I've seen some suggestions for rules around moderation and banning, which I think is a good idea. I think it's important that rules and banning are enforced fairly and evenly, and when no stated rules exist, it can give the impression that it's not being enforced fairly.

I didn't read the Islam thread, but I can imagine based on some of the other threads that things got pretty heated. Can we all please try to be a bit nicer to each other? One of the main reasons women (and many men) don't use forums is they find the personal attacks very intimidating. Even if that attack isn't leveled at me, just reading it makes me not want to post as much. Disagreeing is fine and not sharing the same point of view is fine, but one of the things I like about CEO as opposed to 440 is that I don't need to worry about someone telling me how shit I am every time I post. The problem is that in order for this to work, we need to be self-policing.

The mods can't force us to be respectful of one another, but we can show our appreciation of respectful posters by giving them karma and show our disapproval of disrespectful posters by taking karma away. I know that it can be a bit intimidating to give someone karma demerits, but I think we shouldn't be afraid to use this feature as it's our only way of letting people know that they are crossing a line (and hopefully is a way to avoid needing to ban people). If someone takes karma away from you, instead of getting angry, try and see where they are coming from. And if someone helps you out or argues with you in a respectful way, give them karma. It's a way of rewarding the posters that contribute something positive to the site.

I helped you out with the noisy geese and the neighbor.

You sent no Karma.

You do not practice what you preach. Maybe you should have
read the religion thread. It was mostly about the chasm between the two.

You are great to have on the forum and I welcomed you by PM.

So don't run off like a pouting woman. I'll get banned for running off
"quality" posters.

I give a lot of karma, but I have been doing it sporadically and not making a particular effort to do it regularly. My suggestion is that all of us, myself included, start doing this now to reward people that help us out and to give negative karma to people that are being disrespectful. I'll make more of an effort with it myself in the future, and I'm sorry I didn't give you karma for your goose advice. It was very much appreciated, if that counts for anything.

giblet wrote:The problem is that in order for this to work, we need to be self-policing.

The mods can't force us to be respectful of one another, but we can show our appreciation of respectful posters by giving them karma and show our disapproval of disrespectful posters by taking karma away.

I agree 100 %. Self censorship is needed, can be expected and should become a norm.

Personally, I'd spend some time trying to explain to them why that's an inappropriate use of karma, and then probably hold a grudge against them forever and ignore everything they say for the next four or five years.

I was sent a pm that I got more karma, but didn't actually receive it. A glitch/bug in the software?

HotRecruiter removed all my karma