Hate Speech

[Hobbs]

I was thinking of putting this in Social or something, but since I was mainly discussing this site, I thought I would post it here.

After reviewing the Site Rules I wanted to know; has it ever come up on whether or not to ban hate speech? I understand this is a debate forum, and people have different opinions, but there's a difference between stating an opinion on a subject, and posting hateful rhetoric.

There's no real reason why I thought of asking this now. I was simply curious.

[MadMike]

We actually had a few people from a racist message board posting on CS. The first one was subtle enough about it that we didn't even notice at first, and he showed up before we started putting new users on moderation. Sometime after we put the current system of moderation in place, another one showed up and posted something that was... let's just say, not so subtle.

One of us googled the user name and found the other board, and once we found out what they were up to, we banned him. Shortly after that, we discovered the other one and banned that one too. That one used a different, but somewhat similar name, on the other board.

While the rules on here are a little looser than on CS, we wouldn't allow that sort of thing on here either.

[HYHYBT]

I wouldn't think it would be necessary to separate (and therefore clearly define) "hate speech;" wouldn't it already be covered by the existing rules?

[Plaidman]

So. What messageboard was this?

Not going to declare war. Just curious. (Though if you include the username that started it, I'd be a little more grateful)

[Hobbs]

I wouldn't think it would be necessary to separate (and therefore clearly define) "hate speech;" wouldn't it already be covered by the existing rules?

Actually, in reviewing the Site Rules (for Fratching, not CS) I concluded, perhaps wrongly, that the rules are actually permissive of hate speech. Not like it's something Raps or the Mods set out to do, but as a symptom/consequence of allowing different viewpoints (I get it, it's a debate site. That's not what I mean).

[Boozy]

Please read the announcement titled "Character Attacks vs. Generally Offensive Statements" in the Site News forum (as you and everyone else here should already have done). It reads, in part:

...the moderators are not going to allow hate groups to take root here. If you come across a post that is so offensive to you that you simply cannot imagine responding to it in a calm fashion, report the post.

As Mike said, we have removed hate speech from this site in the past and banned the offending member(s).