Posted by Moderator 1 [Rick] on November 03, 1999 at 14:41:07 {eZOTANvCI67ajbiu2wnkFMFBt36Xyc}:
Those who accuse others of wrongdoing without providing reasonable and satisfactory evidence are violating the terms of the FPP and their posting privileges on H2O.
Due to the recent ganging up on Greg Stafford, it looks like we might have to declare the equivalent of "marshall law" on H2O, and have to make an exception to our "warning" rule. POSTS CONTAINING SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS WITHOUT EVIDENCE SHOULD GET DELETED, AND I'LL YANK THE ID OF OFFENDERS FROM THE REGISTRATION DATABASE.
"Proof" means a link to a previous post, or any other easily verifiable evidence. Links to external web sites are subject to moderator discretion. (For example, if you claim someone is a liar, and provide a link to a Geocities website where someone writes "I hereby certify that Joe Smith is a bonafide LIAR," that is NOT evidence that Joe Smith is in fact a liar. What is evidence then? A link to a post by Joe Smith stating something that is clearly contradicted in a link to another post. This is a qualifier meaning that "Joe Smith is a liar based on his contradiction in these two posts." Of course, others might conclude it was an honest mistake on Joe's part, others might believe it deliberate deceit.)
EXAMPLE:
Not allowed: "Joe Smith used a fake identity to post to himself, thus he is a deceiver!"
Allowed: "Joe Smith [link to post] posted to himself [/end link to post] using a different screen name or fake identity, and the result is that many were deceived into believing someone else agreed with Joe Smith! Joe Smith is a deceiver!"
Readers cannot dig through over 180,000 posts consisting of almost half a million typewritten pages, to find Joe's post(s) in question. The accuser must provide the link to posts PROVING that Joe Smith did what was accused, or refrain from publicly accusing Joe Smith. (The name Joe Smith is a randomly selected example for illustrative purposes.)
Moderators are requested to keep a list of all screen names involved in accusations without supporting evidence after this post. I'll run through the list, examine their posts, and ban most of these screen names from posting for a week.
Rick