I apologize for not getting back to this sooner.

I've had some questions on how to sign the petition electronically. Simply Cut everything below the dotted line and Paste it into a PM. Then affix your name at the bottom. Send the PM to me. (Full, real name is best, but if you don't feel comfortable passing that along to me, just put your user name -- Anu has access to real names if he cares to look.)

I've also had comments to the effect that we should emphasize that this is a board which is dedicated to discussions about words, their origins, meanings and usage.
I feel this should be part of the guidelines, rules of conduct, or whatever we decide on as welcoming message.

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We the undersigned support the notion that the moderator(s) of this public forum should have the power to limit the amount of unsolicited spam and unwarranted flaming to which users are subjected. We support the codifying of this stance via a publicly posted message, appropriately highlighted. Here is an example of such an announcement:

A basic tenet of any public forum should be that the sincerely held opinion of each person is highly valued and therefore should not be silenced. However, moderators of public forums should retain the right to intercede in discussions that have devolved to personal and/or other forms of ad hominem attacks. Such attacks are an infringement on the rights of all to post their own sincerely held opinions in a friendly and open environment.

Moderator intercession may include the locking of threads, deletion of individual posts, or deletion of entire threads -- with the understanding that these actions would only be undertaken when normal communications and especially PMs have failed to resolve a conflict.

<enter name here>

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I would like to say that if this petition is answered, and if the moderator becomes me (so far, no one else has volunteered that I know of, though it would be nice if Anu would), I will do my very best not to impose my personal standards on others. Anyone who "knows" me through my posts should be able to tell some things: for one, that I pretty well never impose my will on others; for another, barring something unforeseen I will not peremptorily edit out curse words. For that matter I will not peremptorily do anything. I FAR prefer to suggest and ask, and wait for people to decide on their own what, if anything, to change. I think it is pretty safe to say that I won't actually do anything editorially unless a problem has been brought up numerous times, all less-drastic measures have failed to resolve it, and the "perpetrator(s)" willfully continue the provocation.