Some of the moderators have been encouraging me to make a public announcement concerning recent tendencies at EvC Forum toward being contentious and quarrelsome. Some have urged a period of stricter enforcement of the
Forum Guidelines. I resisted the suggestion and responded that any moderator could post an announcement, but so far none have done so.
It can be often be difficult to decide when administrative action is necessary. Some members never post anything that approaches a guideline violation, others do it frequently but only to a minor degree, others do it rarely but in a major explosion, and some violate the guidelines a lot much of the time. Only for this last group is the decision easy.
Complicating this is how other members involved in a debate respond. Some members let offensive comments roll off them, others get upset and complain, yet others respond in kind, yet others see offense where none exists.
Complicating things further is the small but very visible presence of some number of the clueless. Most such members are full of knowledge and facts but bereft of logic and rationality. Tempers flair as people cast themselves hopelessly against impassive, impenetrable and unfathomable walls of uncomprehension.
Complicating things futher still is another usually vocal type of member who views any admonitions from moderators as examples of unfair bias.
What's a moderator to do?
Each moderator works his own way through these puzzles, often with help and advice from other moderators in the admin forum. But what are we to do about the current situation? EvC Forum's goal is to provide more light and less heat. The idea is to learn from each other, not beat each other across the brow. But temporary suspension of posting privileges tends to create a lot of heat, too.
My feeling is that we can't let concerns about people's feelings affect board administration. If we lose some of our best but more volatile members because they resent a temporary loss of posting privileges, then we'll have to keep in mind that they clouded their light with their own smoke, and that perhaps in the long run EvC Forum will be better off by having more high quality and informative discussions.
In other words, I'm encouraging the team of EvC Forum moderators to step up enforcement of the
Forum Guidelines, particularly those concerned with treating others with respect, and with constructively moving discussions forward. This policy should be applied uniformly across all members, except that perhaps newbies should have some leeway for a while.
This message has been edited by Admin, 04-26-2005 11:27 AM
-- | Percy |
| EvC Forum Director |