Feedback Clarifications on Ad Hominem attacks

Please report those posts and they will be dealt with in the same way.

Agreed.

This is not correct. We don't read the majority of posts. So if rule-violating posts are not reported, then they are likely to slip by, which may give the impression that we are "permitting" such rule violations when in reality we have not seen them. We have been enforcing our rule #1 for all violations we have seen (e.g. reported to us) in the regular parts of the forum since this poll with members. If members do not report rule-violating posts, then they are complicit in allowing those violations to stand because we've stated from the very beginning that we do not read the majority of posts here. We should also note that we have specifically sanctioned KewlJ for racist slurs against MDawg even in the looser forum areas that were reported to us and brought to our attention. But if you only read the looser forum areas where we let members go at it with each other, then this may have given you the false impression that we have been allowing that in the regular parts of the forum which has not been the case since that poll in 2016 (with the caveat that the offending posts must have been reported or we likely did not see the rule violation). So this is nothing new, and the reason we took action in the KewlJ thread in question is because it was reported to us and we took action the moment it was since we had not read that thread prior to the report. The only difference in how we dealt with it this time is that instead of moving the offending posts to the Off-topic section, we decided to move them inside the new Chat Room thread since the argument was from the usual suspects that post there, so we thought it may be more relevant to move it in there in case they wanted to keep that discussion going there. That won't necessarily always be the case, but now that we have the new Chat Room thread, we thought we would give it a shot.

No personal attacks (ad hominem attacks) are permitted outside of the Personal Feuds and Off-topic sections and the Chat Room, WOV, and VCT threads. Those are the areas where we have been purposefully more lax with the enforcement of our rules in order to contain all the vitriol in those areas since those are the areas where the vast majority of baggage from outside of this site is brought in. What we don't tolerate is having that vitriol metastasize in the regular parts of the site where gambling discussions happen and where members without such baggage participate in.

If that's happening outside of the aforementioned designated areas, then please report them and we'll deal with them.

Agreed, but if they are doing so outside of the AP section which specifically contains a warning at the top that the discussions are assumed to be EV-, then such math challenges may be moved elsewhere as they are superfluous and may therefore be deemed disruptive.

This is not accurate. It is true you did not whine to us on this particular occasion, but you certainly have been participating here, mainly in our Chat Room thread. Furthermore, we didn't do anything different in this instance that we haven't done before other than moving offending posts to the Chat Room thread instead of to the Off-topic section. It seems most members were caught by surprise by our actions in this matter because this instance of rule violations outside of the aforementioned designated areas were actually reported to us and so we took action, but we've been taking such action since 2016 on all such reported posts.


So, to summarize so that there are no doubts:

• We are looser with our enforcement of our rules in the designated areas which include the Personal Feuds section, the Off-topic section, and the Chat Room, WOV, and VCT threads in order to have an area where members with baggage can blow of some steam to contain the vitriol. (However, even in those looser areas, we will not tolerate egregious insults such as racist attacks, so those will still be sanctioned when reported.)
• We are very strict with our enforcement of our rules outside of those designated areas and have been since 2016.
• However, in order for us to take action on rule-violating posts outside of those designated areas, they need to be reported to us so that we are made aware of them since we don't read most posts on this site.
• If you don't report rule-violating posts from your hater, but your hater does yours, then it may seem like we are taking sides, when in reality we only saw your rule-violating posts and not theirs. We don't take sides, but reporters may.
• So make sure you always report rule-violating posts outside of the designated areas so that we can take action on all rule-violating posts.
• Moving forward we may move rule-violating posts to the Chat Room thread if we deem they are close enough to the discussions that already happen in that thread in order to keep things more organized, and this is the only new change that has occurred regarding this matter since the Chat Room thread itself is new.
• No one is above our rules or the community.
• To always be on the safe side of our rules outside of the aforementioned designated areas, attack the message, not the messenger, and support your criticisms with relevant evidence.