Fair enough. I wasn't aware there was such a thing as automatic ignore on this particular BBS. That said, I'm not sure that ignoring idiots is the solution to a community board. A frog in a pot of water can ignore the temperature, which is then gradually increased without the frog's awareness until a critical point is reached when the frog becomes aware, but by then its legs are paralyzed to do anything about it. Onward to the boil, as it were. I never believed in the ostrich response as a solution, anyways. Those are temporary solutions, but in the end not solutions at all. One may even argue that the current corrupt state of the world is a direct result of too many mothers turning away, often inwards, whilst the children marked up the walls with crayons, mashed potatoes, and booger ink. In a manner of speaking.
Question begs, why have any moderating functions at all (e.g. beyond self-moderation) if we're not going to use them?
As a moderator at three different forums (Avalon, Nexus, Universal Spectrum) ... I have seen the winds of war blow their way across the forum plains and leave a diminished landscape behind each time. Avalon was doomed to be a kool-aid joint due to the autocratic design of things with Sweet William The Con-Curer at the helm. Nexus was much better in this regard but still lost its way soon after Chico - who was invited into the mod staff primarily at my behest (boy, do I regret that mistake) - started irritating the peace of the MOD chamber with accusations of censorship (and other misconduct) against two of the staff members.
Chico essentially wanted a forum without moderation and he tried to force Nexus into his own vision of things via incessant natterings about the dangers of censorship and/or otherwise restricting speech. Never mind that free speech does not actually exist anywhere in the known Universe ... or that communities are doomed which do not observe some minimal standards of conduct and tools to enforce those standards - even against speech. Eventually, Chico's refusal to understand human imperfection led to his banishment from Nexus (which was of imperfection, for imperfection, and by imperfection).
Chico retreated to his own forum United People in the fool's ideal hope (but I have since concluded that he was never an authentic truthseeker, thinker, or free speech advocate to begin with) ... of founding a planar forum without moderation. The irony of United People is that it has become just as repressive as those other forums who never pretended to accommodate limitless speech. United People has now failed three times, each time with Icarus hitching a ride out of the ashes in the clasp of the Phoenix, only to be unclasped and left to the mercy of the Sun and waxed wings. The proof is in the autocratic decisions of its founder, poobah, five-star potentate, and reluctant self-appointed dictator ... that has rendered United People in its third and final incarnation, United Chico, aptly renamed by me because its community mission and membership has trickled to a virtual drop.
Getting back on point, it has been my experience that external moderation is required beyond and above self-moderation. Self-moderating forums are the bounty of a future enlightened state of our species. IMO.
Well said. I agree wholeheartedly. My own motto is "Wear a thick skin and assume that others have their thin skin on."
That said, it's hard to coexist when an idiot refuses to abide the standard of living and letting live. Keeps attacking those members that he disagrees with or who - dare I say - have presented superior arguments to his own ... and who keeps following his targets from thread to thread with an incessant goal of labeling the sundry Nelsons of his sundry Waterloos, sociopaths. IMO, there is justification for taking action against such obvious calculated disrespect on first resort. I have seen other forums fail ... indeed, Chico's own forum fail ... because of calculated disrespect from idiots bent on disrupting the flow of ideas, e.g. the trolls.
This is your forum, Rose, and you can do as you wish. I've just seen the train roll out of the station too many times with good intentions and the rail corporation not paying enough attention to the accumulating debris on the tracks. I would be remiss if I didn't warn you about my sightings.
Point taken. But it has little application to the current situation. I haven't witnessed anyone trying to run anyone off with a power play. That said, the closest that anyone comes to power play behavior is Chico. Chico has disrupted more than one thread with his spurious accusations of sociopath. And he has indeed run off Shezbeth permanently, and myself semi-permanently, and who knows how long Shadowself's absence will span ... and largely because it's hard to participate in a discussion of ideas when some idiot keeps interrupting the discourse with howls and catcalls from a nearby monkey barrel.
Agreed. Truth will eventually prevail.
As for tolerance, as long as tolerance is limited to ideas we all gain. When tolerance begins accommodating calculated disrespect, we all lose. I refer back to the frog and the pot of water and the wisdom of doing nothing until it is too late.
Pax
Last edited: Apr 17, 2016