People get frustrated, angry, passionate,
People have emotions
Some are naturally more professional
Others, not so much,,
People are messy,,
We can agree one day
Disagree the next
It's a sandbox, some days I am more mature than others,, some days I'm a total Richard, some days nobody can piss me off,,
Let it be, see how it goes,, we can impose rules later, if necessary,
It could get pretty messy while we learn to play together,,
Nobody will die, or get a split lip.
The forum proper won't suffer, this is the sandbox, and nobody comes here expecting to not get a little gritty.
I think it's a wise thing, this poll, rather than trying to impose some authoritarian control and demand the place operate according to your own grasp of what is good, opening the door to what the diapered denizens of the sandbox want..not sure I would have come up with that..
However it goes, good job, Row.

Let it be, see how it goes,, we can impose rules later, if necessary,

Yeahhhhh we already did that it's been four years since we last tried 'no personal abuse', it is something you practice in your normal life when you need to without any difficulty at all. Don't be frightened of change JoG, you may even find your self being able to engage more and who knows you may even be able to persuade people around to your way of thinking.

eau de sauvage wrote on 10/18/20 at 14:19:14:

...  it's been four years since we last tried 'no personal abuse', ...

I did not know you have been here for 4 years !

Why is it that just recently,
you have begun attacking members on the TT ?

I'm glad finally that a stand is being taken.

Like you Serowbot, I also think a decent bit of political argy bargy is good. And if someone wants to blow off some steam, the actual politicians are a decent target. The reason it's me again a whole bunch is that most reasonable posters have just gone away not wanting to push sh!t uphill.

Why do I bother? Well mostly I don't but it's just not in my nature to let bullies have a free rein, whether it's on a forum, or even if it's just some checkout person at a supermarket harassing an old lady.

However to get more philosophical, I do think there is a method to the madness of aiming abuse at people, and it's been very disappointing to see the occasional new member come in here and cop flack immediately.

And that I think IS the point. None of us personally care about being called names, so why does it happen? Well I think it's a deliberate tactic that people who do not like the premise of a thread use in order to hijack it and turn it into a sh1tstorm.

In fact you saw it happen in this very thread, some people do not like the premise and as you correctly noted Serowbot, they deliberately wind you up PRECISELY to take the thread off topic.

I feel sorry for people like Eegore, who will make a decent attempt to engage while ignoring patent personal abuse, but what happens? Well you see what happens, it's just used to not answer any points he makes.

So I think it's important to see these personal wind up merchants for what they are really doing which is to stymie any real political dialogue, and simply post right wing propaganda, if anyone answers it, then they get abuse.

It's a tactic to take over the forum. See it for what it really is.

If we can't control our statements because someone else said...

Ya gotta be careful with that Eegore, because you of all people would be very aware of how 'definitions' 'rules' and 'whataboutism' or who did what in the past, end up being used to justify anything.

This is not rocket science.

What I would suggest is public naming and shaming. If people just start sending alerts to moderators then no one knows what's going on behind the scenes. No one wants to be mugged off.

Probably a good solution initially, if it's decided that something should be done, is to remove offending posts. I agree it's annoying to have to delve into this level of idiocy, but then that's exactly the reason why most mature forums just have in their rules it any personal abuse for any reason will not be tolerated and those who do it will be banned without warning instantly. It's kinda works pretty well.

Anyone who can actually mount a persuasive argument would prefer to keep it civil so someone can't hide.

If the rules are applied severely but equally to EVERYONE, then no one has any cause for complaint.

Serowbot wrote on 10/18/20 at 17:02:51:

... it's basically Eau against the rest of you,
and that's why I allow him more leeway ...    

OK
  Got it.

I would have to say that whatever the rules are, that they are applied fairly and across the board.