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Stephann -> RE: Why the Administrators cannot allow blacklists, but there is a way to be proactive in the commun (12/10/2007 3:16:25 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BoiJen
I get the whole not getting involved in the mess of name calling and who's "real" or not.
I also know for a fact that the moderators of the forums are not hands off. Daily they remove posts based on their person interpretation of what they read and their own interpretation of the rules. So yeah who polices the police? Who moderates the moderators? Censorship is rampant...it just so happens that we don't know it well becuase people who want to say somthing about it are being censored.
Frankly, we moderate the moderators.
The success of any message board, I think, depends on the moderation of that board. What do you suppose would happen without moderation? Many boards have dozens and dozens of spam posts every day, free advertisement on everything from webcam girls to ezpresctriptions4urhardmebner. Obviously spam doesn't belong. Obviously, comments that could lead to the site being shut down for legal reasons don't belong. Then there's the community standards to consider (necrophilia and bestiality aren't permitted topics of discussion.)
Then there's the less hard and fast rules; think of it like a garden. Weeds can easily choke out flowers in a garden, yet dandelions (pretty as they might be) are technically 'weeds.' I think the idea is that posts that direct conversations in inappropriate directions are removed. There's not guarantee of free speech here, except for the free speech of the site's owner; I don't have to allow someone in my house, for example, if they're constantly talking about shooting another guest in the head, or setting my house on fire, or how ugly my carpet is. The biggest focus here, I think, is that people are free to discuss almost any topic, so long as it doesn't infringe on other people's rights to discuss any topic. Flamewars and personal insults are the virtual version of a fistfight; it's hard to discuss things civilly and maturely, when there's nothing but shouting and fighting going on.
Which brings us back to the original point; we police the moderators, by our choice to be here or not. If enough people are offended or feel restricted, they stop showing up. As this is an advertising funded site, our choice to read or not can seriously hurt the bottom line.
On the blacklist topic:
I know of one group on yahoo that keeps a running blacklist of bad experiences. One girl I'd known pretty well from here went to stay with the people who started that group. There was an incredible amount of he said/she said drama, and they eventually kicked her out (literally; they dropped her off at a bus station without a dime to her name.) I checked their site out, and offered my thoughts on the situation on their message boards. I was promptly banned from the group, and I'm pretty sure I've been blacklisted.
People find strength in numbers. I find people who thrive on that particular form of drama, though, to be just as guilty of generating it as they are of being victims of it. I don't care much for censorship, but I do think that the bar against badmouthing people leads to the opportunity for us to simply listen to the good experiences without ignoring the possible bad experiences.
Stephan
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