NEW PALTALK ROOM

Room title suggestions:

Speech as Free as humanly possible

Free Speech Free Spirits

The Lost Art of Conversation

Guiding Philosophy:  Free Speech

I. No Topic Nazis

No “topic compulsion” – i.e., nobody is under any obligation to “stay on topic” when they come up to mic.  The idea is that two “dangers” which “topic Nazis” are always afraid of (either (1) an “olkee” will start to dominate the room with his blatherings; or (2) the flow of the conversation between a few mic chatters will be disrupted) will be organically sorted out in the end by two factors:

1) time limits

2) other on-topic chatters who, by their collective presence & participation on mic, will outweigh any stragglers who try to divert or go against the flow.

And if #2 doesn’t materialize, that is the fault of the chatters in the room not participating enough.  Don’t make it cause for inhibiting free speech.

II. Garden paths are nice.

Also, I think meandering conversations that go off on tangents and stray off topic are often interesting.

II. No obligation to "debate".
 
Please to God, let’s not have a manic obsession with “Debates” as a part of the room philosophy.  Let’s try to cultivate an appreciation for Conversation and Discussion that is not necessarily dictated by “debates” and formal “arguments”.



III. Room Rules:

Time limit: 3 minutes (I recommend the admins can adjust the time limit during certain times where an extended conversation between many chatters on mic seems to warrant extending it, or reducing it).

Dottable offenses:

Excessive spamming/scrolling

Mic jumping

Death threats (I recommend that the death threat has to be explicitly in the form of “I am going to kill you” -- as opposed to “I dream of the day when I can kill you” or “I have a wish that I could kill you”)

That’s it: nothing else.  All other speech & expression is allowed.  Any admin who dots for more than this will have his hat taken away (either then, or if he does it a second time).

Bouncing/Banning offenses:

These are the same as the dottable offenses – but only if the chatter keeps doing it too many times (3 times is the charm?).

Nothing else should warrant a bounce or a ban.

Note:

We positively encourage chatters to insult the admins, to lecture them on how badly the room is being run, and to disparage their family members, and generally to mock & attack the room!

And again the rule applies:  if chatters would find such insults tedious or offensive, the best medicine is to get up on the mic in large numbers and offer something different and better!