Room Rules & Mission Statement

ROOM RULES (and Mission Statement) HAVE BEEN TWEAKED AS OF MARCH 27, 2021.  

FOR NOW, UNTIL I CHANGE THE ROOM NAME IN THE FUTURE (PERHAPS IN APRIL), IGNORE RULE #10.  RULES #1-9 ARE THE SAME AS BEFORE, EXCEPT FOR THE TWEAKS (DUH).

Mission Statement and General Remarks.

This room, The Sane Asylum (formerly "Take Off Your Mask" and many other varied names) will soon be changing its name to Normal Conversation.

The overarching and implicit room rule when the new room kicks off will be this:  

Any and all abnormal conversation will be dotted.

For more details, see Rule #10 below.  The dotting will be enforced under the dotting system as outlined below in Rule #8. 

Further General Remarks:

 

The Room Owner is me, nickname "Five Four Time" (and also "C Major").

 

This is not a "Free Speech Room" any more than it is a "Christian Room" (even though we're in the Christianity section).  However, I do value free speech and freedom of expression and try to cultivate it in my room as best I can (given the difficult imperfections of human nature exhibited on a daily basis in Paltalk).  

 

I have a special interest in questioning the Covid Narrative that dominates the Mainstream throughout the West (and the Rest of the world), and I am ever on the lookout to find other souls I can converse & commiserate with on this vexing -- and often perplexing -- issue. 

ROOM RULES

1.  Mic Time

Generally speaking, there is no time limit for mic chat.  (Sometimes we have an auto-timer but most of the time we don't.)

Admins can at their discretion estimate when a mic chatter has talked too long.  At that point, the admin must type in ALL CAPS a time warning TWICE before dotting the mic chatter off mic.  Admins are to space the two warnings apart by several seconds -- don't just type them twice immediately one after the other.
 

If a mic chatter repeatedly ignores time calls, necessitating admins to dot him off mic over and over, the admin may apply the dotting rules of Rule #8.  Otherwise, all time call dots remain at the level of being dotted only for a few seconds.  (Note: "repeatedly" is up to admin discretion, but should be more than twice.)
 

2.  Jumping Mic

Anyone who jumps the mic will be dotted.  "Yahooing" the mic may incur a dot, depending on what mood the admin is in at the time ("yahooing the mic" means seizing the mic without first putting your hand up, even when no one has their hand up).

3.  Spamming

Spamming is dotted.  Spamming is defined as typing in too much text over and over again in a short span of time.  (All these terms are subject to admin discretion).

4.  Music or Recordings on Mic

If you want to play music or recordings on mic, please ask an admin.  He may not grant your request, so suck it up.   If he does okay it, you probably won't be able to play a long recording.  2 minutes might be safe, but 1 minute or less would be highly likely to be allowed.

5.  Serious Threats Against Other Chatters or Against the Room

Only serious threats will incur a dot, not threats obviously meant jokingly, figuratively, or "in the heat of the moment" (as for example when some guy in the Bronx shakes his fist at a passing taxi that just splashed him from a mud puddle, "I'm gonna wring yer neck, you no-goodnik...!!!").

 

This includes threatening to close the room and/or to sabotage the room (or shown to be actually doing it) .  

 

6.  Harassment of Other Chatters (+ the "Pedophilia" rule)

Too much harassment/badgering of another chatter or other chatters may incur a dot, but admins will be slow to dot in this case (since all too often what constitutes "too much harassment" is exaggerated by the supposed victim). 

 

The definition of "harrassment" has to include a victim who complains about it.

 

"Harrassment" also includes calling another chatter a "pedophile" or implying it or creating a nickname that refers to another chatter as a "pedophile". 

 

Note: The "pedophile" rule does NOT apply in the following ways:

 

a) calling famous people pedophiles

 

b) calling dead people/people of history pedophiles

 

c) averring or implying that a chatter supports pedophilia negatively (i.e., by not sufficiently condemning pedophilia).  

 

However, chatters who aver or imply that another chatter actually supports pedophilia positively will incur a dot.

7.  Nonsense

Admins will decide if a chatter is indulging in "nonsense" which may be dotted.  This does not necessarily include criticizing or attacking the admins or owner or any chatter -- but may if it goes on too long, or too repetitively, or in stupid terms, or in disruptive terms (or any combination of the aforementioned).  This includes a chatter making egregious or strange claims and refusing to provide a link that credibly verifies it.
 

 8. Dots

All infractions noted in all room rules are punished through this dot system (with the exception of time calls, see rule #1).

 

Before any admin may dot, the admin must warn the chatter to stop whatever he's doing.  The warning must, at minimum, include two warnings in text in ALL CAPS.  The two warning should be spaced apart by a few seconds.

 

First-time dots = a few seconds.

Second-time dots = 1 hour.

Third-time infractions = 24 hours (the most logical way to implement this is through a bounce, which keeps a chatter out of the room for precisely 24 hours).

 

Fourth-time dots/infractions are, like diamonds, forever.

All cumulative dots have to be related to same-day infractions.  However, any infraction may be upgraded to a bounce and/or a ban, if that infraction persists too much -- here "too much" is up to admin discretion, but may be overruled by room Owner (see Rule # 9).

Note: "Infractions" do NOT refer to time calls -- except as noted under #1.  

9. Admin Discretion & Admin Behavior

"Admin discretion" means that admins decide when and how to apply rules, and decide how rules are to be interpreted.  They will endeavor to be reasonable when doing so.  However, the room Owner (Five Four Time) may overrule any given discretionary decision made by an admin.  

 

Admins are not to dot each other.  I don't want the room to degenerate into "admin wars".  If any admin feels another admin is overstepping his bounds, discuss it with him.  If that other admin persists stubbornly in thinking he's right, bring it up with me, the room Owner (Five Four Time).  This recourse, of course, may take time (even a day or two) if we can't coordinate our schedules, so please be patient.

10.  Abnormal vs. Normal Conversation

Like most other terms of room rules, "abnormal" is defined by admin discretion.  I think my admins have a fairly reliable intuitive barometer for detecting "abnormal" though I caution them to be careful when applying dots in this regard.

So I ask my admins to consider that "abnormal" does NOT mean merely speech you don't like.

With a term as intuitive and amorphous as "abnormal" we don't want to apply an exacting surgical scalpel of analysis to it, thus "killing the patient" on the operating table.  I.e., it's a term not amenable to a comprehensively precise definition.  We can, however, sketch out parameters:

1) only applies to mic chat in the context of exchanges with one or more other chatters (who themselves may be either on mic or in text)

2) generally involves inability to interact with another chatter in human terms

3) includes refusal to answer questions -- either directly or by persistent evasiveness

4) [TO BE CONTINUED, STILL DRAFTING]

"Normal" of course doesn't necessarily mean "boring" or "mundane".  One can converse normally and still discuss many different topics, ranging all over the intellectual map -- including philosophy, theology, society, politics, culture, etc.  Nevertheless, casual chit-chat is okay too.