Political threads - moving to current events

All Bush/Kerry/other candidate threads are being relocated from Nursing Activism to the Current Events forum. The good news is, that means that the posts will no longer be moderated prior to going onto the board. The bad news is...the posts will no longer be moderated prior to going onto the board.

The moderators have had to edit out numerous personal attacks from posts prior to sending them through when these threads were in the activism forum. We don't want to shut down political debate, but if the political threads get out of control in current events (i.e. personal attacks on other posters) we will have no option but to close them.

I ask you to consider the following before posting (on any thread, really, but especially on hot button political threads...) :

Am I debating an idea rather than a person.

Am I generalizing about whole groups (I am particularly grated by use of the phrase "you people" followed by "always" or "never" or any other absolute.)

Is this something I would say in person if I was trying make my point in a reasonable, intelligent manner face-to-face.

I am looking forward to a debate of ideas, not personal attacks. And while it's not technically a violation of the TOS to slam the other guy's candidate, it might be more convincing to explain why your candidate is better.

I also remind you this is primarily a nursing bulletin board. As such, the current events forum is open to posts only from those who have accumulated 50 posts in other forums.

Thanks,

Ratched and Efiebke, Moderators