[Boston-editorial] idea to discuss on Sunday

[Pete Stidman]

I kind of like the idea, would like to hear a good
proposal of how we could implement it without running
the risk of different editors editing differently
according to their own interpretations/biases.  Even
subconsciously, a poster who we disagree with is more
likely to be seen as aggressive than a poster who
shares our politics. 

-Pete

--- Matthew Williams <mw21 at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Hello all --
> 
> I thought I'd throw out this idea now so folks can
> think it over 
> between now and Sunday (or whenever we meet). I
> mentioned something 
> about enforcing rules about basic civility in a
> previous e-mail, but 
> followed it up by saying I didn't think it would
> work. I've been 
> thinking about it since and have decided it might
> actually be a good 
> idea, as long as we enforce it leniently. Everyone
> makes mistakes 
> (including us) so we shouldn't hide every post where
> someone gets a 
> little aggressive and rude. On the other hand, I
> think enforcing it 
> enough so that people have to treat people they
> disagree with, with 
> some modicum of respect would really improve the
> quality of the 
> dialogue on the site. We can start with really
> blatant posts like 
> "you're an idiot for thinking X". It would also
> allow us to deal with a 
> lot of conservative trolls who are obviously more
> interested in making 
> trouble than they are in engaging in real dialogue
> but haven't 
> otherwise violated policy.
> 
> The point of this would not be to shut down debate,
> but to improve the 
> quality of debate by encouraging people to treat
> each other with 
> respect, to critique the substance of each others'
> ideas while 
> refraining from personal attacks. I know ZNet Forums
> have similar rules 
> (though I don't know how strictly they enforce them)
> and it was 
> probably something Indy Media should have had from
> the start, only no 
> one knew what Indy Media would turn into.
> 
> I'm not wedded to this idea and, as I said, I would
> want to enforce it 
> with a light hand, but I think it may be worth
> trying. I feel like 
> things are really getting bad on the site in terms
> of people getting 
> nasty with each other for no good reason (see
> especially Aimee Smith 
> and Bluto's conversation in response to the Pitt
> article) and something 
> like this may help improve things. If everyone else
> thinks this is a 
> horrible idea, I won't push for it.
> 
> -- Matt
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Boston-editorial mailing list
> Boston-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
>
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-editorial
> 


		
Yahoo! Mail
Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour:
http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html