RULES Personal Attacks and the B word (oh yeah, I mean BANNED)

[imagirlgeek]

We currently have a rule against Personal Attacks on HFB. It has been around since the beginning. Since a 'personal attack' could be subjective, and so everyone is clear on what constitutes a Personal Attack, I wanted to offer some guidelines.

There are various forms of personal attacks.

• You could say something bad about another member, including passive-aggressive comments and name-calling. Examples: "You are an idiot." "We don't like whiny complainers around here." "Why do you have to be so stupid?" "So-and-So needs to quit crying about XYZ."
• You could throw out an insult. Example: "F*** you!" "F Off.” "You're just being a *****." or "They are just being a ****." <-- referring to an active member

There are ways to debate and disagree without using a personal attack. Some guidance on what would be deleted vs. what would not be removed:

• You are welcome to attack the idea, but not the person. For instance, you could say, "IMO, that is a stupid idea." That comment would not be deleted. But you cannot say, "IMO, you are an idiot for doing that." That comment would be removed and the member would receive an infraction.
• If an attack is clearly intended to smear, belittle, or insult, and is obviously malicious, it will be removed. However, not all attacks are so clear-cut. If a member makes a relatively harmless assertion about another member that is based on fact and not necessarily negative, it will generally be allowed to stay. For example, a user would be allowed to post "you often ask for advice, yet you continue to disregard it." This is a reasonable conclusion to draw about someone's activity on the forum, and it isn't necessarily a negative personal characteristic. However, if someone says "Quit your whining if you aren’t going to follow advice." then that would be crossing the line into attacking because the comment asserts a negative personal characteristic (i.e. – they are a crybaby).
• We will not be removing inferred attacks. As a member of HFB, you will have to leave room for misunderstandings and recognize the difference between an attack on you as a person, and an attack on an idea. If someone says, “That is a stupid idea”, it will not be considered a prohibited personal attack. Many people will assume that the member is calling the other person stupid, even though the comment is narrowly targeted to the idea. Occasionally, the comment is made in an overall context that it is obviously meant to be mean-spirited and malicious. In these individual cases, Moderators may decide to remove the post.
• Lobbing a personal attack at someone you believe has insulted you will not be accepted as an excuse for the behavior. In other words, we will not bother with who started it, who's fault it was, etc. There are many ways to get your point across without personal attacks.

Our goal is to cut out the aggression and personal attacks that have steadily increased over the last several months, while maintaining the relaxed atmosphere of HFB where members can still joke around and cut up.

Hopefully these guidelines will help our members understand our expectations. We hope that everyone will make an effort to participate on HFB in a civil and productive manner. Please be aware that members who choose to engage in inappropriate behavior will be banned for repeatedly disrupting the site. Due to the issues that have been escalating lately, we’ve had no choice but to implement temporary bans for personal attacks. This includes 1^st offenses, so please take this into consideration and think carefully before engaging in aggressive behavior targeting other members of HFB.

[imagirlgeek]

Evening bump for anyone who didn't read this earlier today.