Dear LincolnTalk; It's a new year and a good time for everyone to take a look at the rules and policies - just to refresh your minds. https://www.lincolntalk.org/rules-and-policies.
It's also a good time to remind folks that LincolnTalk is not a public forum - the town does not run it. It's private and does not make a profit (last year, one kindly member sent a check in appreciation - which was a lovely gesture, thank you... but the check was not cashed). We'd like to address some things which have bubbled up recently... 1) LincolnTalk (LT) is a largely unmoderated list... most people's posts go right through to end users (aka members). 2) There are two groups of people who have their posts sit in a waiting pen for the moderators to review prior to having them go out to the LT community. 1) new members are "on moderation" when they join, and remain there until they have posted enough for us to know if they are able to follow the policies, and 2) people who have violated a policy (or two, or several) are placed "on moderation" and remain there until they demonstrate they can follow the rules and moderate themselves. When you are on moderation you can still post, you just have to wait for your post to be "approved". 3) Some general ways to get posts accepted - ask yourselves the following questions before posting: * Is this for general consumption or am I talking to one person? * Does this move the conversation forward or does it re-state what has already been said? * Is my tone kindly and informative or sarcastic and caustic? If you reply yes to the first part of these examples, please post. If you answer yes to the second part of the scenarios, please moderate yourself so we don't have to. 4) The most common reason people end up on moderation is for breaking the civility code.This rule will not change. Comments that violate this rule include ones that contain phrases that are uncivil, harassing, disparaging, embed dog whistles, or dehumanize others. Here is the rule: "Harassment of any kind is unacceptable. Do not make disparaging or harassing comments, or use inflammatory language that contributes to a hostile environment, especially those based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, or age." 5) Recently, there have been posts regarding what should and should not be posted on LincolnTalk. Some of these have been addressed to the moderators. Please understand, unless emails are emailed to us at moderat...@lincolntalk.org we do not read them for your great ideas. Emails sent to the greater list are read by the moderators only with an eye towards whether or not they are compliant with list policies; we don't base our decisions on whether or not we agree with your opinions. 6) Our policy clearly states that conversations should be taken off LT after two or a few people have gone back and forth two or three times. It is unacceptable for a handful of people to hijack an email list of over 2000 members. We have heard people say that there should be a place for in-depth discussion/debate... LT is not that place. We encourage people to go ahead and create any space they like. While you're on LT, you will be held to LT standards. The founders of LincolnTalk hope to build community and prioritize the forum for people to keep each other informed about community events, to post items for sale or free, and to communicate about lost pets, power outages, potholes, and the like. Some political talk is tolerated, especially when it's within-town. We ask members to keep this in mind when posting, when reading, and when thinking about replying. Thank you for helping to make LincolnTalk a vibrant and valuable asset to the town. We appreciate everyone's efforts to comply with the policies and to keep LT a resource the community can count on. Yours, Margit and Jena
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