Rules & Policies

Insults

This page shows how we decide if a comment is intended as an insult and should be edited.

Guidelines:

• It's okay to criticise a policy, decision, action or comment. Such criticism is part of healthy debate.
• It's not okay to criticise a person's character or directly insult them, regardless of their position or actions.
• Derogatory terms such as "loser", "idiot", etc are not permitted unless the context clearly implies that it's not serious and there is some evidence that the recipient accepts this.
• Insults which are accompanied by smilies are more likely to be regarded as friendly banter. However this doesn't necessarily mean that adding a smilie to an insult will make it acceptable.
• People who have a history of antagonistic behaviour will be treated more harshly than those who don't.
• Rule of thumb: Play the ball, not the person (i.e. tackle the argument, not the person making it).

The "Play the Ball" Test

When looking at a comment which could be interpreted as an insult, the most common test is this: "Does the comment address the argument being put forth by a person, or does it target the person making the argument?". Remember the rule of thumb which states "Play the ball, not the person". Here's an example of how three variations on a theme would be judged...

• "I think you're an idiot" (Unacceptable)
• "I think what you said is idiotic" (Acceptable, but borderline)
• "I think what you said is wrong on the following grounds..." (Preferable)

Quality Arguments

One more point: Insulting people is the first sign of a poor argument. If you call someone a loser, it indicates that you don't have anything intelligent to say and you are far less likely to attract support than if you concentrate on the discussion topic.

Take some time to figure out which of The Race Cafe's users have the most respect. It has much less to do with their opinion than the way they present it. People who frequently base their arguments around lines like "get a life" don't tend to be taken too seriously. People who put careful thought into their arguments and present them in a non-aggressive manner are the ones who get a better response, wether or not other people agree with them.

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