Freedom of expression, if it's the right kind

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fyoung:
Say what you want about Bill Clinton no matter how abusive or distorted, but don't make a reasonable and measured response to a Moderator, or the axe drops.
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Frederick -

I think you've got it!

The President is a political figure. Our WebMaster now allows discussion of politics in one or two threads at a time in the "Other" forum. And "abusive or distorted" verbage is par for the course in political discussions. That's one of the reasons the WebMaster has asked us to limit the number of active threads on political discussion. So you're welcome to describe political figures or ideas with abusive or distorted language, as long as you do it in one of the designated threads in the Other forum.

But no one is allowed to criticize or heap abusive or distorted language on a moderator who is doing his job. If anyone disagrees with, or wants to heap abusive or distorted language on, a moderator for their official actions on this website, then the place to do it is via private e-mail to the WebMaster and/or to the moderator involved.

Even "reasonable and measured response to a Moderator" must be done via e-mail, not in the public forums. The public forums are not to be used to discuss a particular case of moderation. General discussion of the operation of this website, such as your post above, are welcome in the Ford-diesel.com forum.

If anyone wants to ***** about "the system", then good, do it here. But if anyone wants to ***** about an individual, do it in private. Probably the same general rule that Frederick Young enforced in his company before he retired.

And don't expect an immediate reply from the WebMaster. He gets a ton of e-mails each day, and yours is not more important than the others. He'll get to it as soon as he finds a round toit.

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Ford-Diesel.com is a member-supported website, for more info: Click here. ........ Ole retired guy in west Texas with Darling Wife and Sierra Blanca - the white mountain of a '99.5 F250 diesel-powered CrewCab.

[This message has been edited by SmokeyWren (edited 01-21-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kreynol2:
Abusive and distorted language is no part of an intelligent debate on anything. Yes, it happens when people cannot control themselves, but I don't think that it has a place in a reasonable, cordial debate.
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Oh, I agree with you completely. But I don't think the WebMaster wants me to put on my moderator hat and squash every post that calls Clinton a masher or Bush a coward. Namecalling of other members will not be tolerated, but namecalling of politicians or their ideas is to be expected - even though perhaps you and I don't believe it should be allowed.

>>>It is probably not something the Moderator needs to respond to, but we can at least recognize it for what it is - ranting, not debating. <<<

The only way to prevent it is to disallow discussions of political subjects and controversial non-truck subjects on the website. That would be my preference - but I was overruled by my WebMaster. So we'll do it his way.


[This message has been edited by SmokeyWren (edited 01-21-2000).]