Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

Gren · God Of Oreos

In a nutshell, I want to conduct an internet social experiment -I want to see if it is possible to create and maintain a paranormal message board that satifies both skeptic and believer, but where both skeptic and believer can coexist without excessive rancor and flaming -something not common if it exists at all. By needs, the word of the day must be TOLERANCE.

Our goal at SKEPTOMANIA is to provide and maintain a 'wide open' sort of message board with as few restrictions as possible in the hope of fomenting the broadest possible menu of ideas, thoughts, and opinions, and to provide the 'anything goes' kind of community most of us find so entertaining and interesting. However, the poster must recognize that not all ideas, thoughts, and opinions hold equal merit. Therefore, the poster must accept that any proffered idea, thought, opinion, etc. may be held up to scrutiny and may receive vehement refutation.

No particular idea, thought, or opinion shall hold any inherent 'right' to be expressed or accepted and will survive solely on its own merits, as determined by the aforementioned scrutiny and critical review. If you are oversensitive to criticism, or mistake criticism of your posts for a personal attack, you are in the wrong place.

Great respect will be paid to freedom of speech, but even that freedom has its restrictions -you cannot falsely yell "fire!" in a crowded theater. It is impossible to outline in this space each and every sort of potential post that may be deemed unacceptable. Therefore, the poster must accept that a given post, string of posts, or established style of posting may be considered unacceptable at any time by the board administrator, who be ME.

If successful in building the body of regular posters I hope to, they will be a resilient and thick-skinned bunch, and I do not anticipate the need to address objectionable posts or posters on any regular basis.

The system I will employ when such actions become necessary are as follows:

First Offense: A simple 'verbal' warning, identified as such within the forum and thread containing the objectionable content or behavior.

Second Offense: Banishment x 48 hours to give the situation a breather and 'cool down' period, and to allow time for the banned poster to get his or her shit in one bag.

Third Offense: The offending poster must dance naked for 24 hours through downtown Baghdad with a "Saddam Sucks!" flyer stapled to his or her back and a string of brat sausages no less than 6 feet long strung around the neck, down through the crotch area, and back up to the head area where it must be stuck -and remain stuck at all times -in the left ear. A TV Guide Magazine shall be rolled up and inserted anally for the duration of this level of punishment.

Fourth Offense: Banishment x 1 week.

Fifth Offense: Permanent Banishment.

At such a time as a base of regular posters is (hopefully) built, I will submit issues in the 'grey zone' of uncertainty to their collective wit and reason for decisional input.

Because this is a privately held message board and exists solely as a benevolent dictatorship, the offensive poster is warned in advance that I reserve the right to employ a totally arbitrary decision-making process as regards disciplinary measures. It is my hope that such measures are never once required.

Thanks...

Gren

(aka Grendel, The Skeptomaniac, Martin Richer, & DB Cooper).