Flame-War Policy

Flame-War Policy covers methods used to mediate arguments/bitchfests/debates/flamewars over sensitive topics in public areas by Combine members to each other. This applies only to Combine members arguing with each other over topics that are expected to turn into shouting competitions ie. religion, racism, history and politics.

As a rule of thumb, intelligent debate and discussions of sensitive topics are encouraged and mentally stimulating, but these are expected to turn into heated arguments after someone compares someone else to Adolf Hitler, usually. Flame-War Policy covers responses to prevent and deal with this eventual shutdown of maturity.

Prevention
Combine members are encouraged to accept that no human actually wants to be proven wrong without some kind of reward. There will always be a natural urge to fall back to another argument if the first one fails, even if your backup argument is irrelevant.

1. If there is an ongoing, competitive debate that states there will be a winner and loser, then the first argument to be forced to cede to reason, statistics and studies will be regarded as lost. Merely shutting the opposition up or thinking you won is not grounds for victory. There must be proof.

2. It is peferable to choose level-headed, self-aware and intelligent members to represent a side of an argument, rather than taking whoever comes in. This ensure that both sides will be able to admit defeat and argue intelligently.

3. Arguing sides should be evenly ranked, to prevent someone from pulling rank and threatening to have the opposition punished for their opinion. This rule is not actually that important but useful to consider when arguing.

Punishment
When tempers flare over arguments on sensitive topics, this usually dives into outright discrimination based on religion, political views, sex etc. As noted in the general rules, this is grounds for expulsion. Begin conflict at own risk.