‘Con’ felt that we needed a clearer, fairer, and a more objective standard for interaction at the Café. We think he’s right, so we are providing a draft that attempts to list some possible guidelines. These are not rules etched in granite; they are guidelines for blogging behavior to which Admin will try to adhere when making decisions about posting commentary. We are also soliciting input and suggestions from all Café’ers on these guidelines. When we have settled on this issue, we will place the guidelines at the top of the left side-bar. Admin
These guidelines and thoughts pertain to the way we interact and express our opinions at the Cafe. In attempting to write this down, we found this to be a more difficult task than we expected. So we are soliciting commentary on the efficacy of these guidelines.
These statements below, in no way, suggest that we should tone down our criticisms and/or vigorous support of public statements, acts, and policies relevant to Woodstock and the surrounding communities.
There aren’t too many things that are disallowed at the Cafe. One would be extensive, gratuitous, personally directed obscenities – this will not be allowed and if it reoccurs then posting privileges may be withdrawn. By contrast, we’ve learned to accept and embrace statements like “YOU MORON!” …so that’s okay.
The Café values free exchange of ideas. This is why the Café has no spam filter or login requirements.
Behaviors that disrupt or inhibit such exchanges of ideas and beliefs are discouraged, and in some cases such behaviors may result in a loss of posting privileges. These behaviors include:
• Extensive, gratuitous, or personally directed obscenities.
• Trolling which consists of posting inflammatory claims or assertions for the sole or primary purpose of inciting emotional or negative responses, especially if the commenter does not actually believe the claims or assertions. This is sometimes revealed by posting contradictory opinions using different pseudonyms.
• Using multiple pseudonyms and impersonating regular members as happened recently in the case of Newcomer.
• Deliberate and repetitious accusations, threats, or otherwise gratuitously abusive behavior.
• Multiple postings to one or more threads without substantive discussion as a follow-up.
• Sarcastic ‘one liners’ that fail to contribute substantive commentary.
• A post consisting of little or nothing more than links to another Websites is not considered substantive discussion. The Café is not a lecture hall.
• Avoid copyright violations by giving proper credit to the source of quotes. We expect posters to comply with copyright laws.
Many times these are gray areas of interpretation, so Admin will welcome opinions about non-conforming posts.
The Café asks that people refrain from boorish lecturing. This kind of lecturing is defined as simply going on and on about one’s beliefs without actually engaging others in a discussion by asking questions, answering questions, and showing that you are aware of what people have said earlier. Such behavior is boorish and rude, especially in a local blog where people should be able to expect that they won’t have to endure it. In many cases these lectures go unread after the first few sentences. The reader will ignore the thread where such lecturing occurs. In a forum like the Café, a single lecturer can effectively “take over” the room, ruining it for others.
Loss of posting privileges may result from other behaviors that Admin judges to be disruptive to the effective operation of the Cafe. A primary consideration in evaluating such cases will be preserving the sense of community maintained by the Café’s regular membership.
The option to delete posts exists but this practice is reserved for only the severest of circumstances at the Café. We realize that there will be times when deletion or non-acceptance of comments/ articles is necessary, but we hope to keep this to a minimum because this tends to undermine the purpose of the Café.
As far as editing goes, the Café Admin will correct obvious typos when noticed; however because of time constraints, we cannot promise to catch every one. Admin will avoid extensive editing to ensure that we aren’t fundamentally changing the meaning of what the contributor has tried to say. Editing, though rare, will be acknowledged when it occurs.
