Self Policing Militia Summons

[Griff]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I can't quite put my finger on why it is different now. What about it is different to what we were doing before. It's not that it gets personal now, because there was always that edge to political debate. It's not that there are feuds going on, because there always were.

I think it is about people caring more about their politics than about people. This is turning into a cultural problem in the States and gets in the way of actually addressing problems.

[eta] I am rather glad this has been brought up actually. I think it's right that we, as a community discuss this sort of thing. After all, if the mods were to start wielding amighty banhammer, or deleting/closing threads, or suspending members for the kinds of thing we've been discussin, then that would represent a distinct change in their style of moderation: that is something the community needs to be involved with I think.

Oops, you made my point first.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Griff

This discussion is what protects the mods from shrill cries of abuse. We need something approaching consensus to justify action.

Very astute point!

Originally Posted by Griff

I think it is about people caring more about their politics than about people. This is turning into a cultural problem in the States and gets in the way of actually addressing problems.

Ouch A big hurts

[richlevy]

Granted, I do have to sometimes wade through a lot of crap (or carp) to get to any real information on some threads. That is, however, a consequence of this being a BBS. If I want true who/what/where journalism, I'll go to a news site.

Sometimes reading/listening to how people tell a story is almost as important as the story itself. And sometimes I am surprised by a position held by some of the people mentioned here or by their animosity towards an opposing opinion.

If someone wants to be the next Glenn Beck or Rachel Maddow and have a rant, that's their choice. I can apply my filter and skim or ignore without any electronic aids. I do sometimes wish we had a temporary ignore filter on threads so that I could exclude people just during a single view. Still, if I have to chose freedom over aggravation, freedom will always win.