[Discussion] Conduct and Civility

[Lord Poe]

When I see an obvious troublemaker, or someone using smarmy but polite double-speak to pad an insult, I go full-bore into the attack. I have no patience for anyone's veil of civility, when we know perfectly well what they're getting at.

[Rob Wilson]

Senators have the power to propose new policies, vote on titles and bans, and the like, but they do NOT have the authority to issue warnings to regular members. The power to enforce the board rules is and always has been reserved exclusively for the staff.

I'm hoping I never said anything of the sort. The Senators might spot and report them, but never give out warnings - hence my ruling it out at the start of my post.

I don't like the whole idea of a publically viewable me-too list. Any Senator who sees a member doing what he defines as me-tooing puts that member's name on a "watch list" the entire board can read? If you're going to have a list like that, it should be hidden. It defeats the whole purpose of a "graded warning system" and using the thread to collect evidence of possible me-tooing to broadcast their names over the whole board.

I was thinking it would be in the light of a 'Name and Shame' style of thing, not as a McArthy-ist witchhunt list. So a person could see that they are starting to get into trouble and maybe have the sense to back off before the warnings were necessary.

That was the spirit of the suggestion.

[Rob Wilson]

A graded warning system need not be private, public warnings are just as effective. I think that this it more a case of having a correct procedure before name publication more than anything.

That's the hope. Formalise it and then, if we're going to use it, there are no excuses for the named. A clear track record can be pointed to, the person involved has notice before they ever get warned, and - more importantly - the veracity of the offenses can be monitored (no accusations of being targetted/railroaded because everyone can see just what it was that got them nailed).

[Coyote]

In all this I recognize that there is little or nothing that can be done if people are rude; the only thing that can really be done is to outlaw a specific type of behavior. The "Poking of Newbies" was a ritual that has fallen from favor after it was felt to be too intimdating and/or insulting-- likewise, people have been chastised for pursuing vendettas from contentious threads into other threads...

"Me-too'ers" and spammers are probably going to see more custom titles, I feel, but hopefully now in the Senate people who feel they have a gripe about treatment can petition for a redress. The thing I'm looking at is people who feel like they've been railroaded or hounded because a personality clash might have overshadowed a debate or discussion; or a personality issue came up that gets in the way of serious discourse.

As I've mentioned before, whiners and people who want to be treated with kid gloves because they're just plain out of their league aren't deserving of a free pass...