Off Topic - To All Members

[Cruisingdad]

This is the Off Topic Forum

From me personally, this forum will get more Leeway than others. It is a place for sailors to talk about things that are typically not just (or at all) sailing related. Many of these discussions become heated. There may be pictures here that you feel are inappropriate and topics that you do not like.

If you do not like it, steer clear of it. It will be monitored by myself and the other moderators, but not nearly as strongly. I prefer a little more free discussion here and a little more guarded discussions elsewhere.

For those that are thin skinned or easily offended, you should steer clear of the Off Topic Forum. This is especially true of Fight Club and Ass full of Crap. We also ask that you refrain from giving positive or negative rep's based upon any content in the Off Topic section. This system is meant as a way to judge the advice given on sailing related topics.

You have been warned.

- CD

PS It will still be moderated, so please retain some level of civility, please.

[Cruisingdad]

An Important message to the Denizen’s of the Off- Topic and the Politics-Religion-War-Government Forums

We the moderators are concerned about the direction of many of the posts and threads found in the Off-Topic (OT) and the Politics-Religion-War-Government (PRWG) forums. There has been a general agreement that these forums will be subjected to a slightly looser standard of moderator enforcement than the rest of forums on SailNet. That said, these forums are still a part of SailNet and are subject to the same basic forum Rules.

SailNet’s primary mission is to provide a place for sailors to come discuss sailing related topics. OT and the PRWG forums were only created because there are times when discussions veer into areas which are best taken to the sidelines so that these emotion-charged topics do not derail otherwise sailing related threads. The OT and the PRWG forums were not created so that SailNet could become a hot bed of political debate or as a place to denigrate another person's ethnicity or religion. There may be places for that on the internet but that is not the mission of SailNet.

The greater concern is the direction that these discussions have taken of late, including posts and even whole threads that we, the moderators view as attacks on individuals, religions, gender and/or ethnic groups. After careful deliberations, we, the moderators want to make it perfectly clear that personal, gender, religion and/or ethnic based attacks have no place on SailNet, even in the OT or PRWG forums.


We plan to crack down on this issue with some new rules that will be strictly enforced as follows:

1. If we deem that a post contains a personal, gender, religious and/or ethnic based attack, that post and in some extreme cases, the thread will be deleted in their entirety. We are done cherry picking through long rants to delete offending passages. We do not have the time to “pick the fly-poop out of the pepper”. If it’s outside forum rules the whole post or thread is gone. No 'ifs-ands-or-buts'.

We will also remove thread names or rename threads which we consider to be even thinly veiled attacks as well. We understand that deleting whole posts or threads may seem extreme, but we consider this matter serious and fear that first-time visitors may get the wrong impression of the flavor of the site.

2. The decision of the moderators to take any such action will be based on our judgment of the facts and the decision of the moderators will be final.

3. Furthermore, any poster who has earned three such deletions will have earned a week off the board. A second set of three deletions, and they are out for two weeks. On the third set, and they are out permanently.

So, while you are welcome to continue to debate hot topics on SailNet's OT and PRWG Forums, you are not welcome to break our rules. Please police yourself to keep us from having to take more serious action.

Thank you,
The SailNet Moderators: