[extropy-chat] Politics: worthwhile commentary

[spike]

bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Harvey Newstrom
...

>This isn't what you said. You said you "personally have no problem with
their doing it in private," appearing to open the door for list members to
start sending personal attacks to list members in private e-mail with your
blessing...


Oh, ok.  List members, do refrain from bullying each other,
in public and in private.  If our dreams of radical life
extension work out, we may need to entertain each other
for a long time.

I probably should have said something like: If you find
you must participate in a flame war, please take it 
offlist.  Feel free to killfile any yahoo that bugs 
you.  Play the board, not the man.


...

>This isn't what you said. You said, "If people have something to say 
that is not particularly extropian, say it this week" and "Then after
that let us settle down and post extropian stuff again?"  They didn't. You
admonished Russell, saying that "all the skeptics who insisted we could not
discuss political matters without fighting are surely nanner nannering
us."...


Ja, that was a disappointment to me that we dropped the
ball at the goal line.  As I recall, the person who did
the personal attack was one of those who said we could 
not go a week without personal attack.  I'm not sure that
counts.  




>It's called moderating. Why did you take the job of moderating if you don't
want to do it?...


I am willing to moderate, but hold the view that extropians
should be only lightly moderated.  I do understand why the more
focused groups must be carefully moderated.  We have alternatives,
if one is strongly focused on libertarianism or singularity for
instance.





>Oh, barf. I give up right now. I thought the whole point of trying to stay
on extropian topics was to avoid being pulled down to the lowest common
denominator of being a "general topic list"! But it seems that other people
really want that...


Max's extropian principles have a broad appeal:

http://www.maxmore.com/extprn3.htm

I recall finding this document in the early days of the internet, 
about 1994.  It expressed so clearly what I and about five others 
were talking about in the early 80s in college.  We need only request
that posters read this document and decide if they find a deep
resonance with those memes.  If so, then ExI-chat is the right
place to hang out.  I propose that ExI-chat posters read over
the principles at least once a year.  It will only take about
ten or fifteen minutes.  This is the start of the new year, so
do it today, then make it a New Years Day habit.  I can imagine
a huge range of topics that may have relevance to those
principles, even if very indirectly.




>Then I suggest you stop pretending to do the job that you have neither the
time nor desire to do. Do what you say and say what you do. Either have a
moderated list, or don't. I don't care. Just be honest about it...
--
Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>



Ok, here is my honest statement about list moderation: I will
continue to moderate until requested to desist.  I will moderate
only lightly, as before.  I consider it inappropriate for ExI 
moderators to referee private disputes, even if they started 
over ExI-chat posts.  I will be quick to encourage decent 
behavior, but slow to spank.*

Some have criticized ExI for under-moderating to the point 
of encouraging chaos, others say over-moderating to the point 
of censorship.  With these two views I respectfully disagree.

spike   




*Have you ever seen someone spanked slowly?  I admit it just 
doesn't work very well.  {8^D