A "Free-Speech Free-For-All" Forum idea submitted for your approval...

[AmyStrange]

I've already submitted to the admin gurus and thought I would run this by all you good folks and see what y'all think:

Maybe create a group specifically just for those banned. They couldn't visit any other forum but theirs, but those who weren't banned could visit, but only if they donated a dollar a month to the DU. That would be a very entertaining forum and probably bring in some cash for the DU.

Those who are banned get in free, but those who want to watch have to pay. One dollar a month or ten dollars a year. Banned folks can have anything they say displayed as a starting thread, but are always moderated for thread startings that reveal embarrassing information about anyone that is a member in good standing here in the regular DU and three strikes and you are out for good.

Is this a workable IDEA?

d

[LastKnight]

1. you know it would just degrade into sex threads and freepers...

complaining about them... which i would pay to watch. lol

-LK

[AmyStrange]

6. I know it would be fascinating...

and maybe we could learn more about the "secret" republican agenda.

d

[Wonk]

2. To quote elad from another thread in the ATA forum

"...if we wanted things like this to go up for a referendum, we'd start the polls ourselves."

[AmyStrange]

7. My point exactly...

and the DU would make money off people like me who like to watch stuff like that,

d

[Wonk]

18. For someone who is so keen on DU making money, it's odd that you don't

have a little gold star by your name...

[everythingsxen]

3. Sounds like fun if:

There are essentially no rules. Obviously the personal information thing should be a lockable/perma-ban offense. However beyond that, I would love a forum like that. Call it the Meat Grinder. :D

[AmyStrange]

10. Much better than being "tombstoned"...

and I've always thought that conflicted with the general view here that the Death Penalty was NOT the answer to solving criminal behavior.

Although I love the idea that you could threaten them with being sent to the "Meat Grinder" and that would be much more hillarious than being "tombstoned".

Another interesting format would be if you posted a couple dozen threads that were up to DU standard you would be allowed back into the DU under moderation paying a fine of a dollar a month to the DU to pay for moderation cost,

d

[everythingsxen]

16. Exactly

Plus and I don't want this to come off as a criticism of DU per se, however, it gives DUs enemies an easy target, because anyone with a dissenting opinion is banned. While I understand the reasoning why, as I said, it is an easy way for the opposition to attack us.

[Exultant Democracy]

4. I don't see the why we would want a troll pit

I say tombstone the creepers and the freepers and be done with them. If they want to post in a fourm, then they should either follow the rules or start their own.

[AmyStrange]

5. So then don't pay the dollar a month...

or ten dollars a year to read the forum?

This WOULD be their own forum except they make bucks for the DU? What's wrong with that? The DU IS a business and NOT a charity after all.

Besides it would be an excellent laboratory for political and/ or sociological and/ or psychological research,

d

[Exultant Democracy]

8. It is interesting, but I don't see it as feasible.

There is no way you could expect the members of the troll pit to try and follow any rules at all, and who would want to moderate the mess?

[AmyStrange]

11. you wouldn't need moderators...

free speech and all that. I think there are a lot of people here who would pay to watch and moderate and besides, if they played nice for a couplk dozen threads, they would be allowed back in paying a dollar a month for moderation cost.

When you submit your application to return back into the regular DU, you would have to supply links to all 24 threads along with ten dollars for the first year,

help us out... don't tears us down?

d

[Exultant Democracy]

14. OK, go for broke.

It just seems like a Pandora's box situation to me. We have no clue what it would spawn, but it would be a safe bet that they would try to do harm.

[corporatewhore]

9. found a great forum where alotta cool banned posters have gone

but not allowed to mention it :evilgrin:

[AmyStrange]

12. whisper it in my ear (n/t)

[Bunny]

19. yeah, there's another forum all right.

you can go there and see current and former members bitch about this forum. And you can do it for free!!

Some of those folks hate this place so much, they can't quit talking about it!

[AmyStrange]

13. It would have to be called the ZOO...

I know some folks have thrown out other ideas (Meat grinder is definitely in second place) but it would just HAVE to be called the Zoo,

DU Zoo hahahahaha,

d

[Exultant Democracy]

15. We can agree on that, if it has a name it must be the DU ZOO n/t

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

17. not tenable

I modded on another site where this concept came up (it seems to comes up on every moderated forum) and the reason it doesn't work is because the walls between subfora are transparent and permeable.

You think it'd be like a Coliseum where gladiators savage each other and anyone else dumb enough to step out onto the bloodied sand, while the "good" citizens laugh and point. But carnage is no fun to watch without commentary, which would spill out of the arena and pollute other threads.

Instead of a Coliseum it'd be a firepit, and the flames would be even more difficult to contain as it would create a new genre of insults to use against opponents in moderated fora, e.g., "That's the kind of statement Freeper04 would make," or "Why don't you take that opinion to the zoo where you and your kind belong." Even seemingly benign comments about the unmodded forum could erupt in flames, and that would dramatically increase the mods' workload.

The newsgroups are loaded with posters who rip each others' throats out, if that's what people want. They work themselves into a lather, but what good does that do? I thought the mission here was to work together towards evicting the squatter from the WH. I wouldn't spend a dime to make DU more divisive.