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Old 09-25-2009, 11:05 PM   #17 (permalink)
SecretMethod70
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The chat rules exist to create a very general understanding of what kind of behavior is expected. They do not exist to create a rigid set of laws that we must follow against our better judgment. This actually provides a great opportunity to explain what is meant by letter G.

To use an example from today, there was a user named "x" lurking in chat. The person was not causing a problem, didn't respond to anything, and nothing was going on in chat that could in any way be considered sensitive. So, I decided to let "x" remain and wait it out, figuring it's probably a TFP user who was away from the computer and unable to fix their username. It was apparently extremely distressing that I was not immediately and without question banning user "x" because of rule C. Despite repeated explanations that "x" was not causing any problems and I wanted to take a wait and see approach, I was accused of showing "favoritism"... toward a silent user who I did not even know the identity of. After growing weary of debating the issue, I relented and banned "x" against my better judgment, immediately removing the ban so that the person who I suspected was an innocent and genuine TFP user could rejoin the room when they returned. That user did return not much later and revealed himself to be xerxys. He accidentally typed x when he entered and was away from the computer since then. When he returned to the computer, he was met with a message that he had been banned from the chat room, which I'm sure confused him quite a bit. If I had applied the rules as rigidly as suggested, he would still be banned from the chat room for no reason whatsoever, other than a typo.

This is a far different situation from the incident that occurred a week ago and inspired the rule. That time, there was someone who deliberately (note, this word is in the rule) chose the name "anonymoususer" and was responding to messages. I asked for him to change to his TFP username or provide me with a good explanation as to why he needed an anonymous name, and he refused to identify himself. He claimed he wanted to see what kind of discussion goes on in the chat room, to which I responded by asking him why he needed to be anonymous if he's just observing. Again, he refused to change his name, or even tell me in private what his TFP identity is. After being challenged by me and, well, every single other person who was active in chat at the time, he logged out. If he hadn't, I was about ready to ban him.

Zero tolerance is no way to enforce rules. Letter G exists simply to spell out that fact, and that is exactly the context in which it was explained. Not even by me, but by another fellow user. This should not be difficult to grasp.

As for the rules in general, there's pretty much nothing here that does not also apply to the site as a whole. They're quite uncontroversial rules.
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