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

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Problem: Rudeness
How manypeople have been put off online discussions because of the sniping,personal attacks and general needless rudeness that is all too commonon public forums? The anonymity of the Web creates incredible openessbut 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 simplyclick reply and start criticising. In Yoomoot, you can only criticisesomething by asking a question about it, and then answering thatquestion. The question puts a distance betwen your criticisms and theoriginal disagreeable comment. You're replying to a question, which isneutral, not to the opinion you disagree with. As a result, personalcriticisms don't make sense: nobody says 'you are wrong and stupid' toa question.

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

Solution 3: A free speech policy that distinguishes between 'what' and 'how'
The ban described above is the one keyexception to Yoomoot's guiding principle of 'free enquiry into anyissue'. Importantly, this pro-free-speech policy does not mean thatusers can be as offensive as they like. Being offensive in a way thatis not necessary to make your point is prohibited on Yoomoot. Yoomootbelieves 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.