From rmaccrea1@gmail.com Thu Mar 07 07:01:10 2013
Subject:Re: The new rules (Off topic/ On topic/ manners)

I do not believe this issue to be what is off topic. It is really discussion group manners. When a conversation heats up, it is easy to use the OT rule to try to shut it down, when in fact the issue is manners.
Whenever we write a message, the reader always interprets it with twice the darkness and meanness you intended. So those of us who write posts should be responsible to re-read before we click the button. Look for anything that could possibley offend, and change it. Write your messages to be half as dark as you intend, and they should come out just about right. (This is to protect the group).
I deal with this in business. Whenever an issue heats up, I am never able to solve it in writing. The harder I try to solve it with messages, the worse it gets. It requires face to face, or phone conversation. As an idea to stop a flame war, we could ask all involved parties to share phone numbers privately and call each other to settle the issue without us having to read it. In severe cases the moderator could give them a time out until he hears from involved parties that everything is good again.
I could be wrong, but I believe these flame wars are doing more damage to the group than OT conversations.
I believe a more lenient OT rule should allow anything with music. But if anyone is posting something outside of cloneweheel topic it should be clearly labeled OT and if we are not interested we can skip those posts.