h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>Being Offensive
According to Peta, the line between unoffensive posts (and links) and offensive posts is simple - did your post offend someone, or is it likely to offend someone?

Hmm, this is extremely difficult to live with. As you say, who knows who will be offended by what.
It makes it very difficult to talk about some things, as some people will be offended, or say they are offended, by anything.
I don't know if you can, but it might be a good idea to say that it seems that Peta seems to be the bottom line for offensiveness. That sounds rude, but I mean that things are referred to Peta, and if she doesn't find it offensive it stays. That is what I've picked up from reading moderation disussions anyway.

And now I finally had time to read this all the way through, I like it. Although the footnotes are hard work.

The last person left with an account at h2g2 will be the person with the fastest trigger-finger on the yikes button!

I don't think it will be that bad, but this rule sounds inconsistent with the fact that some people have yikesed their own posts after posting hastily, only to be overruled by the h2g2 Editors, because they did not find it offensive enough.

Really, I think it's difficult for a place to define what constitutes "offensive" behavior or writing. I think it's fair to leave some leeway for the editors to judge things (*crossing fingers that I'm not the next to be zapped*). But the logical conclusion of this "anything yikesed=offensive" ad absurdam is that h2g2 would have the standards of the person with the most itchy yikes trigger-finger.

Sounds nasty. I live next door to someone that would like to have a yikes button attached to my house, and it's not nice, wondering where she is going to strike next.
Hopefully h2g2 won't attract anyone like that.

geez, I hope your right. It would be miserable to live like that.

I agree, Mina, it is very difficult to live with. That is the latest official guidance that anyone has received (to my knowledge). My suspicion is that this is an area which the editors realise needs sorting out, and they will do so eventually, but it *is* a tricky area, so this will take time.

I'll add emphasis that *IN PRACTICE* Peta seems to be the bottom line for offensiveness. That's what I'd picked up from moderation discussions too, which is why the latest official guidance came as such a surprise to me, and why I {and others} asked for clarification. I don't really want to tell people that they should just ignore the official guidance, but that's what it seems to come down to...

Thanks for the help, Mina - much appreciated!


-Martin