Make a new Office Party law!

I don't like laws. They hurt people.

SpookyWriter said:

I don't like laws. They hurt people.

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Here's your sign Spook...

How about "Thou shalt not start another thread without first checking to see if there has been one on the topic already started"?

poetinahat said:

Fellow citizens,

Our behaviour on these boards is governed essentially by one commandment:

Respect Your Fellow Writer

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I never agreed 100% with this rule. There are many people in the world who haven't earned respect. Some of them are writers. Heck, even Hitler was a published author.

Which brings me to another thought - I own a copy of Mein Kampf. It was printed by a major publisher. So who does the author's royalties go to? Did his will leave the royalties to his favourite charity?

Apparently the Bolivian government claims copyright, but they have also forbidden it to be reprinted, so clearly they aren't collecting royalties.

Maybe I should change my name to 'Adolf Hitler' so I can cash that huge royalty cheque ...

Mac.

pb10220 said:

How about "Thou shalt not start another thread without first checking to see if there has been one on the topic already started"?

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I like the idea as long as it's not pushed to the extreme. I've seen boards where the moderators push this kind of rule to the extreme and you end up feeling the need to post at the beginning of every new post that you searched and didn't find anything. It can feel a little over-bearing.

Mac H. said:

I never agreed 100% with this rule. There are many people in the world who haven't earned respect. Some of them are writers. Heck, even Hitler was a published author.
Mac.

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I think treating other people with respect probably has more to do with the virtue of the person doing the treating than it does with those on the receiving end.

New Law: Orlando Bloom MUST be represented in every thread despite the fact it is beating a dead horse (cue emoticon: ). No real reason for the dancing banana other than the dead horse emoticon is now gone.

So to honour the new rule: Orlando Bloom will appear at least once this summer in any thread future thread. Especially around the time Pirates of the Caribbean comes out.

poetinahat said:

There are too many self-appointed thread-starters here who don't bother actually joining in anyone else's discussions.

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What brought this on? Did someone insult you? Was any one person the ire of our poet?

poetinahat said:

Mac, I disagree -- but only in that I think that everybody starts out with respect, then works to lose it.

There are people who have forfeited the right to it.

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I don't quite agree. If I were to write a book and it got published and put on bookshelves, I would be an unknown author with no reputation thus would not yet have earned the respect from the parts of society which establish an author as respectable or not. So in regards to being a writer, it seems to me that we start out as unknowns and either gain respect or get negative labels attached to us.

That isn't quite the same as a message board rule. It's a general rule of life to show respect to everyone regardless of whether you know them or not.

Or thou shalt not flame a fellow writer...

poetinahat said:

This is only a problem for people who post without reading.

Thank you for helping build my case.

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No, you misunderstand. I think if a topic hasn't been touched in a long time, there's no reason why a person can't start a new thread. I don't think it's necessary to revive a thread that someone else started where that conversation seemed to come to an end. Especially if there are a whole lot of posts in that thread.

If there is a recent thread that is being discussed on the topic, I agree.

25!

How about 10?

Another rule...


let me sleep on it.

poetinahat said:

This is only a problem for people who post without reading.

Thank you for helping build my case.

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Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I do this as a matter of course. It prevents re-invention of the wheel (thread?), or saves numerous questions being asked and answered ad nauseum.

But, this seems to apply moreso with many of the operational-type questions and forums dealing with these eg. freelance forum.

In relation to the more extemporaneous talk-oriented forums eg. Office Party, you might be hard pressed to get people to follow the 'law'.

In either case, unless the moderators enforce the need for first examining the archives for previous discussions of a related nature, then it is left to individual initiative to 'comply'. And in a seeming almost anything goes environment, we know pretty well how things will turn out...

ATP

How about a rule that says no one is allowed to say anything bad about President Bush?

poetinahat said:

Back on topic -- thanks, Madd. This is the stuff.

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I think a new law should clearly state that if anyone mentions Orlando Bloom again then they must give up five rep points.

My law would be no dancing banana emoticons.

Celia Cyanide said:

My law would be no dancing banana emoticons.

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Yeah, we don't want no sticking banana laws here...

Puddle Jumper said:

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How'd you get your bananas to dance like that?