Discussion of moderation policy

[Kinser79]

(05-06-2016, 02:17 PM)Webmaster Wrote: I apologize for doing this to your post, my intent way to have a locked post up, not a discussion thread.  I do want to address your concerns, my bad.

Not a problem.  Locked threads are locked for a reason, that is because the topic in them is not a matter of discussion, either because discussing it will cause problems or because it concerns a rule and the rules themselves are not under discussion in locked "stickies threads" posting the rules but might be (some would argue should be) under discussion elsewhere.

Quote:While the former the clearly preferable to the latter neither adds anything of substance to the discussion; saying “your wrong because of X, Y and Z” says the same thing while keeping the tone civil.

In general I have no problem in attempting to keep the tone civil.  At the same time, I'm not in favor of censoring insults.  If that were to occur I would expect a dramatic decrease in traffic in general, and from certain known actors in particular who are likely to come here as well.  

As much as I think persons like Eric (for example) are distillations of everything wrong with society (their generation or whatever else) attempting to moderate their being insulting and being insulted will result in a lot of busy work for the moderation team.  While attempting to do so might (and I want to stress the might part here) keep the tone more civil it will certainly add to the moderation team's work.

Quote:Splitting the thread allows people who interested in Musician B but not Musician A to know that there is a thread that they are interested in, while allowing people who like Musician A to talk about him without having to sift through posts talking about Musician B.

I would say that over all yes, you would be correct on that matter.  I would also say that any such splits should be made with care so as to not disrupt the continuity of both threads.

Using the example I gave a thread about Musician A where there are loads of posts about him, and someone says well "Song X reminds me of Song Y by Musician B" probably does not warrant a split.

Quote:I do plan on adding descriptions and I plan on bringing on moderators at some point to ease the workload, I had to get these forums up and running on short notice so I haven’t has time to do it yet.

Excellent.  I think we're on the same page in this regard.  I think a few people have experience moderating forums here.  I do myself.

Quote:I’ve seen forums turn into echo chambers and I think your concerns are valid, at the same time I know that a large number of people left the cold forum because the debate wasn’t civil and there were too many petty insults.  When I add moderators I will ideally have at least one to my right and one to my left politically.  I have absolutely no intention I’ve engaging in viewpoint discrimination, I enjoy reading everything from alt-right to Marxism and everything in between.  For what it’s I don’t recall reading a post of yours that I think crossed the line.

I don't think the problem will come from a left or a right dynamic but rather from an authoritarian and libertarian dynamic.  I'm very much a creature of the Left (Odin's protests to the contrary not withstanding--personally I think he's confusing my natural tendency toward social conservatism as being both authoritarian and rightist of course that could be due to him being so far to the left that he flirts with anarchism), and yet I have a natural inclination toward liberatianism (sometimes called classical liberalism) on matters of speech, culture and so on. (Which in an American context are conservative.) 

Indeed a comrade of mine once said (in a Party Congress no less) "Comrade Kinser has a certain natural proclivity toward social conservatism and behavioral libertarianism, this can lead him to rightist deviations on the line; conversely, Comrade [Redacted] has a certain natural proclivity toward social liberalism and behavioral authoritarianism and this can lead him to leftist deviations on the line.  Both need the correction of the Party, and the Party needs both to perfect its line."

It is conceivable that should moderators be of an authoritarian bent that they would indeed censor views contrary to their own, be that person of the left or the right.