I’m getting reports that there’s some bashing of DKos or its front-pagers here. We don’t do that here. People are free to bash DKos on other blogs, if those blog owners allow it. But not here. If your blog has issues with DKos, discuss it at that other blog. Not here.
If you disagree with a position stated on DKos’s front pages, I think you should be able to discuss that, but solely from an analytical POV, not with any bashing or personal attacks on any DKos authors.
Also: Such bashing breaks BooMan’s one rule which I can recite from heart because it’s so damn simple, succinct, and plain as can be:
Don’t be a prick.
As BooMan wrote on November 25 in “Everyone Loves Daily Kos“:
by BooMan [Edit User]
Fri Nov 25th, 2005 at 10:54:49 PM EST
Okay, here is the place to get it off your chest. If you have a problem with the ‘Orange Place’ post about it here. Get it out of your system. If you think it has been taken over by some DLC/NDN cabal of corporate interests, if you think that it been stripped of all intelligent life, if you think they are out to get you, if you don’t buy into the ‘New’ Armando, write about it here. Please, get it all out on the table. And if you think the virus is infecting this site, please say so. Get it all out. They hate progressives, they hate dissent, they are all about votes and not principle. Just say it!
And once you’ve said it, let it go.
If you continue to have trouble letting it go, please return to BooMan’s Nov. 25 story, and post your concerns there. But not in any story or diary since November 25, 2005.
And, because it’s wonderful reading as well as wise, here’s BooMan’s etiquette post, which he first published last June, and which I reprised in September … BELOW:
He wrote, “BooTrib looks like Daily Kos, but it is a different site. Below are the two relevant rules … From the FAQ:”
If I don’t consider myself a Democrat, am I welcome at the site?
Yes. You are. Everyone is welcome at the site regardless of political self-identification. I don’t care how you are registered to vote, who you have voted for in the past, or who you plan to vote for in the future.
The only restriction on non-Democrats is that they be respectful of the mission of this site, that they don’t post Bill O’Reilly-like talking points, and that they don’t engage in trollish behavior.
If you are pro-life or anti-gun control, no one should down-rate your posts or make you feel unwelcome at this site, or in the Democratic Party. This site is not for the enforcement of any orthodoxy on its members. Principled disagreement is always allowed. Just don’t act like Sean Hannity and be an idiot.
From the comments:
Post Script: Today I have had to try to arbitrate my first dispute here at BooTrib and it wasn’t a process I particularly enjoyed. But it comes with the job.
And I just want to disseminate a new rule based on my semi-collected thoughts:
Not everyone is as smart as you. Not everyone one is as well informed as you. Not everyone writes as well as you.
And I don’t care how dumb, ignorant, and illiterate you are, there is someone, somewhere who is more so.
So, when it comes to having disagreements and debates and discussions…this is the rule:
Don’t be a prick.
Don’t act in a way that would get you punched in the face or thrown out of a dinner party. Don’t treat other people with disrespect even if you think they are stupid and ill-informed.
Don’t mock someone because they have trouble expressing themselves.
Don’t be a prick.
That’s the rule.