Writer's Guidelines and Policy

Banning some words HERE on This Website

Positive Psychology is run with a Web 2.0 bottom up philosophy of management.

No word banning will take place. We'll be instituting several software solutions:
    -member ranking comments on several parameters
    -member burying of comments, like digg.com does.
    -allowing more members to hide or delete troll rated comments, including bigoted ones.
    -word recognition software to cue writers with suggestions, if they use language that tends to be abused.

The fact is that the words we chose really are used by bigots to hide behind to express hate. There are legitimate uses for them and there are abuses. Anyone who denies this is naive, disingenuous or fool. We'll be having community discussions on what constitutes reasonable usage and unreasonable usage and then creating FAQs based on member conclusions of the discussions. Those will be used as both non-mandatory guidelines for writers and commenters as well as for editors and trusted authors who will be deciding on troll ratings.

The only rare exception to this rule, will be the use of the terms to discuss how others are using them. For example, if a writer on another site, or a politician refers to the term, then discussion of that person or media site's use of the term will probably acceptable. This does not mean that quoting others is acceptable. It is not. For example, if Senator Hatch describes the world Islamicist plot to force sharia to be observed planet-wide, then it would be appropriate to discuss his use of the word.


While we're at it, the "N" word is also banned, except in circumstances like those described above, and even then, it should be referred to as "the N word." (Curse words are discouraged. The "C" word, offensive to many women, is also banned, and bigoted and hate speech are not tolerated.

Violators will be warned, and depending on their connection to the community, be given one or more chances, unless it is their first posting, in which case, they may be summarily banned. You dont' start off a conversation in a new community with hate speech, or language that is oft abused for hate speech.

We believe that this policy will build on the civility and integrity of the site. Those who want to raise complaints will be able to do so, but will be required to do it with language that is precise, clear and aimed at shining light on truth, not indulging anger or hate.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

 
Added after comments started:

    Wikipedia defines censorship :

        Censorship is defined as the removal and/or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body.

    There's none of that here-- just the challenge to use other words.

    The truth is that if the words were used with integrity and good intentions, there wouldn't be a problem But they are not. They are abused as thinly veiled ways for some people to spew their hate. This is abusive and painful to many and there is no reason why it should be tolerated. In a totally controlled media situation, like most mainstream media sites operate, it is possible to pay someone to screen every comment before it is posted. There, that kind of use of the words can be filtered out. But we don't have those resources here, so we made a choice, to protect our readers, our community from such abuse.