This effort is probably not going to work, based on what I have seen.
When this was tried, successfully, on the Creationism/Evolution threads, there was a significant difference, which was not obvious to me before this started. On those threads, there were vocal leaders on both sides of the issue who were on board with the effort, who helped take on a bit of self-policing and would defend the efforts being made.
I've gotten a few nice mails (and yes, from both sides of the issue) but in the forum I have seen very little effort at self-policing and people on one side telling people on the same side to knock it off when they are getting out of hand, and I have seen very little effort by anyone to counter the allegations being made against me and my staff.
Probably by stating this, I am going to give a boost to the morale of those who are actively trying to ensure we can't get these threads calmed to where reasonable discussions are the norm. That's an acceptable risk in my estimation. Because if this effort fails, we'll go back to what was the status quo a few days ago, where when things were getting too ugly the threads were being yanked or backroomed. The losers there are those who this is a top issue and want to see it discussed, who want to convince others. They are the ones who lose out, but unless they do more to make this effort work, then I am not going to worry myself too much about it.
Regards, LM
I don't think that is an unreasonable request. Policing ourselves is a good practice.
BUMP!