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Rumor Mill News Reading Room Archive
Gently, folks; gently. Here are a few guidelines..
Stresses and tensions have been running pretty high lately, for reasons that are obvious and easily understood.
A few exchanges have taken place in the past day or two that are almost, but not quite, "flame wars".
Verbal hostilities would not help anyone -- so this is a good time to back away from the keyboard for awhile, take a deep breath or two, and remember why you are here and an Agent of Rumor Mill News. :-)
On a "no harm, no foul" basis, I will soon begin quietly deleting posted messages that fall outside certain simple guidelines, for the sake of "peace in the family".
Guidelines:
As always, each Agent should feel free to debate any issue, argue any point of view, passionately -- but do not resort to commenting on the intelligence, honesty, or questionable parentage of another. This will be viewed as an 'ad hominem' attack and will not be permitted. If you have a personal "beef" with someone, take it outside to 'The Coliseum' area Rayelan set up for this purpose.
As part of that guideline I would add: Do not overly concern yourself with whether someone else is a "plant" or disinformation agent. Rayelan and I, and several others, are alert for this. Email Rayelan privately if you would like, about your concerns -- but don't yell "Ho, Varlet!" at the person and try to "out" him or her, in Forum posting.
Posts that call another's information into doubt without any new information to refute what the first Agent has posted, will be removed AT MY DISCRETION on a case-by-case basis. "Casting doubt" is a favorite tactic of disinformation agents -- and this type of post is neither "information" nor "rumor". It adds nothing to "the big picture", but just diminishes what the first writer had to say.
For example: "I think the writer is deluded!" would likely end up being deleted.
Posts that try to tell Rayelan or Zapper how they should do their jobs will likely be deleted. Posts of this sort reveal a mistaken idea of what the Forum is and how it works. Rayelan does not "work for" the Forum members -- if anything it's the other way around: Agents are answerable to Rayelan. Likewise for me -- my job is to function in agreement with Rayelan's wishes, not those of anyone else.
All Agents had to be approved directly by Rayelan -- and the implication is, "Each one has as much right and reason to be here as you do," regardless of whether you agree with the other Agent's perspective and beliefs or not. Begin with that idea in mind, then argue your point.
Let's treat each other kindly, folks, even if the world may not appear to be treating us so kindly right now.
Finally:
If you have inadvertently posted multiple copies of the same message, or have a need to correct something in the Subject or body of the message, consider appending a -reply- message to it with 'Zapper' somewhere in the Subject line to help me find it and understand what it needs. I make such deletions and corrections anyway when I become aware of the need to do it, but there is no guarantee I will spot all of them.
