| |
|
This is a rambling, possibly quite incoherent rant about moderation, policy and the idea of community. I've been reading P&H threads a lot lately. Like everyone, presumably. I notice that a lot of the moderators are expending enormous amounts of energy debating what should, or shouldn't, be deleted, edited, locked. I also notice that at present there's quite a lot of disagreement between moderators. I imagine that some/all moderators are feeling kinda exhausted, and I feel for you, I really do. I can't imagine what has been happening behind the scenes over the last month or so; it must be crazy.
I have also noticed an odd phenomenon. It happens mostly in this forum, but I've seen it creep into other forums as well, particularly the Conversation. I'm thinking of threads like Barbannoy here, and some others. In discussions about particular threads, posts, etc, especially about what is considered offensive and what is not, particular suits are being talked about as if they are invisible, not present. Various opinions are offered about a particular suit (mostly, the ones who post shite): hir motivations, hir life, hir reasons for posting. It's as if some of you are carrying on a conversation on a private forum. And this is mostly -- not all, but mostly -- coming from people who are moderators. Often these conversations are in good faith -- they aren't abusive, rude or mean; they are quite interesting in their own way. They are also, often, written in the interests of 'creating a better Barbelith'. But they are still acting as if the person in question cannot read what is being written about them.
Is this really wise? I feel wary about asking this question, since I don't want to tread on toes. I am quite supportive of conversations taking place about stupidity, offensiveness, idiocy, head-desk feelings, feelings like Barbelith is full of wankers. (I'm thinking of discussions around suits like Sauron, Mister Six, some other 'problem' suits -- although it seems likely that Sauron isn't a 'problem suit', you just didn't know how to contextualise your joke well.) And some of those conversations have taken place in the context of straw polls about whether to burn suits. Come to think, I did it too in the SR thread. I said, "Burn this fucker." So this is about me as much as anyone.
Again, I wonder whether it's wise.
If, for example, some moderators had begun to talk about me as if I wasn't reading when I got snarky about heteropanic in Feb, I would have been ropeable. The politics are not the same, sure, and that post wasn't up for moderation. But in that case, a whole lot of people responded to me directly, saying that they disagreed with my sentiment, or my way of expressing it. It's not like this isn't already happening.
So, why all the conversations about why particular people post particular crap? Why so many copen discussions about other fic suits conduct, as if they are not reading? It's a symptom: but of what? This brings me to my next point: there is waaaay too much thought happening about the regulation of what can be written here and what Barbelith should be. Maybe I have less investment in this place being a community, but I have always found that it feels better to argue with someone than to claim their speech should be censored. Evidently this reaches its limits -- at 'Sensitive Rapist' and at spammy holocaust denial. Barbelith is never going to be a safe space for everyone. The world isn't; how could the 'Lith be, ever? I would argue seriously against regulating any more than we already do.
Oddly enough, this place has become far more politically turned on than it used to be at the beginning. There are some people who did a lot of work, arguing thanklessly with the odd complete fuckwit, to make this place more queer-friendly, more feminist, less racist and more sex radical. I did some of that work. Evidently it's work that has to be done over and over; and it's thankless and often boring. But anti-racism, anti-homophobia and anti-sexism have become normative around here. In the past, they weren't, really. In the past, there were actually more stupid jokes about dumb chicks and how to pull/fuck them. If you can believe it. And there were less people calling out those instances. That was okay.
This is how politics works, IMO. Constant work, constant debate, constant re-assessment of what constitutes the limit of what can be said and what needs to be fought, through words. Not more regulation. Not an idea of Barbelith that must protect or secure the safety of its inhabitants. -- See, 'security'. Security like anti-terror security. This reminds me that in the Moderators' Requests thread Nina was talking about being pre-emptive and, Christ, look at the working model of 'pre-emptive' in the world today. This is (some of) what I'm talking about.
To try to pull it all together: I just wonder who people imagine they're talking to; who counts as 'we' here, and in different contexts; and why the idea of Barbelith being a coherent, peaceful, regulated community is so important to some people. Despite all the crappy threads, I like it the way it is. I'd even be okay with less regulation, less thread-locking, less use of power because mods have it and feel it's your responsibility to make Barbelith 'safe'. I wonder whether it is possible to let go of an idea of a coherent 'we' and accept the idea of Barbelith as an inoperable community: inoperable because the consensus necessary for an entirely 'safe' space will never work right, here or anywhere. So we may as wll find a way to be okay with a lack of safety. Risk. Danger. Crappy threads that should be ignored. And sometimes, lines of glorious flight.
(Excuse this quasi-philosophical rambling at the end, it's very late here. That is all.) |
|
|
