Proposed Politics Forum Guidelines - Comments Invited

[Bob]

We will soon be opening a forum for the discussion of politics, and invite your comments on the guidelines below.

By the way, my wife Evelyn and I have belonged to an internet email discussion group that is now 10 or 15 years old. Its members range from the far left to the rabid right, and often disagree about politics, but still like one another and encourage one another to express disagreements. One of my favorite members holds political views that are the polar opposites of my own. He has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys jokes that poke fun at all political views, as do I. I dislike his politics as he does mine, but that doesn't stop us from liking each other as persons.

I think that discussing our differences respectfully in the Forum is not only possible, but can be stimulating and fun.

Bob Martinez



PROPOSED POLITICS FORUM GUIDELINES:.

The Politics Forum is intended to promote rational political discussion of issues that affect Asturias, the US, and other countries. It is, in a sense, an experiment, and we ask you help in making it a place to exchange views with others in a way that unites us as Asturians and Asturian Americans. The intent is to stimulate discussions that can unite us through airing differing points of
view, and to encourage democracy by providing opportunities for reasonable people to disagree
with each other in reasonable ways. If our political discussions polarize and divide us, the experiment will have failed.

Most of us are not offended by our friends and relatives expressing opinions that are different from our own, but almost anyone can be hurt by offensive manners. We ask that you adhere to the following guidelines:

1) Please confine all overtly political discussion to the Politics Forum. We will move threads from other areas to the Politics Forum as it seems appropriate.

2) Personal attacks, rudeness and "flaming" are not appropriate, and will be deleted. It is perfectly acceptable to disagree sharply with the ideas of other members, but not to attack the members themselves..

3) The best topics for discussion are likely to be those that are of interest to members on both sides of the Atlantic.

4) Feedback about the Politics Forum is always welcome, and should be posted in the Feedback Forum.

[Carlos]

Me parece todo muy bien, las líneas que propones me parecen perfectamente razonables. Personalmente, disfruto discutiendo (en el sentido de intercambio de opiniones y argumentos) y llevo mucho tiempo haciéndolo, y es justo de la manera que propones como estoy acostumbrado a hacerlo. No es necesario insultar a alguien (llamarle palabras malsonantes) para estar total o parcialmente en desacuerdo con lo que diga esa persona, salvo que consideremos un insulto, una humillación o una ofensa simplemente lo que diga quien defiende opiniones contrarias.

Animo a todo el mundo a que de su opinión, a que participe, y a que lo haga de acuerdo con estas normas: no proferir insultos y argumentar claramente nuestras opiniones con respeto y educación. A fin de cuentas, no se obliga a nadie a contestar lo que los demás dicen, ni siquiera a leerlo. Si alguien no se siente cómodo, basta con que se mantenga al margen, creo yo.

¡A ver qué tal sale el experimento!

[Eli]

The rules say "Personal attacks, rudeness and "flaming" are not appropriate," just so that there are no misunderstandings; that means that you can't call somebody a republican.