OK, I'm going to discuss briefly my view on the changes to the rules, and that should dovetail more or less with a discussion about the purpose of this forum. Note that on the rules I think what I'm going to say is close enough to a consensus position between all of the mods, after our discussion, but what I say about my view of the forum is probably a little more idiosyncratic.
So, the biggest change to the rules, in my view, is the replacement of the language about political correctness and vulnerable groups. The old language was this:
Quote:
2. The forum will have a PC bias. This isn't censorship of ideas. It means posters making an effort to avoid offence to vulnerable groups. Some very extreme topics won't be allowed but in general if there's some political merit to the topic then it's welcome in this forum. What is or isn't PC will change with time - discussion about it will be welcome.
The new language:
Quote:
2. The forum welcomes discussion of a wide variety of topics (current events, political issues, societal issues, philosophical issues, etc.). However, posts espousing the following viewpoints are not allowed in this forum:- white supremacy
- homophobia
- pro-pedophilia
- misogyny
- racism
- bigotry towards minorities or religious groups
- islamophobia
- anti-semitism
- hate speech
This list is intended to be merely an elaboration of the pertinent
site-wide rule:
Quote:
In addition, you hereby agree not to use Your Content or the Service in any other matter to:
1. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
This isn't necessarily a
large change, in terms of what you can expect from the modding, but it's one I argued in favor of for a couple of reasons
1) I think the language about "PC" unnecessarily poisons the well in what it signals to conservative posters about the kinds of topics that may be discussed here. The term "PC" is both too contested and too vague.
2) I think that the term "non-PC" trivializes just what is problematic about the kind of objectionable content that shouldn't be allowed under the site-wide rules.
Now, obviously there are many points of view about just what constitutes "racism", or "misogyny", or "Islamaphobia", and what doesn't. I assume my personal biases are well known. The intent, however, is to find some reasonable standard of judgement on what is and is not acceptable content that will allow posters to present views on contentious topics involving race, gender, immigration, terrorism and Islam (and etc.) from across the broad swath of mainstream political opinion. That is, the intent is not to enforce my personal moral judgement, or that of chezlaw or whosnext.
But, there are limits which apply not just in this forum but for the entire site, and those limits will be enforced. I used the phrase "broad swath of mainstream political opinion", and I hope that will be useful as a guide as to what the acceptable bounds will be. If I were going to add one other word of advice, it's that the list quoted above, as an elaboration on the site rules, has a common theme: you should try to avoid making dehumanizing generalizations about large groups of people. Not just members of "vulnerable groups", as before, but any groups.
I think obviously one of the consequences of allowing controversial viewpoints to a larger extent than P is that arguments are going to be more heated, and that's probably natural. People are going to tell you what they think of your views. I don't think the moderation in this regard is going to change very much, but I would suggest that the goal of moderation is to keep some semblance of order, and on-topic posting. There is some leeway to tell other posters exactly what you think about their views (again within the site-rules which forbid abuse, harassment, and threats...), but if threads devolve into content-less sniping between a couple of posters you can still expect to be moderated.