Ongoing discussion, here...
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Declaration of Thread Closed
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one moderator to dissolve the functionality of a thread which had connected members one with another and to assume among the powers of ATS, the ability to moderate which the Laws of Springer and of SkepticOverlord entitle them, that they should declare the causes which impel them to make closed the thread that was before this time open.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all threads are created equal, that they are endowed by their OP with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of a Happy Discussion that has never before been made. -- That to secure these rights, Moderators are instituted among Members, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and SimonGray.
Whenever any Form of a new Thread becomes destructive of these ends, and doth repeat itself, it is the Right of the Moderator to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a closed Thread, closing it on such principles and organizing their powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the Happiness of all Members.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Threads long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that members are more disposed to suffer, while duplicate threads are sufferable than to right themselves by using the complaint form to report it thereby abolishing the openness of a thread to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, when a trail of copy-cat discussions doth appear, when it become obvious that this discussion had been pursued before. Moderators evinces a design to reduce duplicate threads, it is their right, it is their duty, to close such duplicate Threads, and to provide new Guards for the future security of existing Threads that such things be discussed in their proper place, credit being given to, and discussion being contained in, the original thread.
Thread Closed
