First, I apologise for not responding to this thread sooner. I have had a busy week and the past few days in particular have been very full.
This thread seems in itself a good demonstration of some of the reasons we ask our members to make a special effort towards being respectful of others, even if they disagree with their points of view ; what one person may see as a light-hearted joke may not be understood as such by someone else, and what might seem like a simple discussion to one can seem provocative to others. This is the main point i was trying to make in the "liseuse" thread. In light of that, kenny, I would like to ask you specifically to please go back and take another look at what I wrote. I certainly had no intention of threatening you nor anyone else and I think if you re-read carefully exactly what I wrote you'll find that there is no threat in my words.
We try very hard to maintain an ambiance of tolerance and friendliness here. The international nature of this forum, which is a big reason that it is such an interesting place, also means that we *all* may need to make an extra effort to understand and respect other people's points of view, even when ours may be different, particularly as many people are participating in a language which is not their first, and different cultural backgrounds may mean that some jokes are not obvious to others.
Florence, omk, TGS and others have made very good points in this thread about tolerance and taking a step back to avoid replying in anger. I hope that we can *all* take these ideas to heart in order to preserve the exceptional nature of this community.
As for the specific question of moderators participating in discussions, I joined the liseuse thread with the hope of avoiding a conflagration similar to previous ones over the same topic. I attempted to keep my few moderation interventions light-handed and light-hearted, the way *any* member might post a friendly reminder if they see a conversation becoming unnecessarily heated, because there was an attempt at some interesting and respectful discussion which i would have liked to see continue. I am sorry if a few of you found that to be unclear. I do not personally like to resort to overly repressive interventions at the first sign of trouble because I think that our members are adults and I prefer to give everyone the opportunity to resolve any disagreements as adults, which many are able to do with the occasional friendly reminder. However as demonstrated by the stronger messages posted later and finally the closing of that thread we are sometimes forced to take stronger actions, and we do this after discussion amongst the team.
I appreciate the very interesting discussions that can arise here thanks to the participation of people from different backgrounds and cultures, and I'd like to thank everyone for that. I look forward to more of them, and I hope everyone feels welcome to participate.
