[-V-]

The following is supplemental information to the
POL Mission Statement (http://progressivesonline.com/showthread.php?t=54) and POL Rules (http://progressivesonline.com/showthread.php?t=47)

AUTOMATED TITLES for posters will now have political associations:
POL Visitor = new member
POL Citizen = 25+ posts
POL Activist = 200+ posts
POL Congressperson = 400+ posts
POL Senator = 600+ posts

CUSTOM TITLES and Responsibilities:
POL Prime (ad)Minister - Site administrator (-V-)
POL Speaker of the Haus - forum moderator (haus)
POL Secretary of State - forum moderator (Jane of Arc)
POL Advisor - site consultant (jamesp)

Huas and What? have graciously accepted moderator responsibilities which include the management of threads and posts. The goal will be to increase the readability of the forum so that it is more useful and inviting to all. Most notably splitting threads that veer off topic, merging threads on the same topic, renaming thread titles that do not adequately reflect their topic and editing down posts that needlessly quote the entire contents of other posts.

Rather than purge all threads after a time period our goal will be to hold onto quality threads, as long as the content can be made lean and relevant. This may require editing down or deleting individual posts older than 14 days. Posts that are within the site guidelines of acceptability (i.e. non abusive, do not endorse illegal activities, etc..) will remain for at least 7 days. Ultimately, the decision regarding the archiving of threads and posts for public consumption will be at the sole discretion of the site administrator, not unlike the quality control exercised by a magazine editor.

ELECTED TITLES:
POL citizens will be able to vote in November of every year for the following:

POL President
Duties: diplomacy, speech making, role modeling. Skills: Be a uniter not a divider. Communicate coherently and effectively without the aid of a remote control receiver on your back.

Interested candidates will be able to throw their name into the hat. Progressives will be able to vote in the Primary and all citizens will vote for one of the two final candidates.

Since POL has an open borders policy there will also be an election for:
POL Minority Leader - voice of the opposition party (GOP, conservatives, neocons, right-wingers, etc..)

Soon, all users will be able to designate their party affiliation. The Karma rating system is already in place but it will need to be tweaked so that it is more user friendly.

Feedback is welcome on these changes.

[Jane of Arc]

-V- ~

Thank you for your hard work in providing a national, online forum that all of us can participate in. You've given us the opportunity for a grand American debate. I know you don't get paid for this, but rather your effort is one of love of country and democracy. For that, I salute you, sir!

Thank you!

[gratelady1]

Ever place a message or something on a Public Bulletin Board and have someone come behind you and rip it off and trash it, because it was better than what they had to offer, or because they simply knew you and did not want to let you share with the rest of the world?

I remember movies when I was a kid, where Gestapo police would do the same, when I was told about the "Communist" and how "they controlled the media".

It was important to support "Freedom of Speech" regardless of the content, because it prevented the Nazis and Communist from taking over our unique American Freedom of Speech.

In this new world order presented on this forum, we will see if this is and American forum- or a _____________ forum.

[-V-]

gratelady, as a lifelong rebel myself, I can appreciate your style, but I do not have the time or patience for "rebels without a cause".

Ever place a message or something on a Public Bulletin Board and have someone come behind you and rip it off and trash it, because it was better than what they had to offer, or because they simply knew you and did not want to let you share with the rest of the world?

No, and anyone who claims such a thing risks coming across as paranoid. I remember when you first came to this site, you kept drilling me with questions asking me to prove to you that this site wasn't a plant controlled by... I don't recall who?

If your point is that this site should store everything you say forever at no cost to you, regardless of how rambling or self indulgent the content, you've got the wrong forum and the wrong administrator. The "new order" as you disparagingly call it, is, as proposed, no different than the way the "old order" has been conducted from the beginning of this site. The only difference is that some labels are different and I will have some help now.

To this date, no one has been banned from this site and very few threads or posts have been purged. The vast majority of posts are still here after 2 years. You can call it "Gestapo" tactics if it feeds your paranoia, but I will not hesitate to unleash the thread police on your ass. If you want a guarantee that your "freedom of speech" will be archived for more than 7 days I suggest you start your own blog or cough up monthly dues. This is a privately owned site not a publicly funded service.

Huh, I dont want to disrupt the new "Order", but I really was proud of being a "Senior Member", and since everyone here knows for a fact- I aint much of a "politican", could I just keep my old title?

Since you are the #1 poster here I was inclined to comply until you followed that post with a second jab. Though there are many dirty politicians, politician is not a dirty word. Neither is "Senator" which ideally refers to someone elected by the people to represent them at the 2nd highest level of our policy making, rather than, as your poo pooing would suggest, some fat cat blowing taxpayer money who is in bed with big business and cheap whores. That is the GOP definition, which you should understand because you claim to be a Republican. Besides, a Senator can belong to any party or none at all, and a good one could be defined as a "rebel with a cause".

I know you don't get paid for this, but rather your effort is one of love of country and democracy. For that, I salute you

Thank you, What? but while I'm defining things I'd like to be clear on my motives here. I built this site because I had things to say, I wanted people to hear them, and my personal agenda was and is to see not only this country, but this world move progressively left. I knew others would value sharing the same podium in pursuit of the same ideals. However, I do NOT claim that this is an equal opportunity sounding board for every political agenda.

Republicans, conservatives, neocons, etc. are accepted here to the extent that they serve a purpose in giving myself and others like me the opportunity to challenge the flaws in their ideas and expose the repercusions of their ill conceived policies on society. If they also welcome the challenge then I welcome them. But, personally speaking, I will not go out of my way to accomodate or appease them.

No, I don't get paid for this, however, not being financially independant, It would be particularly helpful if I was payed for this. At a minimum, it would be nice to get this site to a place where it can generate enough income to support it's own upkeep and pay for some promotion as well. The only reason this site is a .com instead of a .org is because the non-profit paperwork and restrictions would be another pain in the ass that I haven't got time for.

[-V-]

You can now add your political persuasion to your profile and it will show on your posts.

1. click the User CP (control panel) menu link on the top left,
2. click Edit Profile.

Don't be shy about where you stand. Declare yourself!

[-V-]

With all due respect, Senator*,

Some of your remarks do border on the paranoid and now into naivete if you assumed that all of your posts,
(some sharp, some witty, some progressive, some Republican, some conservative, some self-indulgent, some offensive**, some potentially illegal***)
would become a permanent part of a free, privately funded site with a liberal/progressive agenda.

I've posted over 1000 pieces of what I believe to be brilliant sports analysis on a basketball forum and not one is saved, as new threads push old threads off the board. Regardless, I value, appreciate, and have donated to the forum, unsolicited.

You openly admit- you have implemented automatic- threating safeguards, to control the dialogue, dissent, and dissonance- thus all posts.

I'll admit this much. In many forums you'd be banned for "trolling" i.e. (arguing for arguments sake) for baseless and needlessly agitating remarks like that. Didn't you say you had been booted off one or two forums before you came here?

If you did start a forum with a particular political ideology I doubt you would let anyone and everyone inject a different ideology, possibly even personal ramblings, into every part of your forum to the degree that those voices even dominate the content, resulting in the people you intended the site for having less motivation to return and participate (we have had members leave because this was not enough of a liberal haven, free from Republican garbage).

If I...allowed freedom of speech- unconditionally...why would anyone be here- versus my forum

I'm sure your's would be beautiful and you'd have my blessings, but the blunt answer is because completely unmoderated forums are a cesspool of crap that few intelligent people with better things to do would bother sifting through or returning to. Would you buy an unmoderated newspaper or magazine? The Nation magazine is a good read specifically because it is edited for quality, relevance, etc.. POL is an interactive online magazine for progressives where anyone can get published. Free - yes! Free speech -- yes! Archived speech - perhaps.

That being said, I agree it would be best if writers could have the security of knowing their best contributions are archived. Aside from the current system that still retains the vast majority of writings, part of the plan in the future is to offer an advanced membership which, among many other benefits, will allow members to archive their writings or own blog real estate here.

Currently, the "To The Point" forum on this site is a permanent holding place for the best arguments pertaining to classic debate issues. Right now there are 2 other threads on Abortion in the main forum that will need to be moderated to one.

May I also suggest you add a meter under each members title, that will measure how they lean Liberal-Conservative/right, as rated by all other members

An interesting idea, however, I would be very surprised if anyone was not secure enough to label themselves similar to where others would put them. If you think anyone is misrepresenting themselves you could add to their negative Karma points.

Footnotes:
*If you really care about being heard and making a difference, you'd run for Senator instead of bashing the term and position. Look at the bright side, it's better to be labeled POL Senator than POL Agitator ;)
**There have been complaints of your excessively nasty personal attacks :mad: (unmoderated, I might add)
***It would be best for you to email me for elaboration on that. :eek:

[-V-]

greatone, you've been many things on this site including endearing and diplomatic, however, the examples you give are not the ones I am alluding to. I've called snowdog "snowjob" and I've probably invited someone to have sex with themselves. I'm down with the humor, sarcasm, ribbing, barbs, and snyd remarks. The nature of the complaints were about things that were more personal and nasty (on both sides).

Your way off on the potentially "illegal" part too.

I would be proud to be labeled the resident agitator
so shall it be...
pooffff!!!!!!!!!

[gratelady1]

greatone, you've been many things on this site including endearing and diplomatic, however, the examples you give are not the ones I am alluding to. I've called snowdog "snowjob" and I've probably invited someone to have sex with themselves. I'm down with the humor, sarcasm, ribbing, barbs, and snyd remarks. The nature of the complaints were about things that were more personal and nasty (on both sides).

Your way off on the potentially "illegal" part too.


so shall it be...
pooffff!!!!!!!!!

Your a gentleman and a scholar, and I appreciate your kind gesture, I think ill finish that Keg of Heineken, my nephew bought me for Chirstmas- oh happy days are here again, the sky is blue and progressives win!!!
Whoop!!! Here's to you -V- :D

[haus]

I want to point out two tools that everyone has access to. It's been pointed out to me that they might not be as obvious as I thought.

1. The Karma System: If you see a posting that is particularly good or particularly lame, you can click the little "scales of justice" icon to add to or subtract from the user's karma. It's in the lower left hand of each post. There is interesting near-future potential for karma.

2. The Bad-Posts System: Next to the "scales of justice" is an icon with an exclamation point in a red triangle. This is to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. All reported bad posts will be carefully reviewed.

[gratelady1]

I want to point out two tools that everyone has access to. It's been pointed out to me that they might not be as obvious as I thought.

1. The Karma System: If you see a posting that is particularly good or particularly lame, you can click the little "scales of justice" icon to add to or subtract from the user's karma. It's in the lower left hand of each post. There is interesting near-future potential for karma.

2. The Bad-Posts System: Next to the "scales of justice" is an icon with an exclamation point in a red triangle. This is to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. All reported bad posts will be carefully reviewed.

Does this mean- you wont be open to future ideas/changes, and your new order- will be laid in concrete?

[-V-]

Does this mean- you wont be open to future ideas/changes, and your new order- will be laid in concrete?

how the :mad: do you arrive at that conclusion/statement from what he posted? You've been warned about trolling.

As I said, my original intention was there be more of the same around here. Same policy, more help. But if you think I'm going to continue to subject myself, members & visitors to this site, and those who have volunteered to help manage it, to pointless b i t c h ing and moaning you're mistaken.

You wanted to be called an Agitator?
You got it.
You want to conjur up an imaginary dictatorial regime you call "the new order"?
You got it.

so shall it also be...
pooffff!!!!!!!!!

You have been censored,
impeached,
sent to the cornfield,
banished to bogeyland
by the ________ forum,
aka "the new order"

I sincerely thank you for your past participation.
But at this point I prefer that you agitate elsewhere,
or wave a sword at a windmill,
whichever turns you on.

[Michael DeM]

I like what you've done with the forum. It's much better organized than before, and there are lot more discussion rooms to participate in. I also like the political affiliations and the karma points. Very cool.:cool: