The forum has recently been plagued by a back and forth of finger pointing and endless quarrels over the value of stereotyping and discussing different cultures vs political correctness vs freedom to express diverse viewpoints, ad nauseum.
I’d like to remind all members of the forum that there are guidelines for posting here and I’ve linked them at the end of this post. I’d like to highlight two parts:
The guidelines specifically say to avoid even the appearance of posting anything offensive, abusive or hate speech. Hate speech is a PC term loosely defined as "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.”
They also specifically say don’t be rude. Rudeness is loosely defined as “offensively impolite or bad-mannered; abrupt; lacking sophistication.” It is out of line to demean anyone seeking help especially if they are a new poster. Don’t call them dumb, smugly remind them that they should read the Airbnb website, tell them they shouldn’t be a host or tell them to use the search function because we’ve already answered that question multiple times. If they weren’t trying to be good hosts they wouldn’t have landed on this site.
If you simply cannot abide something that is posted, if you cannot just keep scrolling, then refer to the guidelines again:
Finally, I’d like to remind everyone that this is a public forum that anyone can read, refer to in their blog, or quote in their article. It is not private or “members only” in any way. Posts from this forum have been quoted elsewhere in the media, on facebook, on blogs. Are you typing something here that you wouldn’t elsewhere because you feel the forum affords some anonymity? Don’t. As the guidelines say, would you be comfortable with your post on the front page of a newpaper? Whether we like it or not, what you post here reflects on you, the forum and on Airbnb. Anyone including guests, Airbnb staff, government officials and policymakers can read this forum. This forum does appear in internet searches, usually as one of the first results when a question is asked about Airbnb.
There are guidelines that every new member is prompted to read when they make their first posts, maybe it’s been awhile since you’ve seen it:
I thank you in advance for your careful reconsidering of these guidelines.
