There are people involved in CFC and some are very smart and clever. there is no way to define what spam, trolling and flaming are such that the definitions are both consistent and comprehensive. It is like trying to define poetry or music. The minute you think you have it nailed down, some creative person finds a way to say it such that the rules as stated no longer apply.
Rules lawyers always want everything spelled out in great detail so they can find the loopholes and the exceptions or claim that what they did wasn't mentioned in the rules. CFC doesn't work that way (and neither does life in general). You have to understand the principles involved and then fit the details into those such that you don't violate them. The principles here are quite clear and if you cannot figure out how to fit your posts into that framework, then this is probably not the place for you.
If someone don't know what it means to:
be nice
be kind
Engage in civil discussions
Don't name call
Don't swear
Don't try to incite or provoke others
Don't post inappropriate content
Then, frankly, they should just go away. It is not very hard really. There are just some of you who don't care enough to make the effort or who feel that they should be allowed exemptions.
Actually, it sometimes is when people troll you, but that's also not the issue. For instance, one time I called an action someone's character was considering taking in a Forum Game ********, and I got two points (This is not PDMA as I did not name either the moderator in question or the post in question, I simply stated this happened...) which, how is flaming I do not know, but its definitely not clear.
Why do you need to say a post is idiotic. There are other ways to express you have a different opinion. Just say something like:
I don't agree with your post because.....
Or I don't see it that way because.....
Saying something like idiotic or stupid post etc. can make the other poster angry.
And always explain why you have an other opinion.....
It seems that since people that seld-identify as Christians seem to murder their kids at higher rates than people that self-identify as gay, that gays should be given an adoption preference over Christians. In fact, gays should be able to select the kids they want to adopt from among the kids of Christians.
When people make posts like this and don't get infractions (Thank you Birdjaguar for finally getting to it. It was not infracted when I responded to it.) You (The mods) need to either
1. Infract such posts as soon as they are reported
2. Let people flame them, its what they deserve.
And note, its not because I disagree with his opinions. For instance, I think one of Birdjaguar's ideas about a wealth cap was a terrible idea I strongly disagree with, but he genuinely held that position, and wanted to generate a discussion. I gave a civil answer. If I didn't, an infraction would have been fair.
Not so with posts that are obviously trolling. Its not as easy as it sounds, and how do you civily reply to a sarcastic post like that? (Or his other 10,000 sarcastic posts in OT.)
Also Note: I purposely did not name the user that posted the quoted post above to avoid flaming them, I also did not provide a link to the post, as this is simply for general discussion, and to make a general point I used a specific example as anonymous as possible.
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