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Duncan, if you are suggesting that a particular moderator is, in your opinion, abusing his or her power, then you are making a serious allegation against the integrity of the board, and about Tom's choice of moderator, and should go henceforth to the Policy and start a thread about it. If you are saying that you believe that somebody would abuse their powers as a moderator if they had them, based on no further evidence than that they have disagreed with you in a way that you feel to be rude, then you are making an unsupported allegation about the character of another Barbeloid probably on a par with accusing somebody without evidence of being a troll, and should perhaps have a nice hot cup of tea and think about how it would feel to be accused in the same wise. It's the sort of thing that tends to fester and turn artistic or political disagreements into personal animosities.
I'm terribly disturbed, having simply had a wonderful Christmas time, to find that this thread, no doubt started with the best of motives, has become a forum for hapless self-justification and an awful lot of unprofitable rudery. It is the nature of Barbelith that a lot of people here struggle to cope with dissent without hearing the voices of the schoolyard ringing in their ears; as May says, it should be a refuge as well as a gym. This is unfortunate but not in itself a god reason to throw up one's hands and abandon the entire project, unless you feel that this is the best course of action for you, personally, to take. There have been few occasions where the behavour of individuals has reached such a level that the survival of the board itself has been threatened, and although I have not checked lately I imagine that they are probably now covered in the FAQ. Otherwise, I would suggest the ignore button, or the disinterested delight in discussion that it is so personal a failing of mine not always to obtain.
Oh, and Deric - you are a moderator in the Comics forum. I don't think it's outside your remit to ask that the conversation be moved back ontopic, or, in extreme cases, to delete posts with no relevance or actively hostile to the original topic. Flux and Duncan and Toksik's gay-out in the relevant thread could be dismissed as a diversion for the first few posts, but has now, having been allowed to spread into a slew of the aforementioned self-justification and personal abuse, pretty much killed the thread. The other moderators would have considered any such request on its merits. That's what distributive moderation is *for* - so nobody gets to dictate the agenda of "what (insert forum here) should be".
Incidentally, May's Alvin the Chipmunk strategy is genius, and should be followed by all.
On mention of myself here, I would like to make "I'm wearing my responsible adult trousers so I'm going to move things on but you still smell of wee!" a T-shirt slogan. LLBIMG and I provide a very useful cautionary tale of how easy it is to (mis)interpret disagreement or style of argument as personally motivated. I feel this reached a boil-lancing moment when Lawrence claimed that I had admitted to being a troll in my interview thread, a claim of such demonstrable falsity that its intention only became clear when it also became clear that he did not understand what a troll actually was. This was a salutary lesson in how the gaps between the understanding of two people can lead to an assumption of malice when that malice is not in fact intended. So, in the bright new dawn of the Haus of Unconditional Love, I am planning to treat Lawrence as a bright young man with some strong beliefs and a somewhat abrasive style, and nothing more. Here's hoping the Gareth and Tim tribute act of yesteryear can thus be avoided.
I would pray that in this time of facemounting and togetherness we can all join hands and do likewise. |
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