ATTN: New GD Guidelines for Threads Relating to the Middle East Situation

[EarlG]

A few weeks ago the Admins held a vote on whether or not discussion of the current Middle East situation involving Israel and Lebanon should be moved to the Israel/Palestine forum, which has special rules to govern the discussion of this very difficult issue. At the time, DU members voted 65%-33% to continue discussion in the General Discussion forum and we abided by that decision.

Now that a few weeks have passed, the Admins have decided to re-evaluate our position. Here are the current problems we see with continuing to allow relatively unfettered discussion of the Middle East situation in the General Discussion forum.

• Much of the discussion has now devolved to the point where members are simply rehashing the same tired old arguments over and over again.


• Many of the posts which start threads about the current crisis are highly inflammatory and are intended entirely to arouse the ire of partisans on both sides of the issue rather than foster actual thoughtful discussion.


• With the GD forum providing less strict moderation of discussions involving Lebanon, Israel, and the surrounding countries, some members who have been posting for years on DU without many problems have, sadly, been inspired to post some frankly ugly stuff.


• The moderators are drowning in a sea of alerts.

This is an unacceptable situation, but we do not wish to entirely block discussion of these issues from General Discussion at this time. Therefore we are going to institute some special temporary guidelines in the General Discussion forum while the current situation in Israel and Lebanon is ongoing. We will review these guidelines at a later date. Please read them carefully. They are simple and should not be hard to follow.

1. ORIGINAL POSTS MUST BE ABOUT A CURRENT EVENT, AND CONTAIN NON-INFLAMMATORY, SUBSTANTIAL CONTENT
If you wish to start a thread in the General Discussion forum about the Middle East situation involving Lebanon, Israel, and the surrounding countries, it must be based on a current news story. The moderators may lock threads which are started with substance-free posts (for example, nothing but a link), or threads started with posts which contain inflammatory rhetoric.

2. DEBATE THREADS WHICH ARE NOT BASED ON A CURRENT NEWS STORY WILL BE MOVED
If you start a thread in General Discussion which is not based on a current event or news story, it will be moved to the Israel/Palestine forum where the thread will be subject to the special rules of that forum. (Yes, we know the name of the forum isn't entirely appropriate, but that's the least of our concerns at the moment.)

3. KEEP IT CIVIL
If you decide to persist in calling people who are attempting to have a reasonable discussion about these issues anything along the lines of terrorists, Jew-haters, Jew-lovers, neo-cons, Nazis, or any other red-hot rhetoric, then you may face further disciplinary action. There are plenty of other places on the Internet where you can have discussions like that. But not here.

We are giving the Moderators wide latitude to enforce these guidelines in the interests of keeping the peace. If you don't want your thread to get moved or locked, we suggest that you think carefully about it before you post, rather than complaining to the Admins afterwards.

As always we appreciate your understanding and patience during this difficult time.