Please, no more YouTube comments! or How Yoomoot reconciles free speech with politeness

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Problem: Rudeness
How many people have been put off online discussions because of the sniping, personal attacks and general needless rudeness that is all too common on public forums? The anonymity of the Web creates incredible openess but it also licenses incredibly bad behaviour.  Yoomoot's structured format prevents the one-on-one personal attacks that are at the heart of most online incivility.

Solution 1: It's hard to hate via Q&A
If you dislike something in a standard online discussion, you simply click reply and start criticising. In Yoomoot, you can only criticise something by asking a question about it, and then answering that question. The question puts a distance betwen your criticisms and the original disagreeable comment. You're replying to a question, which is neutral, not to the opinion you disagree with. As a result, personal criticisms don't make sense: nobody says 'you are wrong and stupid' to a question.

Solution 2: No personally insulting questions
The only way round this would be to ask a question specifically about another user, e.g. "is UserX stupid?". Therefore such questions are banned on Yoomoot.

Solution 3: A free speech policy that distinguishes between 'what' and 'how'
The ban described above is the one key exception to Yoomoot's guiding principle of 'free enquiry into any issue'. Importantly, this pro-free-speech policy does not mean that users can be as offensive as they like. Being offensive in a way that is not necessary to make your point is prohibited on Yoomoot. Yoomoot believes in free speech for what can be discussed but restrictions on how it is discussed. We think this is necessary to encourage as many people as possible to participate in online discussions.

Addendum: Multiple identities

yoomoot is fine with people assuming multiple identities, so long as those identities don't agree or recommend each other's moots, or lie about themselves. Anonymity liberates people to say what they really think, that has positive as well as negative consequences, so we wouldn't want to abolish it.