I have decided to re-open the General Non-Vette Discussion forum.

The reason it was closed was that I feel the way members are speaking to each other has become inappropriate. I'm not talking about the topics.

The number one rule of the C3VR Membership Agreement is as follows:

1) To be free of ridicule and harassment. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you don't agree with someone on a topic, that does not give you the right to ridicule or (especially) harass that person. You are more than welcome to disagree with someone, but express your opinion in a way that is not offensive to the other person. This rule applies to the forums AND emails sent to a C3VR Member by a C3VR Member. If anyone is found to be breaking this rule (1 time), their membership will be terminated! If the offending member is a Gold or Lifetime Member, NO REFUND of membership dues will be offered!

I hate to sound like I'm being a parent, but someone has to make sure that everyone "plays nice" or we'll have a situation that will make C3VR undesirable to people. Sarge81 has already been offended enough that he said he probably won't come back. That really bothered me and is what prompted me to close the forum until I could hash this out.

I am reopening the forum, and I am not going to put any restrictions on what topics can and can't be posted (with the exception of pornography or any other obviously offensive material.) Politics and religion will still be allowed.

What will change is the tolerance level of how people interact with each other. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion, and are allowed to share their opinion. What is NOT allowed is criticizing someone for having a different opinion than you. Here is an example of what is ok: "I love apples" or "I hate apples" or "I disagree, to me apples taste gross." What isn't ok is: "I can't believe you love apples! They suck! Anyone that loves apples must be stupid".

Also, what is not allowed is comments like "I can't believe you posted this garbage... no one wants to hear it."
This is really simple... if you don't like the title of a thread, don't open it. If you open it and realize you dislike the topic, stop reading it and move on to something else. If you consider something so offensive that you think it does not belong on the site, contact a moderator or Adam and provide the thread URL and/or Title.

We are all adults, which is why I think it is ok to re-open the forum with no restrictions on topics. Everyone just has to behave like adults and no one will be so upset that they'd want to never come back.

As to the issue of this forum not belonging on C3VR because it isn't Vette related... a lot of people on here consider fellow members friends. Friends don't always talk about one topic. Therefore giving these "friends" a place to talk about non-Vette issues is a good idea. If you only want to come here to talk about Vettes, you can do just that... because you don't have to read the threads in this forum if you don't want to.

The moderators of this forum (and I) will be on the lookout for anyone not conforming to this simple rule. The seriousness of a violation of the rule will determine if someone is issued a 1-time warning or termination of their account.

I have left the threads where things were getting out of control here, but I have locked them. Just consider them part of history and let that be that.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments regarding this.

Thank you.

ROUGE WAVE where did you get those talking smily faces thats cool.

YOU GOT MY VOTE

ADAM thats a good deal,thanks for opening it back up,lets just hope everybody can act like big boys and girls,and make nice

The President has spoken.

Thanks Dad.

Folks, the rules are pretty common sense, I was guilty of falling into the political garbage, but I think if we all listen to our inner child, and mine is definately twisted, we can all disagree on things, and have fun.

Alan

HAIL TO THE CHIEF,HIP HIP HOORAY

Aye Aye Cap'n!

I would like to urge everyone to ask sarge81 to return, myself and a few others had a pretty big hand in his frustration and I would like to apologize to all of you for my inability to just ignore the offending discussions.

here is the email I sent sarge just a few minutes ago.

I really wish you wouldnt leave c3vr, we may not agree on what the proper venue for political expression is, but I always considered your posts informative and helpful. If it was I who offended you to the point of leaving and you feel you cannot remain if I do, I will leave instead. Think about it.. thanks, Ben VanWagner

|UPDATED|11/19/2004 6:10:38 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I also feel pretty bad about Sarge leaving because I lost my temper.I should have exercised more self control.