Posted by Zo on April 26, 2003, at 0:09:26
In reply to A Collection of Moderating Guidelines, posted by Zo on April 25, 2003, at 23:19:43
Words are a malleable medium, and they can be made to say things by inference, innuendo, and ambiguity which are very hard to pinpoint. Suppose you set up a forum in which you wanted everyone to be nice to each other, and you made a rule saying just that.You might have a difficult time enforcing it because language can be made to imply something unkind even while saying something ostensibly respectful.
Excessive niceness, through hyperbole, can even convey an insult.
Rather than creating a rule, you may want to depend on the direct yet respectful approach, calmly asking people to clarify whether an insult was actually meant--and always making it easy to save face.
If a rule is inherent in, or indispensable to, the basic design or operation of your forum, be consistent in enforcing it.
Avoid like the plague situations in which a rule applies to one person or group and not to another. If your forum has a hard and fast rule, apply it always, not just when you feel like it.
poster:Zo
thread:222479
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20030404/msgs/222492.html