lots of people would support me but you're bullies and they don't want to speak out

Hey, I'm with Jon. "The people who are supporting *me* are the people who signed checks. You want to support the rights of the differently mannered? Go build your own damned board."

The people who are supporting *me* are the people who signed checks.

Umm, I don't think the Buffistas that sent money have more rights than the ones that didn't. That's not all that building the board is about.

The argument that "we're the community, and it's offensive, and we know what's offensive to the community because the community is us" is a rather circular one.

Tha's really the point. We didn't take action because it was offensive (in any free-floating sense of the word), but because it was offensive to the community. Whereupon your statement becomes definitional rather than circular.

But, as you point out, the target audience of the etiquette guide (ie newbies) aren't all going to read 'offensive' as 'offensive to the community' without it being explicitly stated (and those most likely to fall foul of it are the ones least likely to read it as such). As happened here.

I brought up that "we paid for it and coded it" argument a long long time ago and someone said it wasn't sensible to express it in that way, but I can't remember who or why.

Signed, I Both Paid And Coded

Oh yeah, if I'm going to do the Devil's Advocate thing, what about when the Popular Kids or the Stompy Feet disagree?

Earlier on Plasmo proposed that if 3 Stompies thought you were an asshole, you got the warning, but what if three did and three thought you were hilarious?

No, I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. When the statement is "You're conspiring against me", the answer is "The people who have been here a long time form the community whose standards are being enforced. One of the ways they formed this community was to build this board." I don't mean (and shouldn't have said) that people who sent money had more rights than people who didn't; I mean that the people who, one way and another, built the community own it.

You can join any time you like. But if you act like a jerk, the reason we have a right to call you on it is that this is our town, we built it, and we like it the way we built it.

three did and three thought you were hilarious?

Then I figure we shrug and deal for awhile.

Yeah, the community isn't defined as who paid, it's defined as who contributes. Which includes all kinds of people who've contributed their words and thoughts and etc. as well as the people who contributed their money. There are lurkers who paid, and they'd have a hard time speaking up against someone rude, just because most people wouldn't know their names.

I don't think the Buffistas that sent money have more rights than the ones that didn't. That's not all that building the board is about.

Aha, that may have been the objection that was raised, yes.

Here's my counter-argument. My contribution was on behalf of both me and [insert name here] who couldn't afford it, but was around back then.

Me, I didn't pay. Sure, spurious what with the coding, but still.

If we were selling rights (or trading them for work), we should have said up front.

As a Stompy, I'm torn. I do not want to be argued with when action is called for. And I don't want to be where all the decision lies.

That having been said, I think the Stompy Foot mix is sufficient that the Most Sensitive Common Denominator is a good guide.

three did and three thought you were hilarious?

Then I figure we shrug and deal for awhile.

And, of course, we discuss it here like adults.