So long but not Goodbye

[cariad]

I'd hate for you guys and others to be banned.

We are very very reluctant to ban anyone. If you ignore bans due to legal reasons or spamming, a quick count showed only 5 people have been banned in the last 12 months for behaviour within forums. But we do not allow flaming. I hope the following quote helps.

This forum is not here for flaming. This means that insults against a poster or his views won't be tolerated at all. You can debate a view all you want, but a direct insult may result in a forum banning. An example of the difference follows:

Example: "Catholics suck!" Is not appropriate at any time. "I think what the Catholics believe about ______ is wrong because of _____" Is appropriate.

Civil discussion is expected. Remember that these are people you are dealing with and not just words on a screen. If the best you have to offer is swearing or slander than move on to a new topic.

There are a lot of grey areas. ID has referred to a post of his talking about the end of a relationship. Even though the person was not mentioned by the name, the context and positioning of the post made it obvious about whom he was speaking. I decided that post constituted flaming since although some of the things which he said were simple fact, I considered that some could be seen as opinion or interpretation; additionally the person is no longer a member here, so was not in a position to defend her character.

I make no apology for including 'I decided' and 'I considered' in the last sentence. I did so, and have made a decision about this thread, because that is it is the role which ultimately the owner of the site has asked me carry out. Because of the grey areas within such things decisions exist, I have invited ID to ask Rabbit1 to review my decision. Although flaming can result in an instant ban given the unique circumstances of the situation I did not consider it to be appropriate.

Occasionally when a member wishes to post something which they fear might be considered a flame, they run it past myself or one of the other admins for an opinion before they stick their neck out on it. Although we don't ask or expect this, we are very willing to help in this way.

NK, does that help clarify the situation, or just stir up the cloudy waters?

cariad