A few things I’d like to highlight.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it . If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
Do this instead of making a comment that says the moderators aren’t doing their jobs. We don’t read every post, and don’t always see things the way you do. By claiming the moderators have missed something, you are violating this rule:
6. Users may express their disagreements with the decisions or actions of Moderators, but disagreements, criticisms and the like may be discussed in the Issues & Complaints category ONLY. (You must read the instructions at the top of that Forum before making complaints there). Any such discussions not taking place within the I & C Forum are considered off-topic, and as such are subject to moving, locking or deletion, at the discretion of Moderators.
And in Rule #1
Note that Moderators may not be aware of all activity occurring on the Forum. If there is something you feel needs Moderator attention, please send a concise Private Message or email including a description of the issue and the URL of the associated post or thread. Moderator decisions on any topic may be delayed, perhaps by several days.
And #3f
In particular, abuse of Moderators for performing their responsibilities will not be permitted.
Better to avoid dealing those rules and follow Rule #2
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it . If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
Most of the people who are banned, you won’t even see. Our bots and some easy intervention takes care of spam, duplicate and multiple posts, and copyright material. Fortunately I don’t see too much of private messages getting copied out into the forum. Then, there’s my favorite,
#3e
“inflammatory” is a judgment call, and “intent to prolong debate” even more so, but it’s not that hard to recognize when something is not trying to
“promote, defend, or critique a particular idea or point of view”. Stick to that, and use data and evidence to promote your ideas, and we’re all good.
Also #3f
Vulgarity is the easiest to spot, but “impolite”, hmm. I do tell people to get a think skin sometimes. Really, we could boil the entire FAQ rules down to “Free inquiry is only possible if we maintain civility.” I’ve seen a lot of abuse lately and I’ve let it go, because, well, no one flags anything! But the question is, how many people are reading these and not participating because they don’t want to get that abuse?
It does get difficult when discussing something like women’s rights and comments are made that I think indicate sexism, but the poster might consider a statement of traditional values.
#3g mentions “off-topic” conversation. This is one I let go all the time, because I know one thing can lead to another. I like the free flow. I will usually combine this with #3h, that is, if it’s repetitious, for example ‘everything is about free will’ to someone.
Rule #4 clarifies when banning is appropriate, mentioning some of the above, plus, “deletion of your prior posts”, using more than one username, re-registering, standard stuff.
Rule #5 came up recently and the person left the forum on their own. They claimed they wanted to discuss what humanism is, but I thought they were getting kind of abusive and argumentative with their arguments.
So, back to Rule #6 it’s where you go if all the above isn’t working for you. There have been two or three good discussions there over the years. Mostly, it’s where people go just before we ban them. Sorry to say.
6. Users may express their disagreements with the decisions or actions of Moderators, but disagreements, criticisms and the like may be discussed in the Issues & Complaints category
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