Personal Attacks And Abusive Language Will Not Be Tolerated

[AB Editor]

"We understand that debates get heated, but personal attacks and abusive language will not be tolerated"

Can we all calm down a bit please?

I've been written to several times about how abrasive and aggressive this section has become.

Several have pointed out that the language in particular has become childish and brutish, with name calling and hyperbole being especially annoying.

So let's calm down a bit. Let's stop calling people "traitors to britain" and "friends of jihad" or similarly rude things.

If you can't make your opinion felt without resorting to these personal attacks, then you'll likely be met with suspension, or banning.

All the best,

Ed

[Ann]

Well said Ed!! Good peacemaker!
Ed for Prime Minister !!!!!! LOL ;)

[Peter Pedant]

// So let's calm down a bit. Let's stop calling people "traitors to britain" and "friends of jihad" or similarly rude things. //

rude and hurtful things......carefully thought out phrases calculated to wound .....

can we remind ourselves that sticks and stones .....

and also on the lines of Groucho Marx - I would never join a club that elected me !
there is a certain subset of gentlemen contributing to Ab ( let us anonymise them by calling them, "The Crazies" ) who, if they said I was logical articulate and to be listened to as the pearls dropped from my lips, charming, political and a general good guy, I would think: "blimey there is something wrong with me, I had better go and see a psychiatrist !"

[Svejk]

^A different psychiatrist?

[DTCwordfan]

Off you go, PP...I sell a good range in white padded jackets!

[Togo]

I have read the thread (that is rhyming), and the suggestion is that cockney rhyming is to be deemed abusive, or unintelligible. Now do we ban the odd Welsh post, or the French letters that some times appear, some of us have acronyms or continental pseudonyms, are they to be interpreted as contentious? More like be wary of the aggravator, the serial reporter, the very precious. I would think that we all can make a choice to avoid topics we find stressful, or posters we find distasteful. Some of course will seek such threads out, if only to feed their need (rhyming again), to ruffle their own feathers. You all wait until the new formats arrive, and we get the "younger" contributors it is designed to attract. Lots of new "names" and slights then to get your umbrage in gear.

[Togo]

I will give you another observation. Do you all see that certain posters, appear to follow other posters from thread to thread to antagonise them with petty shallow taunts. I have in my short time on AB seen posters cease to post or be hooked when they eventually react. If I can see it, it cannot be difficult to identify for the mods and number crunchers.

[Tilly2]

Curiouser and curiouser!

[gness]

Togo @ 20.03....Spot on.....that is happening more and more of late. It is putting folk off and it is stopping some from posting in news.

A will post something and you know just how long it will take X Y and Z to come in to start the taunting because it is A who has posted.....so you don't bother posting because you will just be ignored.

[Maydup]

Well said Ed.

Difficult times politically I appreciate that, and of course we can avoid threads or Abers who we are uncomfortable with, but in the end we feel like avoiding Answerbank altogether in search of a quiet life!

[Jackdaw33]

Of course, if there were not a News category in the first instance there would be no problem.

[mikey4444]

Agree 100% Ed.

[Jackdaw33]

That's priceless, Mikey, bleeding priceless.

[mikey4444]

Jack...I have never used phrases like "traitors to britain" or "friends of jihad"
unlike some on here.

I defend my own views robustly and I combat other people views and and arguments, if I think they are wrong and offensive, and I shall continue to do so.

Perhaps its comments like yours at 20:52 that Ed has in mind when he says "resorting to these personal attacks"

[fiction-factory]

Thanks Ed.

[Baldric]

Does that mean you are going to stop calling people Trolls then Mikey?

[zebo]

Stuey, a lot of what is written on here is sheered hyperbolics.

[mikey4444]

Baldric...In the spirit of Eds original plea, I won't be making any further comments on this thread.

[Peter Pedant]

The ed very wisely writes in short

'little children, love one another.' (st John the divine )

and dang oi ! the usual suspects are at each other's throats