tjagain
I know scotroutes in real life and thus I saw the post as intended
And this is the nub of the issue.
The written word, despite being black and white is open to a wide range of interpretations, based not just on the way it’s written by the author, but also by the way it’s READ by the reader!
Take the following example:
“I’m going to ***** kill you”
Those words are quite clear. Taken at a completely literal sensse, they tell us that the author i going to kill the reader.
But, i bet all around the world right now those exact words are being used by a lot of people, some of whom will indeed kill the listener, but the vast majority have said/written it and meant it in a very different way indeed.
In spoken word, the WAY you say something tells the listener more about how it was meant that the words themselves. Add in real body language and the meaning is much much clearer. In fact, the meaning can even be completely changed by what was said immediately prior. For example:
“Stacey, if you leave your dirty socks on the bathroom floor one more time i’m going to ***** kill you”
VS
“Insult me again and i’m going to **** kill you”
Very, very different situations i think you’ll agree. There are ways to attempt to clarify how we expect things to be taken:
Emoticons are meant to give us some sense of the intended tone of the written word 8)
Emoticons are meant to give us some sense of the intended tone of the written word 🙄
But again, these are open to interpretation.
One thing that could work, but would require a forum code change is to have an option to “blank abusive posts”, where a reported post is coloured red, and you don’t’ see it if you’ve got that box ticked. Those posts could also individually be covered by a “warning, post contains adult content” or whatever type warning, that must be individually clicked to see that post?
But as the mods rightly say, moderation must be based on average behavior, not single posts. Some posters on here go out of their way to argue, and be rude / disrespectful. We often see one of two posters “against the rest of the world” where posters attempt to reason with them, but end of just getting caught up in a cycle of insults.