Just been skimming over your restrictive language warning dated 3/3/2009.
Request for a Duel Page.
As a person who lives among the working classes, and am proud of that fact, sometimes I am proned merely by birth right to suffer from “foot in mouth disease” and let out the odd piece off colourful language here and there and; also, as a person who sometimes confronts others who I have deemed, even if ever so slightly, to have “paid me out” so I “pay them back” with a little stronger language than is necessary; is it not fair to request, say that if the situation does get out of hand and two people are going at each others throats and the moderator steps in to say “break it up!!!”, a page in the BBQ pit where the opposing elements could spit it all out, have their sling match, shake hands, and depart on reasonably good terms?
You know, as long as its not overtly racist or callous to the point of evil or any thing like that, I think it would be a better idea than a severe warning or banning some poor sod with good intentions but bad dictionary sense.
There could be rules like no swearing, no slander,et cetera. It could be done in good taste like a contest of smartass (winner) versus dumbass (loser) kind of thing and all the other dopers could have a vote on who is the winner.
My suggestion would be have a Five for Five shot where the challenger goes first with a comment to be followed with a right of reply from the other.
At the end of the ten comments its put to the people to decide for the day and whammo: Game Over!
If the beef continues then comes the warnings and bannings.
What you’re describing is pretty much what we already have in the Pit. Private one-on-one conversations don’t really work on a message board, but you can have them through email or private messages. People can post their opinions about who won or lost an argument, but I don’t think we want to get into the business of making it an official contest.
I think a Duel Page would be like the BBQ Pit, but with lots of rules. And I think we don’t need any stinking rules: no holds barred (except for Ed’s squeamishness about certain language) and anyone joining in the fight if they want to works well.
What’s more, we don’t need winners or losers, partly because on some kinds of issues neither side will want to concede that they’ve lost.
(except that a lot of us don’t believe in that “One Great Scorer”.)
I was under the impression you could cuss all you like here. You can say fuck and cunt and cock in any forum. There are just a few insults that cannot be directed toward other SDMB posters (including “go fuck yourself,” or the cunt-word).
That’s what I love about this place, moderation with a bit o’ wit.
But if you think he’s completely joking, check out the Paterno “discussion”, where it’s devolved into “Pedophile!”,“Pederast!”,“Pediatrist!”,“Pedestrian!”… for two weeks running, now…
