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Chat rules

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Everybody, newcomers as well as "old-timers", should feel welcome to discuss Objectivism, philosophy, horses, women, or whatever they want.

Unfortunately many newcomers leave the chat, never to return, because they have been badly treated or because it sometimes just seems impossible to have a civilized discussion.

Therefore we need some basic rules. The premise for my rules is: what promotes a civilized discussion?

What is a civilized discussion? It is a benevolent and polite discussion. Not necessarily a *rational* discussion, a discussion where everybody only say true things or make rational arguments.

It is true that in any heated discussion people will get emotional and they will therefore say things that hurt other people's emotions. This is a natural part of any discussion. I will, within reason, show tolerance for this.

So far there is only one rule:

• No trolling. What is it? To write things *for the sole purpose of provoking people*; things to make people mad, sad, hurt, offended, etc. To merely say something that some people *may* find provoking is not enough.

Example: "Why are all of you Objectivists cultists? Can't you think independently?" vs "Premise 1, 2 and 3. Therefore are you irrational."

The former comment is obviously made for the purpose of provoking. This will not be tolerated.

The latter comment may offend, but it was not said for the purpose of offending anybody. Remember also that it is virtually impossible to say anything without offending somebody. This will, therefore, be tolerated.

Do not worry. There will be room for jokes and humorous comments. Context will determine how these rules apply.

For the sake of simplicity I will try to limit the number of rules as much as possible. I hope there will never be more than three simple rules. Those who break the rules will get kicked. If you repeatedly, over a long period of time, break the rules, when it is obvious that you are just a troll and nothing else, then you will be banned.

If you got any objections to the rules, then please let me know.

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I have, as you can see, only one rule: no trolling. But there is more to trolling than I gave in my example. If you want an extended elaboration on what I count as trolling, then please consult the forum rules here.

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I think that even if one does not INTEND to troll or to be disruptive as such, then there should still be recourse to kick the user. In such cases where the user is contributing nothing and is annoying the chat users and being overly disruptive / offensive etc in general AFTER it is made clear that they are doing so. I see no good reason why the chat users should have to suffer because someone fails to notice that he is simply being disruptive or falsely beleives the he / she is simply defending oneself against unjustice. If he feels he needs to do this, then that is what the forum staff should be for (or the chat moderator).

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think there's a pretty common trend among people in chat to label someone a troll for some very minor comment, the labeling is automatically taken as true, and then the people in chat all become antagonizing to the supposed "Troll", creating a situation where there was none. If we're going to be kicking people for being a "Troll" then the standard of what a troll is will have to be much more than "Somebody saying stuff that I don't want to talk about right now."

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I think there's a pretty common trend among people in chat to label someone a troll for some very minor comment, the labeling is automatically taken as true, and then the people in chat all become antagonizing to the supposed "Troll", creating a situation where there was none. If we're going to be kicking people for being a "Troll" then the standard of what a troll is will have to be much more than "Somebody saying stuff that I don't want to talk about right now."

I do think that troll can be defined a little better. Anyone in chat should demonstrate interest to learn about Objectivism, such as asking specific questions relating to works by Rand or idea relating to Objectivism. This does not mean everyone has to be an Objectivist-minded person. There are some trickier cases, but when questions get repetitive enough in style and topic, and comments are more inflammatory than anything, it is reasonable to give a warning that the user should not talk in chat until they've shown their interest, through a forum post for example.

Edited by Eiuol
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  • 3 weeks later...

Often time though people chat (like me) without the intention of specifically talking about Objectivism but rather for the the enjoyment of talking with objectivists.

True, though I should say I am referring to when there is discussion on topics relating Objectivism. It's different if you wanted to argue about everything in order to say how wrong Objectivist thought is on a particular topic.

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Often time though people chat (like me) without the intention of specifically talking about Objectivism but rather for the the enjoyment of talking with objectivists.

I only got on it once, for similar reasons. If it means we have to stick to tightly controlled subjects, then I don't know that I care to get back on. :huh:

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I only got on it once, for similar reasons. If it means we have to stick to tightly controlled subjects, then I don't know that I care to get back on. :huh:

That's not the case at all. Or just to clarify I didn't mean to imply subjects must be tightly controlled, only that the chat isn't a place for, say, some Christian trying to prove to everyone god exists and that's it. It would, however, be fine for them to ask questions about Objectivism, or just speak of more casual things like some movie released recently.

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