Gentlemen -
As the result of a number of complaints regarding the titular thread, causing me to have to look through it carefully, I have temporarily quarantined it. It hasn't been deleted or altered in any way yet, just moved. Whilst I do what's necessary, I would very VERY much appreciate it if readers would please - for my sake - not engage in public speculation, mud-flinging, or any other such activities that will cause an undue amount of work for the one person here who has to be moderator.
One thing that did cause me to stop and think - and realise a shortcoming of the forum - was this:
far as I can find this site has NO rules or guidelines
That brought me up short. I could have sworn there were some rules and guidelines.... and there are! But it turns out, you only get one shot at reading them - when you register as a new user - and then they never get seen again. I shall rectify that properly over the next couple of days, but here - for your reading pleasure, is the LEGAL AGREEMENT that you all signed up to when you joined:
This text is the binding legal agreement you must agree to to become a member here:
You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.
Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.
You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.
You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason. We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.
After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.
Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.
Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.In respect of the thread which triggered this latest round of, can I say this, bitchy snarking, I would like to specifically emphasise some of the DO NOTs from the above:
...you will not post any material which is false,
defamatory, inaccurate,
abusive,
vulgar,
hateful,
harassing, obscene,...
As someone else said - we're all adults here. Most of us are probably quite old an cantankeous. Many of us are opinionated, some of us (I include myself, BTW, in this bracket) extraordinarily so. But that really doesn't mean we need to stoop to the level of today's snowflake millenial twitter-hater - either in how we respond to other members, or how we write our messages. It seems to me that the rise and rise of "social media" (Twitter, Facebook, message boards like this one, comment sections on newpaper articles & so on) has caused a massive increase in just how much anger and hate we're (we the human race, not we the LEF members...) willing to pour over complete strangers, just because they have a different opinion on a matter to someone. As we're generally older, probably wiser, and mostly more experienced in life than the sort of idiots who infest Twitter with their constant effing and blinding, let's try to make LEF a more pleasant place to be eh?
BTW: None of the legal rules above apply, as far as I know, to private messages - so if you really want to chew someone out, send a PM