Holding up the standard of this forum

So far, this forum has been my favorite, having been born from the debauchery of anold forum.

Discussions have been civilized, informative, impartial, and all-inclusive.

I hope we (with help the help of the admin) could maintain it. And I hope we could avoid the same debauchery that may happen to LL Forum if we let our guards down. And I'm not only talking about the unethical aspect of CLL world. Even petty stuffs that happen all the time in old forum and even in YouTube posts: starts with an innocent thread or post, then eventually a troll of political, racial, and religious display of their own wet dream and name-calling.

If we can censor ourselves and practice individual restraint, then nobody has to censor and police this forum!

Yes, I'm one individual who would need to practice self-restraint.

I like to come to this forum to relieve my anger and frustration from all the stress and pressure of daily life.

But it's good that you remind us this. We all want to make this forum welcoming and informative for other people.

Arguing and name calling only makes this forum lose credibility. Now, you know what (not) to do.

I think we should up the ante for these violations. Like warning/suspending for x amount of time, otherwise these nonsense will keep on repeating if no stakes on the line.

Recent events have required some of us to re-evaluate where this forum stands in terms of how moderation is going to be done. When the site was first created, there were some people saying that editing posts that were disruptive would make this forum exactly the same as the old forum. Because it was popular at the time and because it seemed like people could practice some level of courtesy in their posts, Dameon decided that nobody including himself would have a moderator status. However, it appears as if more people want there to be greater moderator activity in making sure posts maintain a certain level of decency. So with that said...

1) How would people like it if the web owner and the mods posted on the board with the 'Moderator' tag visible under the username and reviewed/edited posts that contained inappropriate/offensive comments, etc?

Yes, this would mean that there's some level of censorship in order to ensure this forum remains a credible source of information on CLL. But, this does not mean that there will be editing/censoring of medical information that could compromise a prospective or current CLL patient's well-being, which remains the primary issue of the old forum.

Anyone who starts personal arguments that involve name calling & insults,  will be told by other members to take it to PM right away, as in immediately.    If that person ignores it, a short term ban should apply.     

Quote from: Kilokahn on March 14, 2014, 12:43:51 AM1) How would people like it if the web owner and the mods posted on the board with the 'Moderator' tag visible under the username and reviewed/edited posts that contained inappropriate/offensive comments, etc?

Yes, this would mean that there's some level of censorship in order to ensure this forum remains a credible source of information on CLL. But, this does not mean that there will be editing/censoring of medical information that could compromise a prospective or current CLL patient's well-being, which remains the primary issue of the old forum.

What is deemed as inappropriate/offensive comment? What is appears to be offensive to one person may seemingly to be appropriate for another person. I think people should be able to say whatever they want to say without having their thoughts and feelings be compromised/edited.

I don't feel comfortable with any level of censorship. It feels like big brother is constantly monitoring what I have to say. If someone chooses to use indecent language, that should be a reflection on that individual's lack of class and poor character. But I usually want to read a post as how the original author intended it to be without any compromises.

However, if there is a cat's fight that involves spamming the forum with irrelevant posts and making use of such indecent words as "pussy," "tampon," and other sexually explicit words, then I think the moderator should delete those posts and the argument should be strictly by PM.

I could understand the emotional anger that was erupted when someone chose to downplay Apoth/Sysop treacherous scheme. If you never got fuked over by someone, then you obviously have no emotional resentment toward that individual. And if you choose to defend that individual, then you have to accept the consequence of being spew with other people indignation.

Update:  I believe that members taking their personal differences to PM is the best solution for everyone and keep the forum clean for LL related discussions. 

Heated discussion that are not related to LL will be removed and the members reminded to use PM to discuss between themselves, not cluttering up the forum.

Quote from: mediocre on February 22, 2014, 02:21:32 AMDiscussions have been civilized, informative, impartial, and all-inclusive. I hope we (with help the help of the admin) could maintain it
If we can censor ourselves and practice individual restraint, then nobody has to censor and police this forum!

I agree about restraint,  keeping things civilized while still making your point. 
 
Self Censorship is a bad idea.  We want freedom of expression and open discussion but with quality and meaning to it.  That's been our direction from day one.   

Quote from: Smallguy on March 14, 2014, 04:07:37 AMWhat is deemed as inappropriate/offensive comment? What is appears to be offensive to one person may seemingly to be appropriate for another person. I think people should be able to say whatever they want to say without having their thoughts and feelings be compromised/edited.

I don't feel comfortable with any level of censorship. It feels like big brother is constantly monitoring what I have to say. If someone chooses to use indecent language, that should be a reflection on that individual's lack of class and poor character. But I usually want to read a post as how the original author intended it to be without any compromises.

I would say the same things that are deemed inappropriate/offensive  in the real world.  Examples are racism, threatening violence. 

In this context we're talking about how members interact with each other,  not how information is shared.

When it comes to LL information, I fully support uncensored and honest opinion.   

When it comes to interaction between members,  people want a supportive and constructive forum.   Therefore harassing other members should not be ignored.  Whatever the opinion is, people shouldn't express it by using insults and harassment on another member..  We have to emphasize this as a common understanding for all.

Recently the moderator decided to to suspend/ban a member for a few weeks because of ongoing harassing & disrespectful comments on another person's loss.  Those comments were unacceptable in any setting. 

We always draw the line by treating the forum in a real world setting, allowing people to use common sense when interacting with others.  This has worked well for the most part and most members here are friendly and open minded people here to share information in a  meaningful and intelligent way.

There is a very small percentage of people that occasionally violated this common understanding of how members should interact in a civil manner.

Quote from: Smallguy on March 14, 2014, 04:07:37 AM However, if there is a cat's fight that involves spamming the forum with irrelevant posts and making use of such indecent words as "pussy," "tampon," and other sexually explicit words, then I think the moderator should delete those posts and the argument should be strictly by PM.

This is the exact scenario we are talking about in this thread.  It doesn't help to clutter up threads with irrelevant posts of insults or name calling between members.   

We will probably need to be less lenient toward such behavior and start giving warnings & bans more actively.
   
There might be better ways to improve the moderation or it is fine the way it is.  Let's share those feedback here.   

How about giving control to the creator of a thread?

This way he/she could manage his own thread as he intended to be.  If someone is disrupting, impolite or offensive he could remove his posts and boot/ban him but only from his own thread.
It's his/her thread after all and sometimes after a hard day at work, you just don't want to deal with some lunatics.

I have nothing against a good debate but when I see an insignificant individual, freely spitting venom and insulting people on all threads without consequences, it just makes me want to leave this forum.  I am not the only one and I'm sure that a lot of lurkers don't become members when they see the name calling, insults and so on.  Especially women, who don't like aggressivity.

Besides that, life is beautiful!  Keep up the good work, tx!

its called a little bit of venting, and reasoning with other human beings we are not robots dude, you are gonna have resistance no matter what you do in all fields of life.

Diary>proportions>celebrities height & acceptable limit>BS topics when waiting for the others to get updated. Thats me.