Nasty piece of work.

It's hardly likely the moderator of this forum would allow it as it is downright discriminatory and full of hatred.

I'm surprised other posters haven't written to the moderator and complained, but maybe there is a white supremacy element in that particular forum.

Hi all --

I'm one of the two owners of Debate & Relate. As the board is being discussed here, I thought I would take this opportunity to comment, and I thank freediver for providing me a platform to do so.

Firstly, any claim that DR doesn't have rules and isn't moderated is false. We have a number of rules, detailed in a thread in the welcome section. Any poster who habitually breaks these rules get shown the door. Permanently.

Glen, your dispute appears to be not with our rules, but with the fact that you want more of them. Specifically, I imply you want us to moderate the debate.

We won't do that.

As board administrators, Boondocker and I draw our line in the sand, and set the rules around that line. It doesn't please all of the people, all of the time. It can't, possibly. Some folks want more moderation; some folks want less. But as the owners of the board, Boondocker and I hold the preserve of drawing that line, and seeing that line is enforced. The board is averaging nearly 150 posts per day, and that number is climbing steadily. We can't please all of the people all of the time, but an active and rapidly growing board would suggest that most people are fairly happy with DR.

Here's our line, Glen. Let me show you where it lies.

The post you quote above of Herbert's contains the following statement:

Quote:


Herbert is allowed to use that word on our board. Yes -- even to an aboriginal poster, as you mentioned.

Where's our 'line in the sand'? Because it does exist.  

Herbert can write the above, but what he CANNOT do, is to write something like this:

Quote:


The difference between the first and the second, is that the second is a personal attack, using race as a denigrating descriptor. That would not be tolerated. In that case, Herbert would cop a warning, and then a permanent ban if it became habit.

The problem with moderating debate and banning use of "naughty" words is that these things become a very slippery slope, with Freedom of Speech becoming the ultimate casualty.

We do have a line in the sand Glen, and I admit the debate is robust. Personally, I like the debate robust. It's a debate board, not a knitting circle.

That said, DR is not for everyone, and I've never believed in a "one board fits all" approach. It may be that the robust style of DR is not for you, Glen.

And that's ok!  

I welcome any and all here to check out DR, and hook in to some admittedly robust debate.

Cheers

Nicole

Nicole Page wrote on Apr 28^th, 2007 at 7:29pm:


Nicole, some who have come from debate and relate have problems with the terms abs and coons. Very upset by it.

There is a reason these words are offensive even without the use of  'descriptors '. If this offends some of your members why does that not concern you?



Nicole , can you tell me why Aboriginal Australians find the word 'abo' and 'coon' offensive? Perhaps if you knew why you would SEE why.

Quote:


Precisely.

If we moderated every time someone felt "offence", we'd have a board that looks very much like Public Debate right now.

Cheers

Nicole

the RSL leadership turned to water and buckled at the knees rather than demand that this deliquent be given a darn good caning and six months in jail

I think I remember reading about this. They went to some length to diffuse the entire situation and connect with the perpetrator. I thought it was very mature on the RSL's behalf. I guess that sort of maturity comes with the full experience of human nature they have endured. The hotheads complaining would do well to try to learn something from them.

This vitriol sounds very similar to what is being said about muslims in Australia - that they are a threat to our society. I guess some people just look for boogey men round every corner.

Does the debate here get moderated? Are words like "abo"and "sandmonkey" on the table?

We don't yet have a firm policy on this sort of thing. So far this has worked well for us:

http://ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172540626

deepthought wrote on Apr 28^th, 2007 at 8:54pm:



As do I Deepthought.

And furthermore... HEY! WHERE'S EVERYONE GONE... ?! Was it something I said, or has everyone rushed off to a Fire Sale somewhere... ?

Anyway, as I was saying...

Aw, forget it.