a request for civility
This community's info page currently says, "Its purpose is to provide a friendly forum" and "Treat everyone here fairly and with respect." A few folks are falling short. So, here's my current thought:

Treat others with respect, and you will be treated with respect. If you do not, I will ask if you need a cup of tea. This means you seem rather over-excited to me. If you are a SFWAn, it means you are behaving as though you hope to match the most extreme behavior seen in the Forum or within the Lounge. If you are not a SFWAn, it means that you might wish to read John Scalzi's post about Crazy Screechy Monkeys.

The second time you treat others without respect, you will be banned from the group for 24 hours. At that point, you will be readmitted upon request, and the cycle will begin again.

Are people comfortable with that? We are open to other suggestions. It will mean that we'll have to moderate admission and forbid anonymous comments, but if that's the price for civility, so be it.

And, no, this is not an attempt to limit discourse. The English language is remarkably rich. If you cannot make your point without belittling someone, you are more interested in belittling than enlightening.

Also, I'll offer a cup of tea to anyone who disses me, but I won't ban them. I don't like expelling people, so I won't do it for my sake.

Here's a final thought about why you shouldn't try to look like a jerk online: If your principles matter, discuss them civilly. If you do not, many people will assume that only jerks hold your position. Therefore, I'll be more inclined to warn and expel people who share my positions than those who do not, but I'll do my very best to be fair.

I'm a little tempted to propose that SFWAns, who you might expect to have a better handle on tone than less experienced writers, will be banned for twice as long. But SFWA is a group that admits people on the basis of their sales, not the quality of their prose, so SFWAns will be treated the same as anyone else.