Rules and Guidelines for Coffee Break Forum Threads and Posts

Are blonde jokes or "hillbilly" jokes, etc. off limits now?

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This is what I'm afraid of - walking on the egg shells and implementing Political Correctness.

This is where we must police ourselves. I would trust that we all have a sense of what is now expected of each of us in our posts. Additionally I would trust that (especially in the quality field) our skin isn't so thin that we are offended by a joke that complies with the set boundries.

My sisters (in West Virginia) send me hillbilly jokes all the time, even ones about all the same last names, etc. Sirlard makes a good point and I guess if after replacing whatever name with quality and you can't laugh at it - then don't post it.

I would have waited until......

Sirlard said:

If we tell jokes that other people take offence at like blonde or hillbilly jokes maybe we should just change the offensive word to Quality Professional. If we can’t laugh at ourselves then we are way to serious and should not have a joke thread.

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I agree. I deliberately omitted those scenarios from the proposal because I felt, let's wait and see if anybody takes offense at them. I think not. We can create all kinds of scenarios to prolong the submittal of guidelines. I look at it as a WIP-Work In Progress. I'm convinced that there will not be lot of reported posts or Moderator intervention. The warning has been issued and duly noted.

Sam said:

Biting my tongue!

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I'm sure! Poor guy!

Sirlard said:

If we tell jokes that other people take offence at like blonde or hillbilly jokes maybe we should just change the offensive word to Quality Professional. If we can’t laugh at ourselves then we are way to serious and should not have a joke thread.

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Why did the light-haired Quality Professional (with one leg significantly shorter than the other) cross the road?


Seriously: It does kinda bother me that one of the biggest offenders when it came to name calling and attaching bandwith hogging third-party acticles (Marc) is not participating in this creation of rules/guidelines.

And after going back through the associated threads surrounding this process, I'm starting to question whether we are going over-board with the Polictically Correctness (can I even refer to "polictically" any more). Afterall, as it has been stated several times we are all intelligent adults. Looking back at the past CB threads what specifically have we been offended by? And what can we do to minimize those offenses?

It seems to me that we sorta opened the flood gates to "questionable" posts with the Nosmo beach posting, and I'm wondering if we could simply state that "no polictical, religious, or questionable/offensive materials will be allowed".

Where is the value of the CB forums, if we limit them to the degree that folks have to "walk on egg shells" in order to post?

To me this is an excellent site to go to for quality related items. In actuality that is what it should be for. Politics and religion are and will always be emotional items, should they be here? Hopefully, at some point in time ISO will be just as emotional. I guess the question is who started these threads, why and was value received from them? Different areas have come up and tend to break the grind, which we all need from time to time. Sort of like taking a different route home. I do not go to all areas and only post if I feel I have something to add or I can get people to think. The owner of the site needs to decide what is allowed,what is not and let the participants know. He is the one that has to pay the bills for the site and upgrades. Many times when "Correctiness" is dealt with ,it is by persons that have not been correct and feel guilty about it.

I hear you, Bud

ddhartma said:

I'm wondering if we could simply state that "no polictical, religious, or questionable/offensive materials will be allowed".

Where is the value of the CB forums, if we limit them to the degree that folks have to "walk on egg shells" in order to post?

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Dave,

I'm not ignoring the rest of your post, which is pretty blunt (so am I at times), but that is the directive. We can only hope that it isn't an exercise in futility. The catagories are fairly well defined and barring any unforeseen exceptions, that's it. Your suggestion is good, but as you can see, it wouldn't have done the job. I still don't think it should be characterized as walking on eggs, or razor blades. If you have to wonder about the content, don't post it. Our first instincts are usually pretty good.

energy said:

If you have to wonder about the content, don't post it. Our first instincts are usually pretty good.

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I'm beginning to wonder if people don't wonder about the content prior to posting...if they just post away.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I like to think before I speak. Opening my mouth before I've processed all of the information available tends to lead to one of two things happening with me : (1) my childhood stutter returns in full-force or (2) open-mouth-insert-foot.

The Nosmo pics are, in my mind, a non-issue. That situation has been addressed and resolved.

But some of the other pictures/jokes that we've discussed, perhaps required some extra thought prior to posting. Think about your audience, gang. Yes, I don't believe we have many (if any) minors in the Cove, but that doesn't give us full rein to let loose with the sexually explicit, derogatory material.

It's really not that difficult to ask yourself "Hey...would I show this to my Grandmother/Child/Boss/Customer/Religious Leader?"

The Poll to keep the CB Forum shows obvious interest in keeping it (at least by those that voted). So why are we haggling over whether our beliefs on what constitutes profanity match up?

It's a simple concept....THINK! We do that in our jobs...shouldn't be too difficult to apply to the Forum. :truce:

Please don't

Please do not attempt to add any Political threads/posts. While we can show the thread/post was deleted, it shows either that you don't understand the rule or are attempting to test the waters. In spite of what Marc has said and done (eliminating political/religious topics), that dictate was ignored. To the member's credit, he didn't feel that a poll would be contentious and said to remove it. After all we have seen in those discarded threads, we know better. Think about it. There's that word again. If we start to accumulate a number of deleted threads/posts, it's evidence that there is contempt for the process. I'm not saying that this particular thread was that. It's that perception thing if it continues.

Marc, the guidelines are finalized, based on no further additions/modifications. It's not in a formal outline, but completely understandable. Please use my post as the submittal. If you look at RC's posts, you will see mine mimics hers, with a slight modification in regards to enforcement. If the Coffee Break Threads are allowed to remain and you want any enforcement to be done by the members, please say so. In addition, I asked the question about pic attachments and their affect on bandwidth. Thank you for your consideration on these matters.

energy said:

We have a lot of "Southerners" as members here and they have posted some of those jokes. My guess is that some Blonde jokes have some REDACTED references in them. Southern jokes often make reference to inbreeding. How crazy do we what to get with this? The guidelines should define the content. No?





Why's that, Sam? You never had a problem with speaking your mind before. This thread deals with posting specifics. Your thoughts on the whole situation may be expressed in the other threads. Do you have recommendations for guideline specifics?

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Censorship for any reason should not be allowed. At what point does it stop. If I make a comment in a quality related thread and someone says " you are wrong". Is that allowed? If so why? What gives anyone the right to say I am wrong? They can disagree. Maybe. That's what I mean. Where does it stop.
Morally I should be allowed to say or do anything I want to as long as I don't hurt myself or someone else.
Legally I should be able to say or do anthing I want; period. As long as i know that I must accept the conquences.
Those are my God given and constitutional rights. And you or no else has a right to take them away, especially in a public forum.
My opinion, make it a members only forum, that way you can express your "control" mentality.

energy said:

Marc, the guidelines are finalized, based on no further additions/modifications.

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I'll read everything through on Saturday. So far, my feeling is I'll leave the forum as long as the rules are followed and that folks understand we will be taking a stronger approach to deleting 'noncompliant' posts.