ANNOUNCEMENT: The Outhouse is reopening

[Alex]

After numerous requests to do so, I am reopening the Outhouse, with several caveats. Please see the below rules to get the most out of it.

The rules for the Outhouse are as follows:

• First and foremost, rules of good conduct still apply. This means no insults, no name-calling, no deliberate flaming or trolling, no racism, sexism, Nazism, supremacism of every stripe, calls for murder or genocide, and no calls for activities considered criminal in the United States of America. Any of these could result in disciplinary action up to and including banning from the site.
• The Outhouse has been broken into two sub-forums - "The Privy" and "The Cesspit".
• The Privy is for rational, calm, civilized and reasonable discussion. This means the arguments must be backed by proof or must have clear logic behind them. Alarmist, emotional and unsubstantiated arguments and/or claims do not belong here. The discussion must still follow the rules of good conduct as elaborated elsewhere on this site.
• Any threads in the Outhouse that do not meet the above criteria will be moved to the Cesspit, where the standards of proof and logic are much lower, but the rules of good behavior still apply. Trolling and flaming will still not be tolerated.
• Since most bannings appear to be related to the Outhouse activity, I have created a new user category, the unsubtly titled "Political Prisoners". When a user has proven that he or she is unable to constructively and positively contribute to the Outhouse discussions, but has not made him/herself unwelcome at CF.NET in general, the user will be modified to this status. "Political Prisoners" are able to participate in all sections of the site except for the Outhouse. Good behavior is still expected from them, and full membership of Political Prisoners might be reinstated if warranted.
• Just because something is not directly mentioned in the above rules does not mean it is OK to do. Use your common sense in what fits the definition of civilized discourse.

Enjoy! I know that some of you have been looking forward to discussing political and controversial topics for a long, long time.

[Epic History]

Thanks Alex.

[mmmeee0]

Is it so wrong I just want political prisoner under my name just to look edgy?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by mmmeee0

Is it so wrong I just want political prisoner under my name just to look edgy?

Sorry to disappoint, but "Political Prisoners" is just an arbitrary title of a user category - those users will not get a default title, and will not appear any different from anyone else. They will simply not be able to access the Outhouse forums, but otherwise will be able to do everything any other user could, including creating their own custom user title and using custom avatars.

[RCAF Brat]

So it looks like we have a clean slate in there. I guess all of the old stuff 'went away' as a side effect of the renovations?

[Diamond]

The idea of 'political prisoners' was a stroke of genius.

[Jasen777]

In practice the distinction between the two sub-sections is going to be difficult.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by RCAF Brat

So it looks like we have a clean slate in there. I guess all of the old stuff 'went away' as a side effect of the renovations?

Actually they're still there somewhere. I did a search for some of my old threads in there and had no trouble finding them that way. Not sure how Alex's renovations did it, but the old Outhouse stuff is apparently in some sort of 'Secret Archive' thing.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Actually they're still there somewhere. I did a search for some of my old threads in there and had no trouble finding them that way. Not sure how Alex's renovations did it, but the old Outhouse stuff is apparently in some sort of 'Secret Archive' thing.

What happened is I had changed the old Outhouse forum from forum to a category - this means the old posts are still out there, but are only accessible through the Search function. In all honesty, I would say that it's not a loss, considering the often vitriolic nature of Outhouse discussions, and the fact that if you are looking for something in particular you can still find it.

Jasen777: the distinction will be a bit difficult, but ultimately I see it as using the same criteria you would on a college paper. If it is acceptable reference for the purpose of a class paper, it is acceptable for the Privy. If it is not fact-based, it goes into the Cesspit (where it can be beaten to death by repeated discussion). While it will be a judgment call, I trust the current crop of moderators to be able to make reasonable distinction, and I shall not exercise the power to effectively condemn threads lightly.