Thank you DU for having the good sense to have the I/P forum and 9/11 forum

It's amazing that people are given their own forums for these discussions then bitch about having a place for them.

to marginalize the discussion of what's REALLY driving the agenda in this world.

ok

and when it can not be talked about anywhere else it is to... what you are talking about is know as separate BUT equal.

and so it goes...

StudsT

:shrug:

To segregate discussion of these major world events and apply "special rules" to that discussion is ridiculous. Regular DU rules would be sufficient to keep discussion within reasonable bounds. i.e. if somebody posted "Blame everything on the fucking Jews" or "God Damned Islamofascists want to kill us all" those sort of bigoted statements would already be against the rules, so why not allow discussion of major current news stories in LBN or GD?

festering sewers of hate. During the Lebanon war, it got completely out of hand when DU was opened up for discussions of I/P. Fortunately, this time things are better. In 2005, it wasn't just a matter of a few people posting hate, it was thread after thread and comment after comment. There were lots of tombstonings, and the work it created for the mods was overwhelming.

That is marginalizing.

To relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing.

Rather, I dislike the way their differing rules are used to squelch discussions that begin elsewhere-- and you must admit, the issues I raised in my OP are relevant and important. This is especially true of I/P, where original discussion threads are not allowed.

as you ask.

I thought your OP was a reference to this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4729484&mesg_id=4729484

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=230600&mesg_id=230600

StudsT

Israel/Palestine is a topic that like other contentious ones is discussed more in terms of black and white than with shades of gray. Just like with Rick Warren, where most of the threads result in one side saying that the other supports bigotry and then one side saying that the other hates Obama. In the Israel/Palestine case it boils down to the two sides accusing each other of supporting the murder of innocent women and children. The difference is that Rick Warren will stop being discussed eventually. Israel/Palestine will not being discussed anytime soon.

The rules in the Israel/Palestine forum exist because otherwise there would be too many alerts for the moderators, who are human beings remember, to possibly handle. Additionally every time the moderators have to make a decision on that forum it is very often contentious and then just creates more problems. That is also why only a few experienced moderators handle the Israel/Palestine forum.

If you want to post pictures or discuss your thoughts about the subject, there are plenty of places that you can start your own blog or website for free or plenty of other sites that you can post on.

...creating the I/P forum was like giving Tiny Tim a crutch.

Are you really that ignorant of the history of how the I/P forum came about or are you just putting on some act?

PB

Is that so much to ask?

Bodi wold be a great name, imho.

It's an acronym for Barack Obama, Democrat, Illinois, and it's an abbreviation of the Sanskrit word Boddhisattva meaning "enlightenment being", and it sounds like a cool dog name. Two sylables, hard consonant in the middle, like Snoopy or Odie.



So, can I have my own forum to discuss this?


(mostly kidding)

Yeah, having just one catchall forum instead of a bunch of categorized forums is a swell idea.

that you chose to respond to my post instead of the several others with whom I seem to be in accord.

I believe one of the core issues on this is not so much the special forum, but the unique handling rules that don't seem to apply to other issues/phorums.

:P

The way you worded yours flowed well with how I wanted to respond to this thread. People forget just how much conversation goes on here day-to-day. Big ticket topics like Sports, Primaries or General Election politics, or to wit the Israel/Palestine shenanigans really do need their own forums lest everything else be lost in their morass.

on the underscoring of the different rules as applied, didn't you?

You both seem to be underscoring the numbers. That's not the point of contention here.

he may have invited us in, but that doesn't mean we get to make house rules.

Why don't you answer mike_c or greyhound1966 or others?

Is there something painful about the free speech zone comparison?

The free speech zone was set up by our gov't and it's (imo) unconstitutional. DU is a private entity. When you're in someone else's home, they have every right to make the rules.

We get the numbers bit. What you are not addressing is what seems to be a valid point of contention:

"It ensures that nobody that isn't actively looking for it will never know what is going on.
That is marginalizing.
To relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing." (greyhound1966)

"I'm not averse to the forums....
Rather, I dislike the way their differing rules are used to squelch discussions that begin elsewhere-- and you must admit, the issues I raised in my OP are relevant and important. This is especially true of I/P, where original discussion threads are not allowed." (mike_c)

I might have missed where you argued against those two posts, for example. Marginalization...differing rules...

Someone else made a sarcastic comment about GLBT forum and Rick Warren threads. I perceive a disparity here and made my free speech zone comment. It was enough to get two of you to respond with the numbers argument. I'm not sure why.

"It ensures that nobody that isn't actively looking for it will never know what is going on.
That is marginalizing.
To relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing." (greyhound1966)

Bathrooms are usually located inconspicuously, so when someone comes into Skinner's living room, they have to say, "hey, where's your bathroom?" Skinner says: "Over there." Just like someone coming into General Discussion says "where do the 9/11 whackos hang?" Skinner says: "Right over here. Knock yourself out."

"I'm not averse to the forums....
Rather, I dislike the way their differing rules are used to squelch discussions that begin elsewhere-- and you must admit, the issues I raised in my OP are relevant and important. This is especially true of I/P, where original discussion threads are not allowed." (mike_c)


Just like Skinner's bathroom, he doesn't mind if you eat, shit or fart in there. Hell, take a shower if you need to. But don't take a dinner plate of food in there and start eating, or take his TV and DVD player and start watching Star Wars in there, for christ's sake! Different room, different rules. Differnt forum, different rules.

For the record, I don't bitch about the I/P forum existing. I like it how it is and don't want anything to change. What has annoyed me over the past day or so is the torrent of threads started in GD that have been dumped in the I/P forum. Most of them are just people venting one way or the other about the events in Gaza, and by the time they get to the I/P forum they're mainly full of insults being flung and little else. I'd be happy if the GD mods just locked the threads and be done with it. What I do know is I would never want to discuss the I/P conflict in the GD forum based on some observations I've made about this forum, and can't really see why people don't just come to the I/P forum if they want to talk about the conflict and start new threads that comply with the what is really easy to follow I/P forum guidelines...

Well, that's my annual GD post over with :)

maybe someone should petition the mods to start one.

We did not have a special "Russia v Georgia" forum...and we don't need an "India v Pakistan" forum..

It's sad to think that a front page "war" cannot be spoken about, except in the "basement"..behind the furnace...after the secret-knock..:(

It might just be that, once again, the hyper-religious cannot discuss things without automatically assuming that anyone who does not agree with them, is somehow attacking their god:(

for open discussions. That's what makes them open. I mean you can say what ever you want as long as it is within the rules. I am guessing that is what will happen to any topic that makes someone in power feel a little uncomfortable with. So GLTB may get their "own" forum soon as well.

What I don't understand is why is it that the visitors from these two forums do 100% of the complaining about having their own forums? You never see visitors from the "sports" forum, or "pets" forum, or any other forum for that matter, come in here whining "how come we can't talk about A-Rod in general discussion???" or "how come we can't talk about my kitty Mitsy having the sniffles in this forum???"

and so it goes...

StudsT

and the non-editorializing without an article reeks of censorship though.