Only one poster had proposed deleting posts. For the record, I'm against it. There are ways to hold and air opposing view points in an argument, without being nasty. If/when someone is nasty, he or she should be called on it. I think we're a sensitive, sensible and polite group of people, but I don't think we're delicate hot-house flowers that need to be sheltered and really prevented from discussing a topic. The guidelines can be laid forth in the thread slug. Posters will be expected to adhere to those guidelines in the same way in which we're expected to adhere to the spoiler marking policy in show threads.

Of course if someone comes in and types - You're all fuckers, we could delete it, but why? What we'd actually want to do is educate the person on the ways of this community, and then, if that person refuses to play by our sandbox rules, we deal with them.

We had anti-Joss crusaders come into the Firefly thread a while back. We didn't shut down the thread because of that. We dealth with the problem. The Natter thread got spammed by "Christian Dollar Store". We didn't shut down the thread, we dealt with the problem.

So to be sure I'm clear, you want a war thread which won't get "too political." A war thread to discuss what's going on and the buffista perspective on it, as long as politics stays out of it?

Huh. Not sure I'm understanding the point of the thread then.

Also wanted to add... even Lyra Jane, who is a huge proponent of thread creation (sorry if I'm mischaracterizing you, Lyra Jane, but I'm calling it how I see it based on your support of new threads) feels that politics is outside the scope of this board. (See Lyra Jane "Bureaucracy 1: Like Kafka, Only Funnier" Jan 3, 2003 12:13:36 pm EST for context).

I'm not sure you can start a war thread and honestly believe to separate it from politics in general. Morevoer, I'm also not sure if I thought outside the usual buffista mainstream that I would want to post about it because I wouldn't want it to be considered "too political or overly argumentative."

I think there's a difference between making it a general politics thread, and discussing war - which of course cannot be divorced completely from politics. I feel like trying to qualify the discussion in the thread before it ever takes place is perhaps a bit unfair to the people who want and will use this thread. Of course there will be political thought, there is in Natter and the show threads as well. But the thread will be focused on the efforts towards war and peace.

Kat, I think my phrasing was specifically because of those concerns. We've said in the past that we didn't want a politics thread for those very divisive and ranty reasons. I agree that it would be difficult to separate. But I also agree that people may need a war-free-natter zone, too.

So it's a toughie. We didn't create a terrorism thread during 9/11. We talked about it in Natter exclusively (that is to say, that's all we talked about) for a while, and then slowly went back to what we used to call normality. You could avoid it by staying in topic-specific threads at the time, I think. But that was one specific event that directly affected Buffistas, as well as the indirect effect on all of us, so it's a little different.

In some ways I'd rather have it in the general flow of Natter, and I, of course am anti-proliferation (don't give up!), but I do want to be sensitive to those who aren't wanting to deal with it day by day.

So far, we've been civil, even in our disagreements, but so far we haven't disagreed terribly much, and right now it's all putative. Once our families and friends are in the line of fire, our emotional capacity may exceed our ability to accept dissenting opinions.

I definitely agree with a non-specific title, because our title page is googleable, and just as we drew a Firefly crowd, we could easily draw non-Buffista-type posters looking for a fight. About peace.

If we have to have it. Which I'm pondering.

I'm going to try and keep this brief.

I am in favour of a place to discuss the international tensions (troop movements, military action) which will not make people feel uncomfortable about doing so. If we create a thread to make that space, I'm in favour of not calling it "The War Thread". I would probably read it, and if I felt I had something to say I would probably post. I hope that it would be more about the effects of military action on Buffistas personally, whether physically or emotionally, rather than about the grand sweeps of politics. On the other hand, I fully expect normal Buffista thread drift- to be moderated by the high standards of politeness, tolerance, and friendship that Buffistas maintain.

I did a search on my own name a while back, I'm not sure why but it was a random thing. I don't remember there being a link to the Buffistas in the mix though.

I change my vote. I oppose a War Thread on the grounds that there are many many many other places to discuss foreign policy and politics. We're not Table Talk. We're Buffistas. We're more culture-y, pop and otherwise.

I think... I think I'm with Jengod. We're not an all-purpose board, we're an arts-and-pop-culture board, with a fair amount of socializing. And while the war is going to have an impact on our lives, I am afraid that segregating the conversation outside of Natter will encourage a type of behavior in that thread that isn't common to this community.

I'm also sure that whatever gets discussed in that new thread would bleed over into the other threads, and since we know the war would be discussed everywhere, the way such things are, why set up a new thread to contain it? We know it won't.

Also, the troll issue, which others have mentioned. The political climate here is strongly left/progressive (no offense intended to the community members who aren't of that persuasion), and I think we'd be seen as a prime target for trollers who are both strongly to the right and not possessed of the kind of civility we cherish here. Even having the thread title not reference the war directly wouldn't keep them out forever.

Does that make sense? In any event, I don't expect to read the thread. I'm floating down the river in Egypt.

I agree with the no war thread group. Like Schmoker, I won't go in anyway, but I do think it would cause problems.