And then the wording for the official record (and the registration page) should say that Stompy Feet reserve the rights to pooh pooh any name, but we'll explain why.

Good idea.

We may also want to register PTB names so that they can't be grabbed. If a PTB wants it, they can be given the password.

We may also want to register PTB names so that they can't be grabbed. If a PTB wants it, they can be given the password.

I like that. We still have to kill names like Minaer or Fruy (unless they fax us a copy of their birth certificate. :) )

We can register as many of those as we can think of, too.

We can register as many of those as we can think of, too.

We don't have to. We only have to deactivate the ones that people actually try to register.

We don't have to. We only have to deactivate the ones that people actually try to register.

But... but... it would be FUN!!!

But yeah, good point.

Okay, a first attempt at a reasonable PTB list:

Producers

note: Joss posts as "joss" and has proved himself capable of finding his way back; anyone trying to register "Joss Whedon" needs to be looked at as carefully as the misspellings.

Writers

Actors (maybe just regulars/recurrings, not one-offs?

Known SO's of the above?

Obvious misspellings of any of the above.

... anyone else?

Ok, following on from the recent Firefly situation, and just to harp on a tricky issue, the short etiquette guide states that offensive posts will be a problem. Should we say "posts that are offensive to this community", or something like that?

Huh. "Tim Minaer" gave us a fake e-mail address. Either that or he spelled it incorrectly.

Well, that's simple and easy. He'd never have gotten in anyway.

billytea, I don't know. Who else could we be using as the gold standard for offensiveness?

billytea, I don't know. Who else could we be using as the gold standard for offensiveness?

To my mind, there is no other real choice. This is, at bottom, a private board. Aside from the laws of this country (and, according to a recent Australian High Court decision, possibly that country too), it's not answerable to anyone but us.

There is no gold standard in any case. As has been well stated, what counts as offensive when in the company of friends differs from the standard at a formal dinner or in the company of your grandmother. (Ok, admittedly I don't know what standards your grandmother sets. But I believe the principle holds.)

I think it's worthwhile making that explicit, for the benefit of people new to the place. What motivate my suggestion are two comments: From this thread, "And he's just pulled the "other people talked about cocksucking" argument. Argh."; from the Firefly thread, ""MT's a hottie" is ok? Is the semantic content of that any different from what I said?"

I just feel that making explicit that community standards here, including what constitutes 'offensive', are set by the community, puts us in a stronger position when confronted with objections such as these. (Because it strikes me that his objections, not to mention his charge of hypocrisy, indicate that he believes, or at least will argue, that there should be some defined gold standard of offensiveness.) It will, after all, come down to community standards anyway.