Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
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This may seem a little premature, but I think that before the board really gets going it would be a good idea to discuss what kind of discourse we're looking for here. How do we expect people to behave when posting on the the board? I personally think it would be a good idea to have a 'terms and conditions' kind of deal that members have to agree to before they can join - not really in the expectation that it would be legally binding, but more as something that could be used to simplify the process of banning someone, if that's ever necessary. If someone uses racist language, for example, and they have agreed when joining the board that they would not do that, it might save a whole lot of argument about 'free speech' and the like. We could just point out that they have not behaved in the way that they agreed to, and then ban them. Hopefully this discussion can act as a first step towards formulating some kind of 'terms and conditions' page.
So ... what kind of social space are we looking for here? How do we expect people to behave towards each other? What kind of language is acceptable? I'll post my own thoughts when I have more time later, but it would be good to hear what other people (and especially those with experience of other boards and internet communities) feel about this. So far most of our discussion has focused on technical and aesthetic concerns; I think it's a good idea to talk about the social side of things as well.
Well, I have a few comments I'd like to make, but nothing too long really.
I think we need to maintain a policy upon which we don't degrade others simply because of who / what they are, i.e. racist comments or homophobic comments, this also applies to religious views. You can disagree with someone's behavior or their belief, but you can't put them down for who they are, or what they are.
I'd also like to keep the "quality" of one's language here very high, example "r u gonna be online l8r?" would not fly very high. Simply use your keyboard correctly, and type words out.
On a similar note. This is a very important one. Trolls, or at least the definition I understand. It's someone who goes about doing nothing but degrading, pointing out spelling mistakes, and disagreeing with other poster's points. We want users who contribute with their opinion, not ones that simply disagree with everyone else's.