UPDATED: Rules and Guidelines

[Greg]

I've made a few changes to the rules and guidelines. The changes are reflected below.

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BE POLITE AND RESPECT OTHERS

Mapleleafweb operates these forums in the hopes that they will promote intelligent, honest and responsible discussion. We encourage you to speak your mind on relevant issues in a thoughtful way. Please respect others using this board and treat them with respect and dignity.

NO TROLLING/FLAMING

Do not post inflammatory remarks just to annoy people. If you are not bringing anything new to the argument, then do not say anything at all.

Some messages are not so much offensive as simply nuisance value. An example would be a person who persistently creates conflict without contributing anything useful. In newsgroup circles, such a person is known as a "troll". We define "trolling" as a message that serves no constructive purpose and is likely to cause offence or arguments. We define "annoying" as any message that results in a complaint from a registered user -- we will then decide whether to take action.

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS

Please respect others using this board by refraining from personal attacks. There is a huge difference between disagreeing with a thought or idea and attacking an individual. We encourage lively debate and intelligent critiques of others viewpoints, not tirades against another poster.

INSULTS

Insults are the ammunition of the unintelligent - do not use them. It is okay to criticize a policy, decision, action or comment. Such criticism is part of healthy debate. It is not okay to criticize a person's character or directly insult them, regardless of their position or actions. Derogatory terms such as "loser", "idiot", etc are not permitted unless the context clearly implies that it is not serious. Rule of thumb: Play the ball, not the person (i.e. tackle the argument, not the person making it).

People who have a history of antagonistic behaviour will be treated more harshly than those who do not.

Insults levelled at third-parties (companies, political parties, nationalities) are also forbidden in the forums.

NO CROSS-POSTING

Cross posting is defined as posting the same information in more then one forum on the Internet. It is also considered cross posting if you post the same information in different areas of these forums. If you want to propose a new topic, find the appropriate category and only post once. All cross-posts will be deleted without warning.

RESPECT OTHERS PRIVACY

Do not post unauthorized personal information about anyone on the board. Any posts that contain personal communication (emails, etc) between multiple individuals will be deleted without notice.

RESEARCH YOUR POST

If you are stating a fact, be prepared to back it up with some official sources (websites, links etc). It is also important to structure your post in a way that everyone can understand. That means writing complete sentences and paragraphs with the appropriate grammar. If for some reason, you enjoy writing long confusing sentences and paragraphs riddled with poor grammar and spelling mistakes, your post, and therefore your opinions, will likely be discarded. Therefore, it is in your best interest to make sure that your post includes sufficient sources and contains a well-researched and well-organized argument.

POSTING CONTENT

All posts must contain some aspect of an argument or attempt to stimulate discussion. Simply posting a URL to an outside source or posting statements that are only one or two sentences long will not be tolerated and the post will be deleted. In addition, use the search feature to ensure that the topic you are posting is not already being discussed somewhere else in the forums.

It is also important that you stay on topic and keep the discussion focused. If the thread begins to wonder off into a new topic area, start a new thread and continue the discussion under the new thread. If you feel a thread is being watered down with too many different topic areas and you do not want to start the new thread yourself, feel free to contact the Admin and request a new thread.

POSTING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Copyright infringement is illegal on these forums. Therefore, please do not post articles in their entirety. When posting copyrighted material, please use the quote (

&

) feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a throughout summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA, etc. Find out more information on Fair Dealing in Canada. http://www.robic.ca/publications/Pdf/032E-LC.pdf

Please do not try to pass someone else’s work as your own. Anyone caught committing plagiarism will be dealt with severely.

FORUM MODERATION AND CENSORSHIP

These forums are not a free-for-all discussion area. Maple Leaf Web operates these forums in the hopes that they will promote intelligent, honest and responsible discussion. If at any time the discussion cease to be "intelligent" and "responsible" then the discussion will be ended.

Mapleleafweb.com will attempt to monitor the content of the postings and reserves the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. We will also attempt to use this power judiciously and fairly, but our decisions are final.

If for some reason your post has been deleted and you were not notified, please feel free to contact the admin and request an explanation.

MEMBER SIGNATURE

Please keep your signature under six lines – the shorter the better. Long complicated signatures do nothing but distract other posters and eat up bandwidth. The content of a signature must be respectful.

ADVERTISING

Advertising is not permitted in these forums. You are free to link to other websites (i.e. in your signature) however you cannot use these forums to sell anything. When posting about a political event, (i.e. political rally or a march) please seek the permission from the admin before posting.

LEGAL ISSUES/ACTION

You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Maple Leaf Web with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s).

By participating in these forums, you grant us the right and licence to use, reproduce and display any submissions to the forum without compensation to you or any one else.

We at Mapleleafweb.com also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

POSTING REMOVAL

Any messages that we deem unsuitable will be deleted or edited.

MEMBER REMOVAL

Any user who fails to abide by these rules will be banned without warning.

[shoop]

Your site, your rules.

This is getting a little anal though.

Remember the new rules about using insults against third-parties.

Libranos, Mr Dithers, CONservative, Wacko Jacko (Layton), Dumbcruds, etc. are all off-limits.Remember the new rules about using insults against third-parties.

If you are serious about enforcing the rules power to you. But when you ask people to pm you about offensive posts to you (in order to keep them off the boards) and never acknowlege they have been sent, what does it say about your rules? Food for thought.

[Guest eureka]

It, perhaps, says that you should enter a little more into the spirit of debate without running to the moderator.

[August1991]

Greg,

Must we refer to our prime minister as The Right Honourable Paul Martin, QC, PC or can we simply refer to him as Paul Martin? How about just Martin? Or just Paul? Is Paulie OK?

The Economist referred to him as "Mr. Dithers", but used quotation marks:

But as prime minister, his faltering leadership has earned him the sobriquet of “Mr Dithers”.

Can I refer to him as "Mr. Dithers" if I too use quotation marks?

I called him "very-important Martin" because he always seems to say that everything is very important. Is that OK?

And how about PM PM? (I liked that reference at first because it made fun of his grandfather's hubris in choosing his father's name - now I fear that some people might take it to mean some God-given right to the job.)

May I make a suggestion? Let us have fun with the language as long as our usage is not vulgar nor patently insulting.

After all, Mr. Dithers is funny.

[Guest eureka]

Agreed, August. The art and spirit of debating involves getting in the occasional shot and ridicule that does not go overboard is so effective in political debate.

[crazymf]

Agreed, August. The art and spirit of debating involves getting in the occasional shot and ridicule that does not go overboard is so effective in political debate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, no kidding. Just look at how the MP's debate stuff in parliament.

However, when you're not face to face, the facial and language nuances and inflections aren't there. Too easy to misinterpret stuff for the worst.

[Greg]

Anal or not, these are the new rules.

There was a time when I would let these types of third-party insults slide, as who are they really hurting? But in the interest of keeping the debate civil and respectable, I'm clamping down. Besides, do you really need to use this types of words to make your point? Is your argument so limp that you need to resort to a snide nickname?

True, the "Mr Dithers" name originated in an article that was published in the Economist, but the article was about Prime Minister Paul Martin's and what the author considered his, "faltering leadership." I don't have a problem with that, as the article was directly related to what the author saw as the dithering state of the prime minister. However, no where else in the publication do they use the term Mr Dithers - because that would be inappropriate.

There is a difference between "[having] fun with the language" and using snide nicknames for scoring cheap partisan points. Unfortunately a few participants in this forum seem only happy to appeal to the latter and ruin it for the rest of us.

[mirror]

August & eureka

Agreed.

There is too much pettifogging happening here.

[Tawasakm]

Insults are the ammunition of the unintelligent - do not use them. It is okay to criticize a policy, decision, action or comment. Such criticism is part of healthy debate. It is not okay to criticize a person's character or directly insult them, regardless of their position or actions. Derogatory terms such as "loser", "idiot", etc are not permitted unless the context clearly implies that it is not serious. Rule of thumb: Play the ball, not the person (i.e. tackle the argument, not the person making it).

From the left outed:

There is no lie to big to tell for the left, and no bodies they won't walk over in their hateful tizzy fits against the president. They are the lowest of the low and shame on the hysterical media and those who fell for their uniformed reports.

From "The ugly hate filled left" (and the name says it all)"

And they are not diversions; they are words written or spoken by hate-filled ugly people who fail to grasp the concept of personal responsibility and are looking to use this tragedy for political purposes. And I feel that what you are doing is disgusting. Unfortunately for you, most of us here are not your Loony Leftwing Liberal types who believe the garbage spewed by Michael Moore and the other Idiotarian trash.

Well I could keep going but I am sure everyone knows what has been going on in the discussions here lately. I was 'reading up' prior to joining in again but things seem so inflamed here that I have to wonder if it is worth it.

[mirror]

Well I could keep going but I am sure everyone knows what has been going on in the discussions here lately. I was 'reading up' prior to joining in again but things seem so inflamed here that I have to wonder if it is worth it.

Sorry you feel this way.

Unfortunately Mapleleafweb haas lost quite a few good posters here because of what you are observing.

I hope that you will continue to post here.

[newbie]

I'll add my name to this as well. While I'm not a "regular" here, some of the poster's language and sarcasm are now beyond what I'm willing to respond to. Unfortunately,it's easy to get caught up in, and I'm just as guilty on occasion. At any rate, I do hope the moderation will increase.

[BHS]

I'll add my name to this as well. While I'm not a "regular" here, some of the poster's language and sarcasm are now beyond what I'm willing to respond to. Unfortunately,it's easy to get caught up in, and I'm just as guilty on occasion. At any rate, I do hope the moderation will increase.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bull. This is by far the tamest forum I've ever seen. You must post at the liberal backpatting societies like DU.

[newbie]

I'll add my name to this as well. While I'm not a "regular" here, some of the poster's language and sarcasm are now beyond what I'm willing to respond to. Unfortunately,it's easy to get caught up in, and I'm just as guilty on occasion. At any rate, I do hope the moderation will increase.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bull. This is by far the tamest forum I've ever seen. You must post at the liberal backpatting societies like DU.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually it's not bull. In fact, I'm not going to be part of this forum that has been reduced to a free for all. Sorry mirror but I'm outta here. At least until the hate-filled partisan types can learn to act with manners and decorum. And to Greg, please read some of these posts. Many folks (and you know who you are) simply aren't following your rules. Adios.

[mirror]

newbie

Life has been much better since Black Dog introduced me to the ignore feature. It works wonders and you should at least give it a shot before completely throwing in the towel. Have you tried it?

Maybe though I will start comiling a list of the people who have quit here because of the lack of civility. Feel free to add names to the list.

muddy67

newbie

mad michael

Tawasakm

moderate conservative

[mirror]

To keep his surplus low goodale probably shoved through some expenditures at the last minute. Perogatives of power I suppose. you seem surprised. Are you relatively new to following federal politics? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was a completely unwarranted personal attack.

Yet again dickhead mirror, lowers the level of discussion on the board.

Bravo sir, you are a champion.

Question 27 Will you ever move out of your parent's basement? (Personal attacks flow both ways jerk.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[newbie]

newbie

Life has been much better since Black Dog introduced me to the ignore feature. It works wonders and you should at least give it a shot before completely throwing in the towel. Have you tried it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you're correct mirror. I'll give it a try.

[Guest eureka]

To use the ignore feature is to ignore the real world and retreat into the "Ivory Tower" mentality.

Like it or not, the nutcases represent an element of the real population and it is important to hear them if these are political forums and not just academic discussions.

Some of the better posters who have left have done so because they did not understand that. They wanted only discussion and not politics.

[moderateamericain]

tawasakm,

its really to bad you are not posting here much, i really enjoyed your post quite a bit.

ModAmerican.

[Black Dog]

To use the ignore feature is to ignore the real world and retreat into the "Ivory Tower" mentality.

Like it or not, the nutcases represent an element of the real population and it is important to hear them if these are political forums and not just academic discussions.

Some of the better posters who have left have done so because they did not understand that. They wanted only discussion and not politics.

Arguing with some of these people is like putting pant son a pig: you just get muddy and the pig gets mad. Some nutjobs aren't worth the bandwith.

[Shakeyhands]

reading this has been a laugh, amazing how so many that disagreed with the rules are now under the banned group... too bad really.