[Boston-editorial] idea to discuss on Sunday

[Matthew Williams]

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