He kind of has a point... — Sapientia
Do you really think so? — unenlightened
Go get yourself a beer lad -- I donated some some money via pay pal -- this has probably been the most fruitless thread I have ever seen. — Emptyheady
From a staff perspective, that's just hypothetical. It's down to the staff to make that judgement, notify members, and take any action deemed necessary. The judgement of the originator doesn't have the same standing, and they are unable to take action in the ways that staff can, although they can flag any posts they think ought to be flagged, and we encourage them to do so. — Sapientia
Are you saying that it is inappropriate for the originator of a thread to tell participants that they have stepped outside the bounds of the topic, as many presently do? — Metaphysician Undercover
Well the subject of this thread appears to be what to do about off-topicness. There is first, an issue as to what constitutes off-topic. Shouldn't it be the originator of the thread, first and foremost, who decides what is off and what is on topic? — Metaphysician Undercover
Well the subject of this thread appears to be what to do about off-topicness. — Metaphysician Undercover
And for moderators, they have to ask broadly the same question of their intervention. But for moderators there is also a matter of proportionality and consistency. — unenlightened
The subject is governance. The feedback I am giving is that the governance of the forum, like the governance of many places in the world is failing. I notice that people are confused about the subject, are tending on one side to hasty reactions, and on the other to hasty dismissals. — unenlightened
My wish for the forum is that it should be more interesting and readable, and more significant than the comments section of a youtube video. This requires governance, it doesn't happen on its own. Such governance needs to be in the interests of, and acceptable to, the averagely interesting and readable contributor. (excuse me for stating the blindingly obvious, but in the circumstances it seems I need to start from first principles). — unenlightened
The problem, then, is how to raise the tone of debate, how to prevent good posters from being discouraged and silenced, how to maximise freedom, given that laisse faire does not lead to the desired result, but to the degeneration of the site. So this means we have to reach some sort of consensus about what makes a good post and what makes a bad post, and this is not all that easy, because, as I pointed out above, someone can honestly think that this discussion is fruitless, and they might be right, so I ought to at least consider it. — unenlightened
Now one of those issues, which has come up here as well, is 'just ignore it'. Well, no. We have been doing that and so have the moderators, and it does not go away, but proliferates. Engage, ignore, report, moderate, withdraw. there is I think no clear rule to be made as to what is best to do in every circumstance, But I am quite sure that ignore as a general policy does not work. — unenlightened
But the point is, one cannot simply accept some formula, one has to keep questioning oneself, Am I making a contribution, or am I just being irritating. One has to examine this carefully, because, and I hope this is a case, sometimes being irritating is a valuable contribution. — unenlightened
if you press the buttons in the right order, you'll invoke their ire...
...My preference is to ignore it until it goes away. — Wosret
Isn't that what we're already doing, and what Baden did before he decided to delete those posts? You just disagree with the decision he made. But then someone is going to object to most every decision. That's just life. — Michael
We agree on the moderating decision except for the timing (right?). — Baden
I find the amount of "loose talk" is increasing. Being a serious philosopher, I think loose talk is garbage and detrimental to the site. — Metaphysician Undercover
Finally, it is quite evident that most likely, some participants are incapable of making such judgements, as am I being irritating, of themselves. How can I ask myself am I being irritating when I have no regard for what irritates another. Furthermore, and this is the real problem, there are some members of society who have an innate desire to be irritating. — Metaphysician Undercover
We do want interesting, engaging, thought provoking material, but what that is for me is not what it is for everyone else, and making it this way for the "audience" can only really be making it this way for me. — Wosret
Is it really possible to ignore that thing which invokes your ire? If it were, then how would it invoke your ire? — Metaphysician Undercover
But if certain individuals just make a habit of provoking the ire of others, why not ban them? — Metaphysician Undercover
Some people are sensitive, and sometimes it may be just a matter of reading one sentence and it's already too late. — Metaphysician Undercover
There are, sadly, quite a few people in this bad state. "Self-help" doesn't always deliver salvation. Major life changes which I didn't engineer gave me new life circumstances which solved my problem. — Bitter Crank
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