Has a liberal ever been banned from this site? Whenever I see a member marked banned he seems to be an espouser of conservative viewpoints.

A member's views have nothing to do with whether they are banned.

I'm not in the habit of justifying banning decisions, but will in order sate your suspicion.

We have banned 15 members.

Of the 15, double memberships accounted for 8 of them (one was a quadruple membership with the added bonus of a faked terminal illness).

One was due to refusal to change an inappropriate name (BannedfromFreeRepublic thought I ran Free Republic, and insisted that I shouldn't have banned him from the other site. I gave him three chances to pick a different name, and he refused.).

One was banned for disclosing personal correspondence with admins on other websites.

One was banned for constant racially and ethnically inflammatory comments after repeated warning.

One was restricted for continually expounding that we were all going to hell for our views (not debating at all), and then created a duplicate membership.

One was banned after sending a highly abusive PMs to an admin after we requested they not post past personal differences with other members on the forum.

One was banned for continually advocating the mass murder of all Middle Easterners after repeated warning.

One was banned because, after their 2nd strike (for posting personal information belonging to a schoolmate), they threatened that if we didn't ban them, they would be sure to earn their third strike in short order.

As you can see, it is strictly a matter of rule enforcement. Politics have nothing to do with it.

Mike

Mike, What I am trying to get at is "are conservatives more likely to engage in questionable actions on these sites". Statistics would clearly indicate that this is true, if, as I believe, administration is not prejudiced. I accept your explanations and think this is a great site.

Another thing I am trying to prove is there is some truth to the saying "there are lies, damn lies and statistics". In order for statistics to mean anything you have to take a look at many factors contributing to the statistics. I could argue the vast majority of those who have been banned were conservatives. I can then point out the committee member and moderators are liberal. I could then come to the conclusion that the owners of this site are liberal. Statistics often lie.

I think most liberals are more comfortable with politically correct communication.

...as are most conservatives...

*Edited to add that we also are not always politically correct.

Disallowing profanity and attacks is not politically correct. It is civility.

Mike

I think Eva is right...not to say that liberals can't get passionate or abusive. There have been times that I've had to bite my tongue and times I've been reprimanded for almost crossing the line.

It's hard when you have a sarcastic personality in real life anyway.

One further point to allay any lurking partisan suspicions: all decisions regarding banishment of members has so far been made by Jaime and Mike (a slightly conservative Libertarian and a conservative Republican, respectively).

And Mike is quite right that none of the rules have anything to do with political correctness. Perhaps then, Eva, most liberals are more civil? (Hopefully, all those smilies will prevent me from getting yet another reprimand. )

Well said!