General Discussion Of Moderation Procedures 9.0

I was particularly amused by Randman's recent contention that the reason he wasn't getting any debate on his showcase threads was due to evos being too scared to debate him without the cover of moderation in his, the hypothetical evo's, favour. He doesn't seem to consider that the problem might actually be that he is effectively the moderator of those threads and has already shown a propensity for banning people.TTFN,WKEdited by Wounded King, : No reason given.

That is certainly a contributing factor. There are obviously several elements to how that has an impact, firstly there is the choice a creastionist makes from lurking or looking over the forum as to whether they want to participate. If they think the moderation is biased or hostile they may well not wish to participate unless they are ready to put up a fight, possibly against a lot of people at once.The second is that there is a form of selection going on as those creationists more prone to losing their temper or derailing a topic may find themselves banned for what the moderating team consider to be neutral guideline based reasons, although these may be perceived as biased.Since a perceived bias is something which may predispose only the more determined and possibly the more combative creationist interlocutors it may be that those creationists most likely to participate in a forum they perceive as weighted against them are also those more likely to infringe the forum guidelines.I realise this is a huge generalisation and there are a number of evo-skeptic members who manage to keep a relatively even keel, but I certainly think that there is a connection between the enforcing of the forum guidelines and the level of creationist participation on the board.I don't know to what extent a Soapbox area like the Showcase forum effects this situation. Does it suggest that we are tolerant of other views or that we are arrogant and dogmatic and like to keep our creationists in a cage to poke with sticks?TTFN,WK

It isn't so much the operation of Showcase as how it might be perceived by a newcomer to the boards. We might appreciate the factors you mention but someone just browsing the forums is just going to see a whole lot of creationists/IDers in Showcase talking amongst themselves about how hard done by they are and how they are kept down by the evo conspiracy that runs EvC.TTFN,WK

If the problem is the current crop of creationists, i.e. our bonsai creationists in the terrarium, then surely the answer would be to axe the showcase and to simply ban those creationists, otherwise how would simply smiling and gazing vaguely into the distance be any more effective than consigning them to the showcase, which is itself largely ignored. They could still ask for reinstatement as normal members but would then be expected to conform to the guidelines if it was granted.TTFN,WK

Except in the most egregious cases I don't really see any sort of bipartisan consensus being likely. And given the disparity in numbers between the evos and the antis I think it would be pretty much impossible to avoid the appearance of rampant bias. Of course we apparently can't avoid that appearance anyway in many IDist/creationists view, but I think your proposed system would make it worse if anything.TTFN,WK