There was a great thread started by Gnu about how it was nice to see so many old friends posting again on the Forum, and suggesting that the disrespectful language being used in posts was one factor that has 'turned off' a lot of people who would be posting valuable and insightful information and opinions.

Unfortunately, the thread descended into name calling once again, and was closed.

There have been calls for tougher moderation....deleting such posts. However, I don't think it's fair for one or two people to have to do that.....and, as was pointed out, there then end up being accusations of unfairness.

I'd like to suggest something.

I know that often controversial posts can lead to some strong and passionate opinions, and sometimes we end up letting our negative emotions take us to a place where we might 'over-do' our zeal.

Rather than risking all the discussion becoming academic and flat, I'd like to suggest that we all agree on one 'boundary' statement, which is that we will not accept one person consistently calling another person a name that is meant to demean them.   

I can think of two instances where I witnessed this and was really turned off.   In Gnu's thread one person posting kept referring to Jack as Wacko (I think that was the name). And I witnessed a previous thread where another regular poster kept referring to a person who's opinions he didn't respect as 'goofball'.   

If everybody made it clear that this will not be tolerated, posted a huge STOP!!!! after any post where that is happening, let the poster know that this insulting name is not acceptable, then refused to engage with this person in that post or any other post until they apologized and promised to cease and desist from such behaviour..........my guess is that this kind of behaviour would become rare.

Who's in?