There's a lot going on in the world right now and much of it has spilled over into various discussions here on the Caf. It's been a difficult few months for everybody and tensions have been high on the forum, reflecting those in society during the recent protests and the Covid pandemic. Much of this has been focused in the Current Events and General Forum.
Such heated discussion has inevitably led to a lot of confrontation and division among many posters, and it's turned quite ugly at times. As a community we need to get a hold of this and tone it down a few notches. This is a place of opinion and debate, open to all who are prepared to respect our clearly stated rules. We are all entitled to express our opinions on a topic without being disrespected, labelled, trolled, threatened, discriminated against or hounded by other posters. Sadly that's happening far too often in many threads at the moment and it has to stop.
Moderating is particularly challenging at times like this and every mod is trusted to use their best judgement. Not easy when the discussions in question are so volatile and divisive. So we mods do, and will continue to, make mistakes. We're human and caught up in all this like everybody else. But that doesn't justify overt attacks on the mod team, so that also needs to stop. We take this all very seriously and are doing our best to keep these forums an inclusive and enjoyable space for everyone.
But ultimately we as a community must self-regulate. We are each of us responsible for own behaviour on here. We all need to be considerate of each other and treat one another with respect. Yes other people's viewpoints may not align with yours, but that does not give you the right to attack them personally. Please be constructive and not aggressive. Remember: criticise the post, not the poster. We believe in trying to educate people through reasoned debate. As events in the world right now prove, anger and aggression solve nothing.
And to be clear, racist behaviour and content is dealt with in the strictest manner by the mod team and is a fast-track to a permaban. However, calling other posters racist is not acceptable either. That is an extremely serious accusation and has become an all too common occurrence in various threads and has to stop. If you see racist content report it to the mods and we'll deal with it.
So in summary - the temperature on here (like the world in general) is very hot right now. I'm asking all of you to make a concerted effort to stay cool and be respectful to each other. We're a community and we're all in this together.
Such heated discussion has inevitably led to a lot of confrontation and division among many posters, and it's turned quite ugly at times. As a community we need to get a hold of this and tone it down a few notches. This is a place of opinion and debate, open to all who are prepared to respect our clearly stated rules. We are all entitled to express our opinions on a topic without being disrespected, labelled, trolled, threatened, discriminated against or hounded by other posters. Sadly that's happening far too often in many threads at the moment and it has to stop.
Moderating is particularly challenging at times like this and every mod is trusted to use their best judgement. Not easy when the discussions in question are so volatile and divisive. So we mods do, and will continue to, make mistakes. We're human and caught up in all this like everybody else. But that doesn't justify overt attacks on the mod team, so that also needs to stop. We take this all very seriously and are doing our best to keep these forums an inclusive and enjoyable space for everyone.
But ultimately we as a community must self-regulate. We are each of us responsible for own behaviour on here. We all need to be considerate of each other and treat one another with respect. Yes other people's viewpoints may not align with yours, but that does not give you the right to attack them personally. Please be constructive and not aggressive. Remember: criticise the post, not the poster. We believe in trying to educate people through reasoned debate. As events in the world right now prove, anger and aggression solve nothing.
And to be clear, racist behaviour and content is dealt with in the strictest manner by the mod team and is a fast-track to a permaban. However, calling other posters racist is not acceptable either. That is an extremely serious accusation and has become an all too common occurrence in various threads and has to stop. If you see racist content report it to the mods and we'll deal with it.
So in summary - the temperature on here (like the world in general) is very hot right now. I'm asking all of you to make a concerted effort to stay cool and be respectful to each other. We're a community and we're all in this together.
