First off, sorry about the wait. As stated before, this is a potential minefield and I for one like both my feet where they are. Also I got depressed (due to unrelated stuff) and spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the walls, doing nothing, and/or being asleep. So I really should have got this one out sooner; the fault's on me there.
Going through the thread, I didn't actually find that many things that were actionable (more on those later). What I did find was a lot of bitterness, snark, and general nastiness. But if we warned people for being mean the entire forums would be depopulated, so we have to look for instances where people are more-than-averagely mean. I would like people to try to drive that average meanness down, though. That'd be swell.
I do need to address the pronoun thing, since it was a large part of what caused said nastiness. Having gone through the thread (well, the parts that weren't already addressed) I can't really find any instances where anyone's use of pronouns rises to the level at which it needs to be warned for (although in some instances other mods had already told posters to "knock it off", which was certainly warranted). This is partly because I'm having trouble seeing it as offensive on the same level as "tranny" or "monster" (both of which we've seen in the past, thank you Electroconvulsive Glee for the links) - that may be my cissexual privilege showing, but I think it's a valid ruling, given how much legitimate confusion exists regarding the proper use of pronouns in this situation. This is also partly because both sides of the debate were going out of their way to "correct" each others' posts with the "correct" pronouns, so you ended up with a "He said, she said, HE said, SHE said, HE said, SHE said" situation forming a feedback loop.
And now, some individual posts to glare at!
http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=16239672#p16239672 Liriena, The Genoese Cromanatum - these posts are almost - but not quite - attacking the poster, in that they're abusing what they're "saying" (their ideas) rather than saying "You're a blind liberal" or "You're a liar". Which is getting close enough you can see it from where you're standing. So both of you should consider yourselves soundly whacked with the rolled-up newspaper.
In addition to that, Liriena - I understand that this is a sensitive subject for you, but things like this and this, in conjunction with the above, do add up. They don't stack quite high enough to earn you an official warning, but a little less snark towards your fellow posters would be appreciated.
http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=16240040#p16240040 Hetalian Indie Rio de Janiero - this is clearly attacking the poster, not the post. That said, it's also very mild. So I sentence you to an official STOP BEING A JERK TO PEOPLE.
http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=16257634#p16257634 The Steel Magnolia, in conjunction with your history of egregiously flaming your opponents, this gets you an *** official warning for flaming ***. If you didn't have such a long history of flaming, it'd probably be an unofficial. As it is, you're on thin ice.
All in all, not a long list for 23 pages of a 123-page thread; but some were dealt with by other mods already, and some disappear in the general mess of ill-feeling. At this point I'm going to - tentatively - say that a thread on Manning's gender identity, or (preferably) more generally on the state's role in paying for gender-related treatments, could be started up (but the existing thread will remain locked). I'm hoping that with a decent OP - hopefully incorporating the various bits of information regarding prior relevant legal rulings, medical opinions on gender dysphoria, Manning's gender dysphoria being known of prior to the trial, et cetera - we can avoid the problem of the same ground being continually retrod. Because reading through the thread that stuff got old, and it was a major source of the ill-feeling in the thread.
That's all, I'm going to go fall asleep again now.
~ Tsar the Mod
