Joe,
No, we have recently had a problem with name-calling in the forums which resulted in members contacting me and also wanting to complain to the society's executive director. Neither side of the political spectrum was blameless. This could become a problem for my livelihood as well as for the openness that we now enjoy on the forum. I thought the problem might be due to the political temperature getting too high. I may be wrong about that, but going on the theory that the politics was getting overheated, I tried to cool things off with a closure of the off-topic forum for a few days. Upon reopening the forum, I felt that everyone was being restrained, but I was suspicious that several posters were trying to get a rise out of the audience by posting seemingly innocent posts like, "Hmmm...I wonder why gun sales are going up?" Am I paranoid? Probably.
In the particular topic we are in, posters were inspired to advocate armed revolution based on the first post, which at first glance seemed to be from a "legitimate journalism" source, but it's really a political screed from an advocacy group. Not that being hogwash made it unworthy of the forum (heavens knows we have no lack of it), but that people were becoming alarmed at something without knowing that it was just political opinion from an internet site, not a news item, and I thought people wouldn't get all amped up if they considered that it might not be wise to cash in their 401K's without first finding authoritative verification of an impending government plot to seize personal assets, based solely on a site that is selling Jesse Helms biographies on its home page..
Then another poster came through with corroborating information, without stating that it came directly from a Rush Limbaugh broadcast. Without casting aspersions on El Rushbo, his program is self-described as political commentary, not financial advice. Without any intention of censoring, I thought again it would be useful to know the source before wiping out one's retirement holdings in favor of gold coins.
I believe there is an objective difference between legitimate journalism and political commentary, and I am just asking for truth-in-labeling, so people can be free to decide on their own. You may not agree. All I want to do is avoid name-calling on the site and for us not to be an embarrassment to the world. Maybe I've weighed in too much. Last week I was being accused of being too lassez-faire. It's the same argument on Wall Street: too much regulation or not enough? I don't know.
Ross