I think it's possible, but I think we would need to go into it with the understanding that if someone got too political or argumentative they would be deleted. The question would be drawing the line (e.g., if "Bush is a warmonger" is okay, why not "Bush stole the 200 election"?), but I have faith in our moderators.
A) We don't have moderators. We have people who are able to do technical things on the site, but they are not moderators -- they just enact the Will of the Buffistas. If you know what I mean.
B) I'm completely against deleting posts. It's not something we do here. I believe only posts in wrong places and obvious spam have been deleted by Stompies. We, as a community, commit to calling people on it if they are out of line. This is true in every thread, on every topic of discussion.
Jesse,
A)I used the term moderators because I was writing quickly; I meant "methods of moderation." Which include community discussion, techies/Stompy feet, etc. Perhaps I should have just written that I trust the Buffistas.
B)If we've decided we want a war thread but not a political thread, and that we do not want angry debate, then a political or ranty/shouty/obnoxious post in the war thread is just as "out of place" as someone offering sympathy in Beep Me or a non-whitefonted spoiler outside the spoiler thread. Deleting things for tone is against my normal pro-free speech position, but I think it's likely to become necessary to maintain the thread as we're now envisioning it at some point. I agree that it should not be a regular occurance or a first choice.
suggested title: What is it good for?
not that I will subscribe or read, I am just on a mission to make every thread title an earworm.
If we just name it What Is It Good For, it may help us hide it from people googling for a place to argue the war. (I mean "hide" in a good way - as in it's something I think we might want to do.) I'd approach the thread (and I think Buffistas in general would approach the thread) as a place for discussion as opposed to fighting. So although I know we're kind of against voting on a name for this, I'd just like to support msbelle's suggestion.
eta - That was a cool number, by accident, too.
I really like "What is it good for" as a title. It makes it clear what the thread's about, it implies the tone a lot of seem to want, and it'll be google-proof. You know, should anyone be crazy enough to google "Freddie Prinze slash +war"
Go monkey! Choose monkey!
Seeing this comment mixed in with the war thread discussions really threw me. Sometimes skimming can cause intense brain blips.
I think it's possible, but I think we would need to go into it with the understanding that if someone got too political or argumentative they would be deleted.
You have not even opened the thread yet, and I am thinking this is a really, really bad idea.
Most of you know how I post. Worrying about someone getting all excited by my posts isn't generally part of my thought process. But that's because they are about a television show.
You all are talking about starting a thread for the most serious and personal discussion topic of all time. Dark Magic, people. You should know by know that never works out well.
God knows I won't go it in there. Not certain how I could even begin to phrase any post so that it would be offensive to no one. Even saying "I'm in favor of the war" or "I'm against it" will likely piss off some people.
Of course, no me in there might mean a lot less hooliganism, so that's probably a good thing. Still, I think a War Thread wouldn't need me in there in order to be a freaky place to hang out on a snowy Sunday. Why not open up an Abortion Thread while you are at it? And how about Election 2000: The Rehash?
But maybe you all have done this before and it worked out fine. If so, more power to you, and I won't be come in and screw it up for you. I'll just hang out in Angel and post my odes to WesLah, or hang out in Firefly and cry, cry, cry all the way home.
War thread. I think it should be created because it would be helpful to have a Buffista safe place to vent, comfort and discuss. I don't want to think about a title. I'm still in a "I wish we didn't have to think about this" place.
Schmoker - I think most Buffistas who are in a place where they can't discuss it in the Buffista way, will make the choice you're making up front. I'm not saying there will never be tension, but it's not as if we'd forbid the topic in Natter. I see the War thread as a way to keep Natter an emotionally safe zone for people who don't want to discuss it, ever, yet give a forum to people who need to discuss it.
Cindy, it just seems like a really bad omen that we are talking about deleting posts before the thread even opens.
