i love democracy. but there are some endeavors - such as parenting and forum moderation - where democracy isn't efficient.
i made some moderating decisions over the past few weeks, and some folks have just become aware of them and, yesterday, in 2 threads that don't remain here, questioned my methodology. let me answer a couple of questions you asked in these pulled threads here:
"Are you now holding a vote to determine if someone is ban?"
no. if i actually took a vote, the overwhelming outcome would in all cases be in favor of a more restrictive environment. (i know what the outcomes of these votes would be, because i get the private emails you don't see from folks who read only.) my choice is to moderate with a much lighter touch than our readers choose, because our readers (in my opinion) need to overcome some of the speech they don't like. not that such speech is valuable, but that letting in more speech rather than less is, in general, valuable.
in my experience, those who've fallen afoul of my moderation are more animated by how they said it than what they said. if making your point isn't enough; if making your point as a provocateur is what's important; if your point doesn't get enough of a rise, so you need to be even more caustic or strident; then your "point" isn't really your point, is it?
"If you did want peoples feed back why pull it so fast?"
i'm not looking for your feedback before i make a moderating decision. however, if you want to talk about it i'll give you the space (before i close that discussion down). in most cases i'm not looking for wisdom. i've made my decision.
we've had these discussions a number of times over the past 20 years. our forum traffic was up 32 percent year over year during ironman week. so, something seems to be working out here. however, if the moderation doesn't suit you, i understand.
this is the third thread on this, the first two started by others. and, i understand why new threads pop up, because not everyone logs in every day. i'll leave this one up for a bit before i lock it. here's the rule for this thread: i really don't want you to discuss someone who's not here, and who can't defend him or herself. if you want to talk about the tone or moderation in general, fine.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
i made some moderating decisions over the past few weeks, and some folks have just become aware of them and, yesterday, in 2 threads that don't remain here, questioned my methodology. let me answer a couple of questions you asked in these pulled threads here:
"Are you now holding a vote to determine if someone is ban?"
no. if i actually took a vote, the overwhelming outcome would in all cases be in favor of a more restrictive environment. (i know what the outcomes of these votes would be, because i get the private emails you don't see from folks who read only.) my choice is to moderate with a much lighter touch than our readers choose, because our readers (in my opinion) need to overcome some of the speech they don't like. not that such speech is valuable, but that letting in more speech rather than less is, in general, valuable.
in my experience, those who've fallen afoul of my moderation are more animated by how they said it than what they said. if making your point isn't enough; if making your point as a provocateur is what's important; if your point doesn't get enough of a rise, so you need to be even more caustic or strident; then your "point" isn't really your point, is it?
"If you did want peoples feed back why pull it so fast?"
i'm not looking for your feedback before i make a moderating decision. however, if you want to talk about it i'll give you the space (before i close that discussion down). in most cases i'm not looking for wisdom. i've made my decision.
we've had these discussions a number of times over the past 20 years. our forum traffic was up 32 percent year over year during ironman week. so, something seems to be working out here. however, if the moderation doesn't suit you, i understand.
this is the third thread on this, the first two started by others. and, i understand why new threads pop up, because not everyone logs in every day. i'll leave this one up for a bit before i lock it. here's the rule for this thread: i really don't want you to discuss someone who's not here, and who can't defend him or herself. if you want to talk about the tone or moderation in general, fine.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman