On 6/3/20 3:10 PM, William Henderson wrote:
What I observed was a really reasonable, civil topic highlighting BLM
and an fundraising effort that Jan is making with Bicycle Quarterly.
Maybe I missed something inflammatory in it, but the email is now lost
(along with the link
<https://www.renehersecycles.com/a-small-thing-bq-fund-drive-to-benefit-black-lives-matter/>).
The initial email was informative rather than inflammatory. It also
asked that there be no follow-on discussion on the list, asking that if
anyone wanted to discuss the subject to do so on the Rene Herse blog.
Like others, I want this to remain a civil community. However, I find
the judgement call about what is "on topic" problematic. If this is
about civility, let's focus on that and not muddy the waters with any
other areas for subjectivity.
Here are some different actions that could be taken:
- Write a code of conduct for the group and post it as a sticky post.
Be clear about what constitutes uncivil behavior, what kinds of topics
are explicitly disallowed, and what the consequences are when someone
breaks the rules.
- When it comes to deleting threads, I think it's really important to
preserve the thread so that people can see how the code is being
enforced. This provides accountability in both directions. The obvious
exception would be for threads or messages that are hateful or
abusive. I'd suggest a policy like this:
1. When someone posts something uncivil, it will be deleted.
2. When someone posts something about a topic that is explicitly
disallowed, the thread will be locked (but not deleted) along with
a reminder about the code of conduct.
3. When someone posts something that isn't uncivil seems like it
could be taking the thread in that direction, the thread will be
locked (but not deleted) along with a personal statement from the
moderator about them making the call to shut it down in order to
protect the community sense of safety and civility.
This would work nicely if this was a forum. But there is a technical
problem. It is not a forum, it is a google group. While a google group
may look like a forum to those who access it via a web browser, it also
acts like an email discussion group / listserv, and a significant number
of participants get list postings by email. Google group software can't
delete already delivered emails and doesn't provide a way to lock a
topic so that email replies to already received emails in the discussion
topic aren't delivered.
From a moderator / list owner's perspective, this makes the moderation
job more complicated.
Steve Palincsar
Alexandria, Virginia
USA
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