Rant (Please read)

[KiwiNZ]

Lately, I have seen in the Community Cafe a recent handful of rules from the CoC being broken. There seems to be a new rule in my opinion, A "This CoC is flexible" rule, but It is really not flexible. I have seen plenty of Religious and Political topics, Don't get me wrong, they happen all the time, but lately there has been a massive rise in the number I saw. I think we all need to refresh on the rules and we all need to remember the Community Cafe is the equivalent to the water cooler or a social area of your workplace. People then Complain of Thread Closures that were correctly locked - they broke the Coc or the person who posted it broken the CoC. BUT, If that cant get any worse, I have seen alot of spammers, spamming up the forums. I know we cant really stop people but that is another thing which gets on my nerves. Another one - flame baiters, these lock your threads and they get the big key. Flame Baiters put things like "M$" or "*******/Windblows". If I just started here I would just not visit anymore - Wipe Ubutnu and Install Windows. I am used to it but I do still get annoyed by those things. It is not because i have OCD or some disorder I juts hate it. What impression does it give?

Please learn that the Community cafe is here for lighthearted discussions. Not for "I hate Windblow$ by M$" If I came here and saw that attitude I would turn away back to innocent Windows. The Community Cafe is be a helpful place or a place to post your rant, blog post, wanting feedback, posting projects and/or anything except what is not allowed in the CoC. I would hate to get rid of the Cafe but If there ever was a vote I, unfortunately say a big fat YES to it. I would just keep on using the forums as a regular normal user. (Although I will miss it.)

I agree with a lot of what you say . The best approach is use the report button , staff are happy to action any legitimate reports received, and deal with them as quickly as possible.

Spam is a hard one , we have to walk a fine line to make the log on and posting experience the easiest and least annoying and still try and block as many spammers as we can .

The immature M$ , Winblows nonsense hopefully one day will go away , however I am not holding my breath, again staff will deal with it when we see it.

If members use the following ...

"Be respectful of all users at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with kindness and gentleness. If you do this the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention."

Plus

"The Community Chat area is for lighthearted and enjoyable discussions, like you might find around a water cooler at work.

Almost any non-tech-support topic may be discussed here. Discussions on religion and politics are not allowed, except for politics directly related to free and open source issues. Any topic or discussion that causes problems or drama will be closed. This area is intended for fun and community building, not arguments. Please take those elsewhere."

And have regard to the rest of the Code of Conduct there will be no issues.

[MichealH]

I agree with a lot of what you say . The best approach is use the report button , staff are happy to action any legitimate reports received, and deal with them as quickly as possible.

Spam is a hard one , we have to walk a fine line to make the log on and posting experience the easiest and least annoying and still try and block as many spammers as we can .

The immature M$ , Winblows nonsense hopefully one day will go away , however I am not holding my breath, again staff will deal with it when we see it.

If members use the following ...

"Be respectful of all users at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with kindness and gentleness. If you do this the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention."

Plus

"The Community Chat area is for lighthearted and enjoyable discussions, like you might find around a water cooler at work.

Almost any non-tech-support topic may be discussed here. Discussions on religion and politics are not allowed, except for politics directly related to free and open source issues. Any topic or discussion that causes problems or drama will be closed. This area is intended for fun and community building, not arguments. Please take those elsewhere."

And have regard to the rest of the Code of Conduct there will be no issues.

I completley agree. It is a hard job being a mod and all those times I see spam I click the little report button. That way I know that it is in the hands of the trustworthy Mods.

[Random_Dude]

I think the opposite: the rules should be more flexible. I don't see any problem with someone mentioning religion as long as it is not done in a way that may offend some people. Is there anything in particular that offends you?

I agree.
It seems strange that you can't discuss this kinds of things in a forum, at least I'm used to find discussions about politics and religion in all kinds of forums. It's always good debate material.

Is there a particular reason why this isn't allowed? Is it to save the patience of the staff, or is it because this forum is owned by Canonical?

Don't get me wrong, I always wondered if the rules are more strict because of the affiliation with Canonical. I'm just curious.

Cheers

[MichealH]

I agree.
It seems strange that you can't discuss this kinds of things in a forum, at least I'm used to find discussions about politics and religion in all kinds of forums. It's always good debate material.

Is there a particular reason why this isn't allowed? Is it to save the patience of the staff, or is it because this forum is owned by Canonical?

Don't get me wrong, I always wondered if the rules are more strict because of the affiliation with Canonical. I'm just curious.

Cheers

Its so no offence can be caused for example if I said that Osama should be hung or something like that It will cause a debate, but in a negative way. Usually it stops racism and such things to sneak in.

[Random_Dude]

Its so no offence can be caused for example if I said that Osama should be hung or something like that It will cause a debate, but in a negative way. Usually it stops racism and such things to sneak in.

You can always prohibit racist, homophobic and other discriminatory comments.
Of course this would take more time of the moderators to filter this kinds of things than to just lock a topic. Although some more interesting topics than the usual "I've converted my [put something here] to Ubuntu!" and "Why there isn't more Linux users?" might show up.

Still, I would like the opinion of the people on the job (moderators).

[KiwiNZ]

I agree.
It seems strange that you can't discuss this kinds of things in a forum, at least I'm used to find discussions about politics and religion in all kinds of forums. It's always good debate material.

Is there a particular reason why this isn't allowed? Is it to save the patience of the staff, or is it because this forum is owned by Canonical?

Don't get me wrong, I always wondered if the rules are more strict because of the affiliation with Canonical. I'm just curious.

Cheers

We have in the past had areas where we allowed religious and political discussion and all hell broke lose.

It became impossible to manage due to the selfish actions of some members. Staff got extremely abused and so did other members and this spread into other areas of the Forums. It was decided that in the best interest of the Forum as a whole and the public image of Ubuntu , which these Forums officially represent that those open areas be closed permanently. The Cafe was retained but with the restrictions we have in place.

[Legendary_Bibo]

I like these forums, they're not too strict with their rules, and they're not too loose. It makes for a great discussion environment without allowing too much issues to arise. I've seen forums that are extremely strict, and it cuts out any discussion and leads to the same topics being posted over and over and over. I think the Cafe should definitely stay as loose with the rules as it is now. Every forums should have one section that eases up on their CoC.

[Random_Dude]

We have in the past had areas where we allowed religious and political discussion and all hell broke lose.

It became impossible to manage due to the selfish actions of some members. Staff got extremely abused and so did other members and this spread into other areas of the Forums. It was decided that in the best interest of the Forum as a whole and the public image of Ubuntu , which these Forums officially represent that those open areas be closed permanently. The Cafe was retained but with the restrictions we have in place.

Thanks KiwiNZ.

I'm still new here so I didn't know the story behind it.

Cheers

[BuffaloX]

I've seen many forums completely ruined by Spam,
Ubuntu being so popular is an obvious target for lots of Spam attacks.
Yet I don't see much here, which can only be because the moderators are doing a great job of getting rid of it.

The Cafe used to be more interesting before the rules got tightened, but I understand that 99% of discussions about religion and politics are pretty futile and are the cause of much friction, nonetheless I found it very interesting debating politics with viewpoints and experiences from many countries.

I haven't found another forum with similar interesting debates as the Ubuntu Cafe used to have.

Edit:
Just saw Kiwinz post...
Never knew it was that bad, I can appreciate that it became impossible to administer, and was absolutely no fun for the moderators, and could even hurt the Ubuntu image.

[Groucho Marxist]

Thanks KiwiNZ.

I'm still new here so I didn't know the story behind it.

Cheers

I'm relatively new here as well and I appreciate the story and explanation behind this. As with other posters, I, too, would enjoy respectfully discussing religious or political discussions. However, when we add these topics we unfortunately ad hominem as well.