little whack-o-mole.

[Nikolai]

I like the new administration's work so far. Rules are simple and well written, and the stance on various troublesome issues looks well thought out.