I'm only inferring the changes that have been made, Tico. I did spot check some of the older discussions that had formerly been in the "Christian" and "Conservative" forums are now simply in Debate Room. Any member of any of the debate room groups have always been physically able to post (trespass) on any groups discussions, but have honored the intent stated in the header of the first post. I'm making the assumption that everyone posting on this particular thread is a member of at least one of the usergroups.
I've pasted Craven's original announcement below. The highlights are my own.
Quote:Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 7:04 pm Post: 620967 - The Debate Room opens today
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The debate room will open today.
Purpose:
To allow members to have discussions structured to their liking (within reason).
How it will work (BETA, this may change):
1) Usergroups are established.
Usergroups are communally owned. This means they are not the property of the appointed group leader. Usergroups are theme/ideology based and are not to be used as club houses or cliques.
Creation of a usergroup depends on several factors. a) The extistence of a usergroup for that topic. Duplicate groups will not be created. b) Existing membership to fill the group. There needs to be enough to make the group worth while (e.g. there is currently no demand for an underwater basket weaving group) c) The existence of a trustworthy leader for the group as the group leader will have the responsibility of keeping the group in line.
Usergroup suggestions will be taken on a thread that has not yet been created. This post will be edited to include the group suggestion thread when it is ready.
2) The groups are given access to the Debate Room. The access is contingient on the group following the rules of the debate room. If a user of a group does not do so the whole group can lose access so the groups have a responsibility to police themselves.
3) The members of the groups are allowed to create threads and specify the participation and the format. Debate Room Threads that do not declare participation and format criteria in this manner may be removed. Both must be declared in the very first line of the first post's body.
e.g.
Quote:
Usergroup(s):Liberals, Libertarians
Format:Free style
The acceptable participation criteria is: any number (above 1) of existing user groups. A discussion can be limited to one group, two or several.
The acceptable format criteria is being defined. The purpose of the format declaration is to enable the groups to have more structure if they choose. "Free style" is the way most A2K discussions progress but the groups can decide to have turn-based formats and other formats that will be outlined.
In the BETA stage of the Debate Room the groups will make up their own formats (within reason, a "everyone make fun of so and so" format would obviously not be tolerated).
4) After a period/criteria determined by the Moderators all discussions will be moved to the general forums, allowing participation by all at . . . .
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