BS: Guest Postings

Subject: RE: BS: Guest Postings
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 10:08 AM

Re snooty, I always rather liked Lord Snooty in the Beano. I haven't met anyone here (yet) who I'd call snooty. Some people are a bit fierce, but that's fine by me.

Subject: RE: BS: Guest Postings
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 10:10 AM

" s/he can be held responsible in the course of a discussion. "

Unless you and I have wildly different ideas of what "held responsible" means that kind of implies that we as members are empowered to "punish" infractions. As I read the rules, we are not. We are simply asked to be "nice" to one another, as Joe has put it.

But I have to say I like the phrasing in the written rules much better. Don't be impolite, Don't be argumentative, Don't be unkind, Don't be snooty, leaves a lot more room to express our personality traits. IMHO.

There is one argument in favor of anonymous posting. It would tend to reset long standing disputes for each thread. To many threads descend into long standing personality conflicts IMHO.

Subject: RE: BS: Guest Postings
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 10:56 AM

" s/he can be held responsible in the course of a discussion. "

Unless you and I have wildly different ideas of what "held responsible" means that kind of implies that we as members are empowered to "punish" infractions. As I read the rules, we are not.

Of course we are allowed to cricicize each other, on moral or intellectual grounds, and it is perfectly legitimate to do so. But even if no criticism is expressed, the poster's reputation can suffer damage - undeserved if caused by an impostor. Messages with monickers of a well-established bad reputation are likely to be ignored altogether by reasonable participants; this can be more effective a punishment than someone shouting "Order!". Musket seems to be afraid of it for good reasons.

The other participants of a discussion, including Mudcat members, may not want to waste their zeal on messages that appear to be by a regular poster but are in fact by a spurious troll.

Subject: RE: BS: Guest Postings
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 11:45 AM

"For my $0.02 worth; I feel that nobody should be allowed to post unless and until they have joined up, got a proper moniker and agreed to observe the spirit and intent of the forum."

You have every right to feel that way, but I would really regret it if that were made the rule. I submit that we have a number of folk participating regularly as guests who behave better ( observe the spirit and intent of the forum better) and contribute more worthwhile content than a number of members. Also, if you really understood the seriousness of what some members were put through here, through no fault of their own, I think you would be more accepting if a former member-with-moniker would rather sign in as just guest now.