Cursing Thread Locked?

[Joe Chapline]

Welcome to the forum! Thank you for your thoughts on forum operations and best practices. You are correct, comments have been closed to the cursing thread. All members have the ability to start new threads to discuss bicycling in the Washington DC area, or to make suggestions for making this forum a better tool for discussing bicycling.

[CCrew]

Not a moderator, just a user with an alternate opinion.

When I look at the bottom of the page, I see a logo for Arlington County Commuter Services. Subsequently I assume that this is a site run either by a government or quasi-government organization. I expect as a user a bit less freedom, a lot more oversight, and less shades of grey than you’d see in most public forums. The picture thread and cursing? Put it to a litmus test. Does it belong in a government office, or most businesses? I know mine it would get you a discussion with HR and possibly even shown to the door. Why should it be different here?

People seem to think in this day and age that the anonymity of the internet excuses them from polite behavior. Would you waltz through your office ranting about the “f’ing cafeteria” or discussing the hot admin that the new director got? I’d like to think not. Better yet, while Amuzing, would you think that a meeting of the Arlington County Govt that carried on this way would be something that would make you glad you voted?

I don’t think I’ve seen any admin or moderator here say that you can’t have a spirited discussion. I’ve just seen that that there are expectation of limits. I for one don’t have a problem with it. And I sure didn’t sign up because there was a thread with hot chicks in it.

Now, that said,.. I have one for the admins..

Did a whois on the domain name to see who it belonged to. You realize it’s owned by a hosting company and not the county? Might want to change that as it means you don’t technically own the name, but that may be your desire in the event of litigation.

Registration Service Provided By: Host Ventures Inc
Contact: domains@urljet.com
Visit: http://www.urljet.com

Domain name: BIKEARLINGTONFORUM.COM

Registrant Contact:
Host Ventures Inc
Greg Middlesworth ()

Fax:
2710 Thomes Ave Ste 1462
Cheyenne, WY 82001
US

Administrative Contact:
Host Ventures Inc
Greg Middlesworth (domains@urljet.com)
+1.18886992609
Fax: +1.18886992609
2710 Thomes Ave Ste 1462
Cheyenne, WY 82001
US

Technical Contact:
Host Ventures Inc
Greg Middlesworth (domains@urljet.com)
+1.18886992609
Fax: +1.18886992609
2710 Thomes Ave Ste 1462
Cheyenne, WY 82001
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns1.urljet.com
ns2.urljet.com

Creation date: 06 Dec 2009 17:04:53
Expiration date: 06 Dec 2011 17:04:53

[Joe Chapline]

@CCrew 1759 wrote:

Did a whois on the domain name to see who it belonged to. You realize it’s owned by a hosting company and not the county? Might want to change that as it means you don’t technically own the name, but that may be your desire in the event of litigation.

Registration Service Provided By: Host Ventures Inc
Contact: domains@urljet.com
Visit: http://www.urljet.com

Thanks for that; I’ll check into it. We’re advertising “WashingtonAreaBikeForum.com” now, and we own that domain name. But we just redirected that to the original domain, BikeArlingtonForum.com. The original name was registered for us by the hosting company, who have a reputation to maintain, but I’ll be sure to check and see if we need to do anything about it.

You are correct, this forum is operated by Arlington County, now in partnership with WABA and goDCgo, a program run by DDOT.

[Mykeru]

Robert,

I agree. And it’s odd the thread was locked or that it even got slightly contentious because the only point I was making — myself having administered forums, comments and way-back-when mIRC channels, it that trying to apply vague standards like “offensiveness” is a huge can of worms. Especially when everyone who ever dealt with this sort of thing knows whatever standards are adopted, or not adopted, are never equitably applied.

Frankly, vague policies like that should be the third rail of forums. They quite literally cause far more problems, hurt feelings, anger, and generate tons of hypocrisy, over and above whatever problem with language or attitude they are ostensibly addressing.

[Author]

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