> I'm also strongly against any form of list
> censorship.
Well, since you're solidly in the minority and it
looks like moderation is the overwhelming desire of
the list -- although, having learned my lesson from
this election, I'm not calling the vote just yet --
let me address your concerns.
> 1) At what point do we decide that an e-mail needs
> to be censored?
When it is SOLELY a personal attack or insult and has
nothing to do with the issue being discussed.
Sarcasm, hotly defended arguments, even rude rebuttals
ABOUT A TOPIC would not be censored. When discussions
go from "Only an idiot would assign Nessun dorma to a
15-year-old" to "Well, I think you're ugly,"
moderation steps in; the first would be allowed, the
second would not. So, mike, your debate with Lloyd
(no matter how heated) would have been allowed all the
way, since it stuck to the topic and never ventured
into a "you ugly dog" substance.
> 2) A certain amount of disagreement is healthy and
> may even lead to new
> insights.
Right. Arguments are allowed; snippeting and
bickering **having nothing to do with anything
remotely on-topic** are not.
> 3) It would create extra work for Isabelle.
Like I said, it's not much of an issue for me. Like
the majority of the people who have voted so far, I
have very mixed feelings about censorship in general,
but I think that the good may outweigh the bad on this
list.
Let me clarify what I think "censorship" means, in a
practical sense. It does not mean, "I, List
Moderator, God, can delete (or, worse, edit) any email
at my discretion with no imput from the autho." If a
flame war starts, the bickering parties would be put
on moderation and an offensive off-topic attack would
be sent back to the author ("Can you edit this email
to take out the "you ugly dog" line and get back to
the Nessun dorma thing? We can just delete it instead
if you'd rather not edit.").
I don't think we should moderate etiquette things like
not sending 10 two-line emails every day or quoting an
entire message+headers without snipping -- those are
courtesy issues, not moderation issues. Anyone ought
to feel free to send a gentle request to people who do
those things too often, but I don't think the
moderation issue should touch on that.
So far the vote is: 17 yes, 5 no.
Isabelle B.
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Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
ibracamonte@y...
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