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I've never had a post banned or been cautioned by a moderator and I always seem to show up on a thread after somebody has gotten the boot. Funny as I've never been one to go out of my way to avoid trouble... Oh well.

I've never had any complaints with this forum. I was never a member of an online discussion group before I joined FR and I lurked FR for a long time before I was certain that I wanted to join and get posting privileges. I emphasize privilege because there has never been a doubt in my mind that that is exactly what it is- I don't have a right to post here. Even though I donate money on the Freepathons I am still under no illusions that I could be banned and if I were to be (banned) I'm pretty sure I would have nobody but myself to blame. Plenty of times I've been just about to post a nasty message and then just stopped and censored myself- sometimes just logging off and taking a time out for a couple hours before I respond. That's just the basic rules of civility.

One rule I try to use myself (loosely) in my everyday life is "If my mother or father would be ashamed to see me doing this or hear me saying this or if I would be ashamed for them to see me/hear me-- what I'm doing's probably not a good idea". Strictly speaking, there are plenty of instances that fall outside those guidelines but it's a pretty good rule of thumb to use in most situations.

I use a lot of these self made rules of thumb and they help me out. Like the issue of rights. On whether it's something I (or somebody) has a right to or not, I figure that if I could exercise this right, alone, on a deserted island off in the Pacific, it is indeed a right and not some privilege that I perceive as a right. For example, right to speech, religion, pursuit of happiness- all these things can be exercised on my desert island. Rights to medical care, cheap energy, a half hour slot on national TV, right to a job or a "living wage" or the right to post on an internet forum- these could not be "exercised" on my island and thus do not exist as rights. Now, obviously some of the rights I might take for granted on my island may not apply in polite society (open nudity, spending the daylight hours howling at the sun etc) but so far this rule of thumb has worked for me.

D'oh! Starting to ramble. Gotta go. Thanks for posting this.

I really liked your post and thought your guidelines for posting made a lot of sense.

One small thing, though. The concept of "rights" only applies within a society of human beings, not when you are alone on a desert island.

Say you have the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (which you do). Those rights can only be violated by other people using force against you. So if there are no other people around to violate your rights, then the concept of rights is moot.

Does that make sense?

One rule I try to use myself (loosely) in my everyday life is "If my mother or father would be ashamed to see me doing this or hear me saying this or if I would be ashamed for them to see me/hear me-- what I'm doing's probably not a good idea".

Appreciate your thoughts on setting higher standards. Also I appreciate the people who catch typos and ask for clarifications of points. One of the reasons I am here is to to learn to communicate conservative ideas better.

Reminds me of a poorly led Toastmasters meeting I attended years ago and one of the well respected old timers simple said at the end: "Gentlemen, we can do better than this." He raised the bar and all the following meetings were of higher standards (By the way, this was the last all men toastmasters club in Iowa............gosh I miss those days)

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE CAN DO BETTER