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Re: ABURKE = DELETE
As a long-time member and rare poster, I'd like to step in to add my 2
cents.
I am not for banning any member, including Art. When I decided, 2 or 3
years ago, that Art had nothing of substance to add to the discussion,
it was after more than a year of reading his posts, and various
attempts to engage him in discourse. At that point, I decided that
engaging him was a waste of my time, and I set the filter on my email
program to delete his posts before they hit my inbox. It was a simple
thing to do, and I've been happy with it. The only reason I even know
he posts to the list anymore are the posts responding to his or the
posts complaining about him.
As members of the list, we all have some choices. We can choose to
engage Art in debate, or not. If we don't choose to engage, we can skip
his posts, we can delete his posts, or we can set our filters to delete
them for us. List administrators don't have to do this for us. We can
choose. Allowing someone a presence on the list doesn't mean we have
to allow him to control or disrupt the conversation.
I'd rather do that than ban him. He also has choices. If he chooses
to remain, and to post opposition to every other list member on a daily
basis, he can do so. In my case he is, ..er.. talking into the wind,
but that's his choice.
Kelley
Csubstance@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 11/4/07 6:13:53 PM, Cbgord@aol.com writes:
<< However I object to blaming this problem we have as an online community
on
our list administrator and attacking him for "sitting on his can" and doing
no
work. That's not the problem. We simply have not taken up this issue up in
such a way as to even approach a collective decision (however we try to do
that) on what we want to do about this problem other than grouse about it or
repeatedly advise each individual subscriber to delete his posts. >>
11/5/07
I agree with Craig.
For the past five or six years, I've now and then wrote the above in a
Subject line.
Once a new person here is predicatable, then the rest of us can either
engaged him or ignore him (as I advise and choose to). Every list and blog I know of
has one or two snipers going after the essence of the list or blog. I think
some of them are paid to do that kind of work, because it wastes peoples' time.
Others just do it out of cookiness.
But there is no reason to demand that the people who have supported this list
for the past decade. We began here in 1999 after I was suspended from my
teaching job in Chicago and sued for a million dollars for publishing CASE in
Substance. It's better to suffer a few fools than to lose the value of the list's
openness.
I recall, years ago, there was a person here for a time who has a theory
about property rights and government that was based on some kind of equity for all
"Inhabitants." At first, the posts were reasonable, then they swept out into
la la land. The only mistake made here (in my opinion) was that she was exiled
from the list, rather than ignored.
Having been censored on another list that's being promoted from the other
side of this debate, I also know that those who don't take a very broad view of
the First Amendment here may ultimately be sorry.
As to the personal attacks on Monty, he's faced down far harsher. The ten
seconds it takes to DELETE materials is worth what is provided when that's done.
Every few months, if I have the time (and I have a full professional and
personal life, so that's rare) I enjoy reading the posts in question here. They
give me a read on the one-liners of the other side. Just about every idiot
talking point is there, almost as if Karl Rove's DNA was in full view here.
I like that. It's like having the enemy's battle plans in front of you the
day before the fight starts.
George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance
www.substancenews.net
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