FYI -- a host of bug fixes and functionality tweaks are coming Monday night, including the return of list view, moving the Welcome Back box up, tweaking the tip jar so we don't have all those flubbed HRs, bringing back the internal message link in user profiles, allowing people to follow themselves, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember at the moment.
Now on to the main event --
This past week was refreshingly clear of pie, with hidden comments way down and a renewed sense of civility in this place. That's likely because 1) it takes two to tango, and one side was mostly gone, 2) I've had an itchy trigger finger, and 3) we have new guidelines that should help guide action.
Those returning may have missed these new guidelines, so here they are again (and yes, I've liberally copied and pasted from my original announcement). I have and will continue to actively enforce these.
1) The "guest in someone's house" rule
Walking into someone's diary is like walking into someone's home. You are a guest. Act accordingly. That doesn't mean you can't disagree. It just means you have to be civil and courteous and limit your arguments to substance.
Now, this doesn't mean that diarists (and yes, they are still diarists until a future revision that won't come until early next year at the earliest) can keep out all detractors and critics. If Diarists want a debate-free zone, they start a Blogspot site and turn off comments. Writers on this site have to be able to tolerate critics. But it does mean that those critics can't act like dicks.
That level of courtesy must be even higher in group diaries.
If people want to hang out and talk about X, and you are anti-X, then either be on your bestest of best behavior or just stay away. You are always free to write your own response diary or start your own anti-X group.
So, my tolerance for dickishness will be least in group diaries, followed by personal diaries, followed by your own diaries.
If you don't like someone, ignore or argue PURELY on the facts. If you refuse to heed and seek out your foes to shit all over their diaries, I will zap you. You don't need to go after the same people every day to remind them that yes, you still don't like them.
2) The Free-For-All zone
Now in the flip side -- if you write your diary promoting X, and an anti-x person offers a clean rebuttal, based on facts and without personal attacks or other dickishness -- don't be a dick in response. Heck, don't write a dickish diary to begin with! If you drag the discussion down in your diary, don't come crying to me.
Because at that point, I will consider that diary/thread to be a free-for-all. I will ignore comments in such threads except for direct calls to violence, racist/sexist/bigoted language, copyright violations, or other deeply offensive material. Any other kind of dickish behavior will be fair game.
So diarists get to choose -- their diaries can either be zones of civility, or they can be mosh pits.
Of course, authors can't be around to police their diaries 24-7, nor should they have to be. So what happens if the discussion heads south after they leave? I originally wrote:
If an ally (defined as someone who supports your point of view) goes off the deep end, then it's the responsibility of the diarist or other allies to make clear that such behavior is not tolerated.
That was obviously controversial, and I'm now second-guessing myself. Option B is that those dickish allies get zapped. Let me know which you prefer. Ideally, we get partisans from the site's various warring factions to police their own before I have to resort to more drastic measures. Asking a friend to tone it down has far more power than when an opponent does it. So help your pals stay civil, or you may find yourself with fewer and fewer friends.
3) So what is dickish behavior?
Ah yes, many people want things written in stone. But defining dick behavior is like defining pornography or irony -- you know it when you see it. Some examples: Going back to hidden comments and pulling stuff out that's six months old. People are allowed to have an off-day without having it rubbed in their face in perpetuity. Stalking. Hijacking other people's diaries by dragging in meta fights from outside. Ad hominem attacks. You guys get the picture.
Now here's a new addition to these guidelines -- if someone flies off the handle and apologizes in the same thread before I visit, I will look upon that very favorably. Anyone can have a bad moment, but genuine contrition can save the day. This is where "police your pals" can be extra helpful in diffusing an ugly situation.
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To answer people who have asked -- all bannings are permanent unless and until I change my mind. The new community self-moderation adjudication system slated for an end-of-year launch will have a time-out system that actually makes more sense. But I'm working with the tools that I have, and I don't have an easy time-out system (I'm not about to bust out a spreadsheet). If someone with bojo wants back in, he or she can petition me. I can be a forgiving guy.
Also, I'm traveling this week, so I may be slower in responding than I was the last two weeks. Action delayed is still action.