Question 5 - What are we not allowed to do on this forum?

[SomeProfile]

What are the rules of playing on this forum? What are we not allowed to do? Can we post NSFW pictures? Can we get drunk and abuse fellow posters and their family members? Can we create alternate handles like QB Randi and Propa Fucks Tracy for the sole purpose of stalking and trolling? Can someone post personal details (confirmed or not) about fellow posters such as links to websites that have their personal info? Recently someone posted a web page on Sulekha claiming that it has QB's photo. Other people seem to have posted identifiable information (true or not) about Luke Warmus. Is that allowed?

What is allowed and what is not allowed? What happens when someone does something that is not allowed? How will we know what is allowed and what is not allowed?

PS: I don't like the fact that I am even having to ask this question. It automatically implies restricted freedom.

[SomeProfile]

Just like I did for questions 1 to 4, I will give comparative answers to these questions also w.r.t. the other forum - Reddit Coffeehouse ( http://www.reddit.com/r/Coffeehouse/ ).

You can post whatever text-based stuff you want on that forum. The site does not allow you to post pictures on the forum itself, but you can post links to photos. You can create troll handles, stalk people, abuse, do whatever the fuck you want. I will let you guys police yourselves.

Note that there are voting buttons on that forum and if other people don't like what you are doing they might vote down your comment or submission. When enough people vote down, your comment or submission will be hidden with a label. People can still click on the label to view your post.

I don't want to impose any restrictions as moderator of that forum. In fact, I am checking to see if there is a way for me to resign as moderator and for the forum to exist moderator-free.

[charvaka]

You can post whatever text-based stuff you want on that forum. The site does not allow you to post pictures on the forum itself, but you can post links to photos. You can create troll handles, stalk people, abuse, do whatever the fuck you want. I will let you guys police yourselves.

Same here. And you don't have to wait 10 minutes each time you post, or one hour for each thread like you need to at reddit.

Note that there are voting buttons on that forum and if other people don't like what you are doing they might vote down your comment or submission.

We have those buttons here as well.

I don't want to impose any restrictions as moderator of that forum. In fact, I am checking to see if there is a way for me to resign as moderator and for the forum to exist moderator-free.

I don't want to either.

[MaxEntropy_Man]

i for one was appalled at the posting of verified or unverified personal information about specific posters on sulekha CH. i know the way you have set it up on both forums right now, one can still do that, but this is a question that we as a community should consider more carefully IMO. retribution for being insulted should not and cannot be outing of personal information.

[charvaka]

i for one was appalled at the posting of verified or unverified personal information about specific posters on sulekha CH. i know the way you have set it up on both forums right now, one can still do that, but this is a question that we as a community should consider more carefully IMO. retribution for being insulted should not and cannot be outing of personal information.

Well, we should have a discussion about this. My position is based on reluctance to get into subtle distinctions between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior. A lot of time and energy can be sucked into discussions about where the line between the two is. Is it kosher to refer to another poster by a name that you attribute to them? Is it kosher to refer to posters' family members by names that you attribute to them? And so on and so forth. I have no interest in those discussions, and I am inclined towards free speech. I am open to a rule that says hide all content that gets voted down a lot (like reddit does.) That should disincentivize bad behavior.

[Another Brick]

i for one was appalled at the posting of verified or unverified personal information about specific posters on sulekha CH. i know the way you have set it up on both forums right now, one can still do that, but this is a question that we as a community should consider more carefully IMO. retribution for being insulted should not and cannot be outing of personal information.

grey. very very grey. no definitive answers for those questions.

all i know is this - if someone calls some other poster duttarajulu seetharamayya from guntur, "duttarajulu" is likely to retaliate by calling the OP "koikodathil thomas from arlington, tx." the OP should not whine like a baby in this case and should absolutely refrain from making himself look like a fool by threatening to go to the court of law.

[SomeProfile]

Can we post NSFW pictures? Can we get drunk and abuse fellow posters and their family members? Can we create alternate handles like QB Randi and Propa Fucks Tracy for the sole purpose of stalking and trolling? Can someone post personal details (confirmed or not) about fellow posters such as links to websites that have their personal info? Recently someone posted a web page on Sulekha claiming that it has QB's photo. Other people seem to have posted identifiable information (true or not) about Luke Warmus. Is that allowed?

What is allowed and what is not allowed? What happens when someone does something that is not allowed? How will we know what is allowed and what is not allowed?

PS: I don't like the fact that I am even having to ask this question. It automatically implies restricted freedom.

I am still not sure all the questions I asked in the post above have been clearly and explicitly answered. What will happen if TS comes here and gets drunk every other day and starts abusing Tracy? What will happen if he start abusing the female relatives of other forum members? What happens if QB Randi and Propa Fucks Tracy handles show up here to start trolling?

[Guest]

I am still not sure all the questions I asked in the post above have been clearly and explicitly answered. What will happen if TS comes here and gets drunk every other day and starts abusing Tracy? What will happen if he start abusing the female relatives of other forum members? What happens if QB Randi and Propa Fucks Tracy handles show up here to start trolling?

good questions. speaking for myself, i would like to see this forum unmoderated (as it has been till now). sure there has to be an admin to tweak the buttons to keep this place running but the moderator's function should be confined to just that. but, in time, i can sense that we do need guidelines (of unacceptable behaviour, like nsfw images, that might invite summary action). i think we have to deal with these issues by polls as we face them in time. later, we might have to install a moderator here too (eek!) to enforce what's been decided. BUT, stalking, creating multiple ids, abusing and trolling are definitely not examples of offensive behaviour. we have to function like the old ch: which means that we also have to keep booting random handles without any rhyme or reason from time to time.

p.s. question for admin: if you block/ban a person, can you also delete all the posts of that person from the archives?

[charvaka]

I am still not sure all the questions I asked in the post above have been clearly and explicitly answered.

We need to figure out the answers to some of these questions as we go along. The assumption that I would encourage in all this is that I have neither the interest nor the time to actively moderate the forum. So we have the features that I listed here: https://such.forumotion.com/t144-what-to-do-if-you-see-any-nsfw-content-here

Having said that, my answers based on my natural inclinations:

What will happen if TS comes here and gets drunk every other day and
starts abusing Tracy?

If Tracy doesn't want to see those abuses, she can make him a "foe" and ignore his posts. Others who object to his posts can do the same.

What will happen if he start abusing the female
relatives of other forum members?

Same as above.

What happens if QB Randi and Propa
Fucks Tracy handles show up here to start trolling?

Same as above.

[SomeProfile]

I like all the answers. Even if admin has a lot of time and is here 24X7, they should still not interfere in freedom of expression. The only exception to this is personally identifiable information like full name, social security number, address, telephone number, etc. I am still on the fence about that.

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