[hackerspaces] status of this list

[Seth Hardy]

> I for one enjoyed the kind of political discussion that Johannes' essay
> caused, but I'm completely happy to have it on a separate list since
> there are enough folks on here who don't want to participate.  For this
> purpose the theory@ list has been set up - let's continue things there.

i think a number of people are missing another point here:

i think a lot more people would have been willing to participate if the 
issue hadn't been presented as "this is how it is, if you believe that 
apolitical nonsense, you are stupid and ignorant" before discussion even 
opened, and then followed up with ad hominem attacks instead of actually 
discussing the issue. in my case, it was attacks both against me and my 
little hackerspace.

i thought this forum was supposed to be for collaboration and working 
together, not trashing on other spaces, but one of my first experiences 
on this list was being attacked for trying to discuss an issue 
supposedly up for discussion. why would i want to participate after 
that?

i think the reason people are choosing to leave instead of just delete 
threads is because most people don't want to continue participating in 
a hostile environment where attempts at contributing turn into personal 
attacks.

the issue of moderation might not be the right answer, or may have been 
presented the wrong way. i'd rather not see "formal moderation" on the 
list but i certainly wouldn't mind seeing someone put in a temporary 
timeout if all they're doing is attacking other people and detracting 
from discussion instead of promoting it. and that is in fact 
"moderation." shrug.

either way, i'm not going to participate in hostile topics where i'm 
told i'm stupid and ignorant before even getting my thoughts in, and 
that's probably along the lines of what 3ric was saying when he left, 
too.

so maybe let's stop worrying about the moderation symptom and take a 
look at the problem: how can we deal with people who promote hostile 
environments that discourage other people from participating?


-- 
seth hardy: shardy at aculei.net * 647.890.1452 * www.aculei.net/~shardy
(gpg - 0x5E345628): BF63 A0A7 3BCA 1D7D EDE1 63BF 46FB 95D9 5E34 5628
	"God is not on the side of the heavy battalion,
		but on the side of the best shot."  -- Voltaire
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