Talk policy exlpained

Right, the moderation and post withdrawals are getting silly.

Today the David Pleat thread was closed down and a lot of posts were deleted during the day (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/01/29/how_strikers_dropping_deep_cre.html ).

Unlike with the Harry Pearson thread on Friday someone from the GU team (step forward Mr Glendenning) did come on and offer reasons as to why things were being deleted, although I feel he might have regretted doing so considering the reaction it provoked.

I am slightly worried others have been banned - if so, let me know (as if anyone's reading this) and I will publish them here.

Oh - and I'm going to publish the talk policy here to try and clear things up a bit.

I really don't think some of what was deleted today (and possibly on Friday) contravenes this.

Talk policy

By posting on this website you are agreeing to abide by our talk policy. We will remove posts that contain racist, sexist or offensive/threatening language, personal attacks on the writer or other posters, posts that exceed the maximum length, and posts that are off topic. Any poster who repeatedly contravenes the talk policy will be banned from posting on the website.

Guardian Unlimited's talk policy

We want Guardian Unlimited to be the place on the net where you will always find lively, entertaining and, above all, intelligent discussions. The last thing the net needs is yet another site where any attempt at conversation is drowned out by a few people hurling mindless abuse at each other.

To make this happen, we will, very occasionally, remove some postings from our bulletin boards, articles, and blog posts. We hope this doesn't seem heavy-handed, and to be honest we don't like doing it, but we believe it is the best way to keep the tone of Guardian Unlimited right for the vast majority of the people who visit.

Why would we remove a message? There are five guidelines we would like you to be aware of:

1. We discourage obscenity and mindless abuse. Personal attacks on other users have no place in an intelligent discussion.

2. We will not tolerate racism, sexism or homophobia.

3. We will remove any content that may put us in legal jeopardy, such as potentially libellous or defamatory postings, or which is posted in potential breach of copyright.

4. While we encourage a wide range of views, we will consider removing any content that other users might find extremely offensive or threatening.

5. Extremely long running discussions slow our systems down for everyone. When a discussion grows to be very large, we will issue a warning on the thread, suggesting discussion is restarted on a new thread. Shortly after this, the thread will be closed and/or deleted. Long discussions or messages will be removed at the editor's discretion.

If you act with maturity and consideration for other users, you should have no problems.

Remember that by registering for Guardian Unlimited you have also agreed to our terms and conditions (http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html ).