Root out insults

[chris-ccc]

Chris@ccc, LYB is not involved in BC, but we are. Please take a stand on the issue like everyone else. It may not be insulting to you if you were called that. But the question is about another baddy person and if it's an insult or okay to call him 'Evil' or 'pest'?

If you don't want to answer my third question cited above, please simply say so.

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My answer to your Question 3 is... NO.

IMHO... We can only be insulted if we want ourselves to be insulted.
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[Birdwood]

I answered that just after you asked it. Just because it is an insult does not mean it should be banned, of course. Far from it.

Sorry, I missed it because things were deleted in the first item and I got distracted.

Turn the other cheek.

Now I can see why you are against banning certain offensive words. Free speech for one, turning the other cheek (ignoring) is another. That's fine with me if that's what you want. But as a whole, is that what majority of BCers should be doing: "Turn the other cheek"? Many will disagree with you with that approach.

[jchan04]

Turn the other cheek.

why should people be tolerating such offensive behaviour?

[Birdwood]

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My answer to your Question 3 is... NO.

IMHO... We can only be insulted if we want ourselves to be insulted.
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Chris@ccc, I want to thank you again, my friend for the answer. It's fine with me whatever you say, it's all for discussions and understanding. So I just want to make sure that in your opinion: It is okay to call another baddy person in BC forum with "negative words" like 'Evil' and 'pest'. Yes, it's okay or No, it's not okay, what is your answer?

[ctjcad]

..*sigh*..i think at the end of the day, the tasks of banning of members or deleting posts or censorshipping certain words/phrases should be handled by the mods and kwun. That's the bottom line. In a nutshell, they are the ones responsible for this forum and whether we like it or not, we as reg. members can only abide by the rules. The most we can do, as BC members, is to respect the rules and report anything that seems inappropriate to the mods and kwun. Nothing more and nothing less...
On another hand, the mods and kwun have a challenging task of trying to keep the forum as neutral and user friendly yet still keep the idea of free-speech abound as much as possible (they themselves must stay neutral in all of the discussions). Again, it's that middle line......

I think we've read enough point of views and different perspectives on this topic and after so much pages of posts, i don't know if we have come to a mutual and compromising solution or not (maybe we have). And as others have mentioned, we are simply turning the wheel of this thread around and around...........where to end??..

anyway...i don't know about Birdwood, but if i was in his spot and after reading some of the posts, i would scratch my head, think and say to myself "Why in the world did i start this thread??"...

*feel free to continue discussing, folks..

[Dropshots]

Turn the other cheek.

Ouchhh....It'll hurt the more...LOL!

[chris-ccc]

...*sigh*...

anyway...i don't know about Birdwood, but if i was in his spot and after reading some of the posts, i would scratch my head, think and say to myself "Why in the world did i start this thread??"...

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"Why in the world did i start this thread?"

ctjcad... I hope Birdwood is not insulted by your comments.
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[jchan04]

anyway...i don't know about Birdwood, but if i was in his spot and after reading some of the posts, i would scratch my head, think and say to myself "Why in the world did i start this thread??"...

no no, i still think it's good to bring an open topic to the forum for people to express themselves towards it. like i said... there's no such as stupid questions.

[Birdwood]

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Greetings,
...
We think jamesd20 is saying that the remark "Chinaman" should not be deemed offensive @BC.
...
...
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Good to see you are making good use of the multiquote function!

That is not what I meant- quite the opposite. Actually I am not Chinese, but would interpret someone calling someone a chinaman offensive.

But not, I am not offended by anything you have said!

I knew what you had meant, but some others were not so clear.

This thread has been a helpful exercise so far to get BCers to put forth some ideas: whether the uses of certain offensive words should be banned in BC forum discussions. It will be up to mods to decide if they want to do that or not. In my opinion, mods at least need to take a stand on (1) what words constitute insults and should not be used and (2) BCers using them face the risk to be banned from the forum. The many great principles of this forum were laid down by mods or someone before me joining, one of which is 'No insults and personal attacks based on race, nationality, gender, etc.'

In the past, 'fights' broke out and BCers got banned for insulting others. It seems to me logical at least to let BCers know what are the insults and to prevent the use of offensive and derogatory words and racial slurs in the first place. An analogy here: a traffic judge holding a law book tells the defendant that he's guilty of making illegal turn, but in the book, the law was never spelled out on what constitutes illegal turns. If the law is not clear, how do you expect (1) BCers to follow the rules and know right from wrong? and (2) to enforce it? Then BCers will go on 'fighting' for what each of them believes until mods step in to stop the 'fight' each time.

Again the discussion here has been great, but ultimately it's mods' decision what they want for the forum since they are the ones who have to do the moderating and decide: (1) whether there have been insults made and (2) who had been insulting whom so as to ban the violator(s) if necessary.

If this forum has a stated policy on what constitutes an insult, I must confess I'm absolutely in the dark about it.

In any case, it'd be an unprofitable exercise to ban words
From what we have seen, it's still better to ban users

____________

PS: This search for a unanimous opinion on what's insulting (or what's comforting) hasn't quite lived up to expectations. The last few pages have also set out a case for this thread to be moved to Forum Feedback.

And, so, there it goes.

[Birdwood]

Chris@ccc, I want to thank you again, my friend for the answer. It's fine with me whatever you say, it's all for discussions and understanding. So I just want to make sure that in your opinion: It is okay to call another baddy person in BC forum with "negative words" like 'Evil' and 'pest'. Yes, it's okay or No, it's not okay, what is your answer?

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"Why in the world did i start this thread?"

ctjcad... I hope Birdwood is not insulted by your comments.
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Chris@ccc, an answer to my question above please, in case you did not notice it.

[Birdwood]

..*sigh*..i think at the end of the day, the tasks of banning of members or deleting posts or censorshipping certain words/phrases should be handled by the mods and kwun. That's the bottom line. In a nutshell, they are the ones responsible for this forum and whether we like it or not, we as reg. members can only abide by the rules. The most we can do, as BC members, is to respect the rules and report anything that seems inappropriate to the mods and kwun. Nothing more and nothing less...
On another hand, the mods and kwun have a challenging task of trying to keep the forum as neutral and user friendly yet still keep the idea of free-speech abound as much as possible (they themselves must stay neutral in all of the discussions). Again, it's that middle line......

I think we've read enough point of views and different perspectives on this topic and after so much pages of posts, i don't know if we have come to a mutual and compromising solution or not (maybe we have). And as others have mentioned, we are simply turning the wheel of this thread around and around...........where to end??..

anyway...i don't know about Birdwood, but if i was in his spot and after reading some of the posts, i would scratch my head, think and say to myself "Why in the world did i start this thread??"...

*feel free to continue discussing, folks..

I totally agree with you on your view. Let's see what mods will say and whether they are going to take a clear and unified stand on using offensive words, like "Chinaman", 'Evil', and 'pest' in calling baddy person(s) in the forum so to prevent future fights and insults to be made

[jamesd20]

I don't think Words are going to be officially banned (as in a rule). The rules of the forum have been stated generally in this thread and a number of other sticky threads in the general forum.

Threads are read by mods, and if they deem them offensive, they will be deleted and (sometimes) the poster warned or informed.

If you are unhappy about someones thread or post which has remoained undeleted then you can use the "report this post" function just below the posters' name in a red triangle with an exclamation mark. When you report this post it gets sent to all the mods, emailm at which point action may (or may not) be taken.

I Agree with ctjcad that this thread has pretty much run its course now, and there will never be a total solution to this problem, but greater awareness should enable people to be more tolerant of posts, and soften (better eradicate) the potentially offensive remarks in their own posts.

[Birdwood]

I don't think Words are going to be officially banned (as in a rule). The rules of the forum have been stated generally in this thread and a number of other sticky threads in the general forum.

Threads are read by mods, and if they deem them offensive, they will be deleted and (sometimes) the poster warned or informed.

If you are unhappy about someones thread or post which has remoained undeleted then you can use the "report this post" function just below the posters' name in a red triangle with an exclamation mark. When you report this post it gets sent to all the mods, emailm at which point action may (or may not) be taken.

I Agree with ctjcad that this thread has pretty much run its course now, and there will never be a total solution to this problem, but greater awareness should enable people to be more tolerant of posts, and soften (better eradicate) the potentially offensive remarks in their own posts.

I have no problem with what you stated. Thanks for reminding us the function for "report this post". I thought something else was there before, maybe that third button was removed.

[wood_22_chuck]

I'm not sure if you're trying to reach a consensus, or just collecting opinions, Birdwood, as you're debating with some, and agreable to others.

Specific-word lists to label something as offensive is too broad, and suggests the mods are not discerning enough, or able enough, for your taste, to judge posts in context. One word do not an insult make.

"Ha-ha, you're such a chinaman. Let's have satay next we meet."
"Shut up, la, you chinaman."

Are both are insults, since the "master list" condemn "chinaman?"

-dave

[kwun]

I don't think Words are going to be officially banned (as in a rule). The rules of the forum have been stated generally in this thread and a number of other sticky threads in the general forum.

Threads are read by mods, and if they deem them offensive, they will be deleted and (sometimes) the poster warned or informed.

If you are unhappy about someones thread or post which has remoained undeleted then you can use the "report this post" function just below the posters' name in a red triangle with an exclamation mark. When you report this post it gets sent to all the mods, emailm at which point action may (or may not) be taken.

I Agree with ctjcad that this thread has pretty much run its course now, and there will never be a total solution to this problem, but greater awareness should enable people to be more tolerant of posts, and soften (better eradicate) the potentially offensive remarks in their own posts.

what jamesd20 says.

thread closed.