Question about insults in GD

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1

Based on this thread, I was wondering what would garner a mod warning in Great Debates when a situation similar to this happens: (i’m not saying this is what happened in the quoted thread, though)

I’m pretty sure this would be fine -

  • because, while it’s likely that a number of members of the board have blue as their favourite colour, Poster A isn’t directly insulting someone (assuming no mentions of colour preference have been talked about). So, what about this situation -

Would this count as a personal insult? It would be insulting a wide range of people, of whom Poster B knows A to be one. It’s clearly different from this situation -

  • in that in this third situation, it is not an insult directed at a particular member of the board (unless Poster A happens to know Poster B’s colour preference beforehand). So, in that second situation, is Poster B directly insulting Poster A, and would he/she get a mod warning?
2

I can’t speak for Great Debates, but I can speak for Cafe Society. In the particular thread in question, the situation seems to be:

The comment of Poster B, although thinly disguised, is clearly directed at poster A as an individual, and that’s not allowed. I suppose you could say that it was directed at all posters who like blue who used the word “transcendental” but gimme a break.

In a situation of:

… I think it depends on context, and the forum. We recently had a similar case in Cafe Society, a discussion about the music of certain singer: some people like her, some people hate her, some are indifferent. In that case, saying “All people who like her are stupid” is, in fact, an insult to the posters. Yes, it may be insulting them as part of a group, but in the context of the discussion, that’s not what’s happening. That’s no way to win an agrument, by calling your opponents stupid. And that’s no way to justify a matter of taste about entertainment.

In short, there’s no way to write up rules or definitions short of about 700 volumes. It depends on context. Obviously, however, if the group being insulted is based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, etc. then we’re in different territory altogether.

And, by the way, a thread in which the opening post was

would go in the Pit, not in Great Debates nor in Cafe Society.