The Change in Babble Culture

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Sun, 2012-06-17 13:50

Fidel

6079_Smith_W wrote:
If a moderator tells you to stop something, and you know that a supension is at that point dependent on what you do, really you are in control of what happens next.

But what if I inform you that I don't appreciate your allegation of racism? I am not an annointed moderator, but I've been posting here for a while jts. I think that if you can't demonstrate how your Googled-up allegation might be true in the slightest, then perhaps you might reconsider at some point. Instead you became very quiet about it as did mods which was rather conspicuous at the time.

Also, I don't appreciate it when former babblers made moderators accuse me of being a serial conspiracy theorist. The only alleged conspiracy theory I've ever mentioned is 9/11, and yet now I am smeared as a serial conspiracy theorist believing in 9/11 "conspiracy theory" and fake moonlanding conspiracies the same. Leslie Hughes and I might expect this of the third opposition Liberal Party of Canada and lapdog newz media but not babble.

Sun, 2012-06-17 13:54

#103

6079_Smith_W

There you go, U.

I don't even have to PM you an example.

But anyway, yes, I agree with you completely that we should all try to be nicer.

Sun, 2012-06-17 13:56

#104

milo204

"One of the most powerful istotally ignoring a member who "refuses to comply" - shun them without exiling them, if they don't respond to gentle or firm reminders of the community's expectations."

couldn't agree more! all this talk of people "dominating" "derailing" "shouting down" has always seemed a little strange since no one is obliged to pay attention or debate anyone if they don't want to. then the worst thing that can happen is that someone posts a few times, no one responds and it ends. As it is now, people freak out and the thread turn into back and forth accusatins that have nothing to do with the topic until everyone gets frustrated and stops posting, it gets closed or someone gets the boot.

also, anyone who is trying to stir shit up isn't going to keep trying if no one pays attention. i think this would take a lot of heat of the mods to have to act on every perceived comment that offends someone!

Sun, 2012-06-17 14:06

#105

Wilf Day

Catchfire wrote:
Malcolm was not banned, and Oo did not leave because of that incident.

She posted Jan. 12:

Quote:

Ladies, if you're going to start an argument by accusing someone of racism or sexism, you better back it up, instead of backing away and shutting the person down.

The resulting suspensions were childish and cowardly. The upshot has been a serious deterioration of an important discussion environment. Which is really too bad.

What was done was cowardly, and had the effect of causing at least four quality contributors to a discussion (note: not all of whom I agree with all the time, but all of whom I learn from in the process of debating) to leave this board.

Wilf has laid it out very well, and speaks for me too in this instance. . . . It's high-time people around here stopped judging what is said based exclusively on the traits and characteristics of its source, and started to judge it more on its content. You won't shake off any of this oppression if you keep taking its existence as a given.

I am not going to allow either of these points to be lost. If you are going to accuse someone of racism, which is a horrible horrible charge, do not expect them to sit back and take it when it clearly clearly was not

It's true that she flounced out of the blue Feb. 2 in the middle of a thread she had not been taking part in, which was not taking shots at Paul Dewar or doing anything else specific that she mentioned. Odd. But then she came back, after Lou Arab posted:

Quote:
NOOOOOOOO!!!!

So we've lost Sean, Malcolm, and now Ottawa Observer?!??!

This sucks.

Moderators, please just apologize to Malcolm.

To which Catchfire responded:

Quote:
I don't know why Ottawaobserver has left. I won't lose any sleep over it.

Finally on Feb.19 nicky had noted that our four Maghrebian-origin MPs all supported Mulcair despite his comments on Israel, and got accused of stereotyping, and OO wrote:

Quote:
Nicky's right. This kind of kneejerk moderation is one of the reasons I left Babble. I guess if the job of moderating politics forums is over the heads of the current moderators, they need to find new ones, because a lot of electoral politics is about finding just those kinds of patterns.

Lord Palmerston responded:

Quote:
I hope ottawaobserver reconsiders as I've respected her contributions here.

Personally I do agree that the moderator intervention - in the case of nicky's comments - was unnecessary.

Sun, 2012-06-17 14:08

#106

epaulo13

..if i may. i see the frustration, anger, sexism on this board as symptoms of the politics we practice. the party, the union, the ideas to bring change are structured from the top down. it's not because we aren't good enough people though we continually need to try to cooperate with each other. but that our structures ensure that nothing will really change within the system and this will always leave us unsatisfied. in a direct democracy assembly sexism, racism or inequality take on a more garden variety flavour as opposed to the poisonous structural type. inclusion, being part of the solution is experienced and it is there a chance for real change to happen more than any convention or election. it is not a good idea to make the main focus our imperfections. better to change how decisions are made. not sure we can do that on this board but we can do that within our politics.

Sun, 2012-06-17 14:23

#107

Fidel

6079_Smith_W wrote:

There you go, U.

I don't even have to PM you an example.

The way I saw it was you were lagging behind in that mini-debate and so resorted to making bizarre accusations against me for which the most powerful search engine in the world revealed it to be lacking something substantial, like credibility for instance.

Quote:
But anyway, yes, I agree with you completely that we should all try to be nicer.

Are you kidding?

Sun, 2012-06-17 14:33

#108

Catchfire

I'm closing this thread for length. If someone could open a new thread for the constructive sentiment and leave the divisive, diversionary and vendetta stuff out, I think it could be a positive step. Thanks to Winston, epaulo13 and Unionist for trying at the end here.

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