I've talked with other mods and I am proposing the current changes I've implemented. I have changed the side bar from:
Warning: Some describe this as a "fringe" conspiracy forum. If you're afraid of the info you may encounter here, please confine yourself to Win's safe-space conspiracy forum, here.
Which oddly links to; c/GreatAwakening. Not sure why Clems did that, but, I don't like it, seems suspect. Further, not sure why they are trying to make out conspiracy theories as fringe or scary?
I replaced it with:
Conspiracies.win: This is a forum for free thinking and for discussing issues which have captured your imagination. Please respect other views and opinions, and keep an open mind. Our goal is to create a fairer and more transparent world for a better future.
and further outlined:
The Golden Rule: Be respectful. Attack the argument, not the person.
Thus, establishing the Ethos of this forum (set in stone). This was the Ethos I agreed upon when Axo made me a mod here first when we both were purged from Reddit. Me first, then him. Thank god for us creating Voat accounts back in the day. Still pissed some top mind took my original Putin_loves_cats original username here. Anwyays...
Clems had this as a general disclaimer:
Submissions of exceptionally low quality, trolling, spam, and those submissions determined to be intentionally misleading, may all be removed.
I built off this and replaced it with:
Disclaimer: Submissions/comments of exceptionally low quality, trolling, stalking, spam, and those submissions/comments determined to be intentionally misleading, calls to violence and/or abuse of other users here, may all be removed at moderator's discretion.
This is what I propose to the community and other mods here (ie. Axo, me, and Clems). The sidebar can always be reverted back if the response calls for it (from the community and my other co-mods) and I will concede.
Weigh in with your thoughts and opinions. Furthermore, you have a more artistic tongue in legalese, propose any alteration to the disclaimer to make it less ambiguous and more succinct. I suck at legalese.
While I am not fond of the kind of censorship that a companion sub practices, and I do want conspiracies to be a pretty open forum, we do need a way to turn off repeat offenders and trolls. I personally do that using the Settings ability to block a user when that person is an ongoing troll or annoyingly stupid coughFEcough.
I support posting rules because if a user does not know the rules it is unjust to censor or ban them. However, the rules must be non-politically biased, to ensure open discussion. A certain other sub is exactly Reddit-like in how it exerts a Nazi-level of power-seeking suppression of any and all dissenting opinion. That is a sign of dictatorship, and that sub is hypocritical in that.
Let this sub be open to most all except for spammers and outright attempts to false flag us as hatespeechers by planting obvious troll speech.
And by the way, I respect you all on both sides of the mod issue. I expect all of us to stay cool and respect each other and no John Wick 4 endings.
All rules will benefit the fed