[sceptic]

Freedom of speech is a funny old thing.

[han]

The watercooler has never been as interesting as it is now. The moderators are having a hard time trying to make the right decisions but it seems to me that they are doing a good job.

[matmat]

keep it. it gives an outlet to crackpots and keeps them out of the other forums. where's shubi?

[jonottawa]

Spoiler

I think Fred needs to tell EVERYONE to cool it. By singling me out, he's only emboldened those who love sparring with me. I want to play nice, but I'm nobody's doormat.

I think Uday needs to go easy on the trigger finger. A private apology would have been nice. Or just a 'maybe I was a little too quick to delete that post.' Moderators need to behave impartially.

Shortly after Uday's edict, things seem to have calmed down. Now people are bringing up posts I made BEFORE Uday's edict, which is just going to stir everything up again.

Edit: Things seem to have calmed down, so in the interest of keeping them that way, I've hidden the text of this post, which might have been a little too blunt.

[gwnn]

we should close it because without shubi it remained purposeless.

[jonottawa]

gwnn, on Nov 19 2007, 10:45 PM, said:

we should close it because without shubi it remained purposeless.

Shubi from Ottawa Shubi? How do you know Shubi?

Edit: Shubi's a great guy. I didn't know he posted here (though I see him on BBO all the time.)

[luke warm]

jonottawa, on Nov 19 2007, 05:32 PM, said:

I think Fred needs to tell EVERYONE to cool it. By singling me out, he's only emboldened those who love sparring with me. I want to play nice, but I'm nobody's doormat.

I think Uday needs to go easy on the trigger finger. A private apology would have been nice. Or just a 'maybe I was a little too quick to delete that post.' Moderators need to behave impartially.

Shortly after Uday's edict, things seem to have calmed down. Now people are bringing up posts I made BEFORE Uday's edict, which is just going to stir everything up again.

i think anyone who is attempting to argue a point and resorts to name-calling needs to be called out... politeness doesn't mean one is a doormat... i've been the subject of ad hominem attacks and have tried not to reply in kind... i don't *feel* like a doormat when that happens

as for uday (and ben, since he's been known to jump in given sufficient reason), i think he's mainly concerned with the ToS more than anything else, and allows us wayyy more leeway in the water cooler than on the main board

[jonottawa]

Spoiler

I don't think arguing over who behaved worse is going to get us anywhere. I could cite 3 examples for every example you gave of something I did or said. I think the point that Uday was trying to make is that we all need to try to be a little more polite. To me, that would include not bringing up posts made before Uday's edict that hurt our feelings or whatever. It would also include not deleting posts and threads willy-nilly or 'casually.'

I feel like a cat on a fence teasing a bunch of dogs that are barking and howling at its every twitch and flicker.

That's caused a substantial commotion. So I've said, fine, no more.

But yeah, if I'm attacked, I'm going to continue to defend myself.

Edit:

I think they give a lot of leeway everywhere, depending on who you are.

For instance, I challenge anyone to find a post I've made that's more derogatory, insulting, or out of line than this:

"Foo you are a stubborn novice who thinks he is an expert. There is nothing worse. You do not belong here. Go play on the short bus."

And that's from the main board.

Here's a link if you're too old (it's a relatively new insult) to know what the short bus is

http://www.urbandict...?term=short+bus

Edit: Things seem to have calmed down, so in the interest of keeping them that way, I've hidden the text of this post, which might have been a little too blunt.

[mrdct]

I don't think I fully understand the last voting option:

"keep it open and ban free speechLets leave it as it is because some people like the sound of thier own typing"

Was that intended to be two separate options?

I'd virtually never looked at anything at the Water Cooler prior to the "Shanghai Incident", but since coming down here I've found quite a few interesting discussions that have been fun to be a part of.

I'd like the Water Cooler to stay, but people always need to be polite and the BBO Censorship Committee needs to retain its right as the owner of the forum to moderate things as they see appropriate (albeit with such practices being a fair discussion topic in this area of the forums).

[Gerben42]

Quote

Edit: Shubi's a great guy. I didn't know he posted here (though I see him on BBO all the time.)

Thanks for this useful information.

[Dwingo]

For the sake of all the Shubi fans, please don't close the Watercooler.

[sceptic]

looks like nearly everyone enjoys the water cooler, I was hoping the lets clean up our act would be favorite, but 2nd means choice means that we are aware there is a small issue that needs addressing

Quote

Was that intended to be two separate options?

Yes, as usual I do not check what I type before I submit it

[TimG]

How about two water coolers: one moderated and one anything goes? I wonder which would be more frequented.

[keylime]

I think the Water Cooler functions the way it's supposed to, and to discard it would reduce the color and vibrancy that the BBO community exude.

Let me offer one example. If you did a search on posts you'll quickly realize that Richard (hrothgar) and I are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Thusly there's times where we've been sharp and pointed towards one another, but I firmly believe that beneath the passionate arguments there is a (hopefully) mutual respect that even tho there is disagreement, that the disposition of our views have only served to make us look at our belief structures. It is that self-examination that better us as humans, without our dreaded humanity interfering with the process.

At times I do think that there are some unneeded barbs tossed at people, but it is not to the extend where it would be deemed "par for the course".

[jonottawa]

The kerfuffle that prompted the creation of this thread SEEMS to have disappeared. It's eerily quiet around here. Of course, depending on what happens in SF, things might well explode again.

I didn't vote. None of the options really captured it for me.

If I were a moderator in a free (in the monetary sense) forum, I wouldn't look too favorably on people who:

1. Argue with people, throw mud, get mud thrown back, and then run crying to me.
2. Follow another poster from thread to thread doing 1.
3. Witness such an argument, and run crying to me because they harbor animosity towards one of the participants in the argument.
4. See unpopular views expressed in a 'free-ish speech' forum and then run crying to me.
5. Wake up, roll out of bed, look in the mirror, and then run crying to me.

On the other hand, I'd probably get sick of fielding complaints about the same poster over and over again, even if I knew that aside from being deliberately provocative on occasion, the guy's behavior was well within established community norms. So I might privately ask him to cool it.

[Al_U_Card]

Dwingo, on Nov 20 2007, 03:14 AM, said:

For the sake of all the Shubi fans, please don't close the Watercooler.

For the sake of all the people who aren't Shubi fans, please don't close the Water Cooler.