This began as a comment on a post in JanieBelle's blog. You can read the post and it's comments here. The comment below is reprinted here so that a discussion about things like the language used in tags can be continued.

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Posted by Elizabeth on JanieBelle's blog on July 27, 2007:

A couple of quick but important thoughts on the conducting of discussion on Sex in the Public Square: First, I think that dismissive or insulting name calling has to be unacceptable all around, so I am going to change the tag "fundies" to "fundamentalists." I would do the same if someone used the tag "homos" instead of "homosexuals" or "gays" in a way that was clearly dismissive. My point here is not to water down the criticism but to keep the "official" language of the site accurately descriptive as possible, and to maintain an atmosphere that encourages debate and dissent.

Second, I know that all fictional characters have back stories, and yet since JanieBelle has asserted herself as "entirely fictional" it sits funny with me to read her assertions about a past and a history to challenge the experience claims of another person. I don't know how we should handle this, but JanieBelle, I wonder if it would be useful for readers to be reminded your fictional status when you refer to your past -- or at least to the past that extends backward to the time before your online story begins, especially when you are using that experience to challenge someone else's experience claims.

Since this site is most definitely in its development stage I welcome responses to thse "procedural" questions.

...because public space really matters!

Elizabeth