Nemone
Master Chef
Posts: 289
Joined: April 13, 2007
OUTSIDE
Posted: February 15, 2008 at 06:18
Hi, everyone!
Welcome to OUTSIDE. As in "take it
outside." You can think of this as the fighting ring, or the
playground at recess. You can hash out your resentments and
your personal dramas and your pet peeves here -- but ONLY
here. Please allow me to explain:
We offer user
forums because we really want PlayFirst to be a community
and a fun site at which to hang out, whether playing casual
games or just enjoying one another's company. Like all
websites with open forums, we work hard to maintain a
balance between making sure no one feels censured or
dismissed, and keeping the conversations welcoming and
relevant for people who like their chat sans the vitriol or
drama.
So far, we've chosen to be extremely
conservative with the use of the delete button. But as the
exchanges between members increase, so do the fights. Some
people will argue that nothing in a virtual world is "real,"
and therefore shouldn't upset anyone, but I disagree. I
think sometimes we get to know each other better through
posting than we ever would as "real world" friends. Writing
can be very intimate, very touching, and also very
incendiary. One griper is all it takes to ruin an entire
thread (conversation, experience, site, etc.) for hundreds
of people.
That's how we get here, outside.
Where you can be as nasty as you want, with the following
obvious exceptions, borrowed from Josh Modell's A.V. Club
Blog:
-- Racist, GLBT-phobic, sexist posts. If
your argument or joke requires the use of such things, your
argument or joke sucks.
-- Extremely aggressive,
insulting posts, especially those with absolutely no point
to make. Unacceptable: "You're a BLEEP!" Acceptable: "Only a
BLEEP would watch Con Air six times in a row!" Better: "You
watched Con Air six times?! You should've taken IQ tests
before and after to see how it affected you."
I
know fights will continue popping up in random threads and
when they come to my attention, if I agree that things are
getting out of hand, I will ask the posters in that thread
to "take it OUTSIDE." If the argument doesn't immediately
cease or move to this thread, then I will consider thread
deletion. Sound fair?
Oh, and I strongly advise
sensitive people not to visit this thread. At all. Don't
worry about defending yourself, or clarifying your point in
an argument that only upsets you -- just let the whole thing
move outside, and go back to chatting with your friends.
This site is pretty friendly, content-wise, and I'd love to
see the community remain friendly, too. But sometimes we all
need a place to spit in public or practice our insults.
Outside.