I hope the mods and Simon take strong note of Mouthy's initial reaction, even though it seems to be smoothed over. Think about why she had that reaction in the first place.
If you spent any time on the real witness boards that tried to allow for as much discussion as possible, you know that witnesses don't necessarily shy away from arguments or controversy. In fact, I think the genius of Obed at witnet, was that he realized that even with real witnesses moderating and administrating his site, if you let people talk, they will talk themselves out of the "truth". Now "witnet" was heavily moderated, but compared to other witness sites it wasn't. It had to be heavily moderated, to keep out apostates. We have no such thing as apostates here, and this place should never begin stifling discussion to the extent even the most liberal *witness* site did.
I gotta tell you, it's kinda heading that way.
I know that when I first made the jump from a real witness discussion board (witnet) onto an apostate board (h20), it wasn't the cursing or the fighting that I censured myself from, it was atheism. LOL, yep, godless Six would not cotton to them horrible atheist. Of course, as time went on, it became clear that they were having the more interesting discussions, so I would take a peek. The point being, that a curious person will pick and choose what they will or will not read. You think they'll scurry back to the KH if they see an arguement? Hell no they won't. People are people, and people love train wrecks.
The point being, moderate the moderation back a notch or two. The nice thing is that your job will be easier. Get rid of the list of rules, since you won't and can't and shouldn't enforce them evenly. Replace the rules with a statement about your vision for this place, and only use mods that demonstrate that they can effect a similar vision, Simon. I think Seven leads the way, even if just by her absence, lol. It doesn't mean you have to allow unlimited outright meanness and shit-stirring, but even exiting witnesses have VERY strong feelings about free speech, maybe even more so than the rest of the world in general.
And moderaters, for god's sake, recuse yourself from any thread on which you express any opinion whatsoever.
You just can't have it both ways. *smacks row of mods heads like a marx brothers movie*
I well know that the situation is complicated at this time, with every move a mod makes being disected by a gallery and some people and animals playing to that gallery. Let them rot in the hell of their own anti-social construct. - six
Thank you, Six - a great post worth repeating, but without editing. (btw, one post, but couldn't get the quote thingie to comply.)
I haven't seen people using their moderator permissions to win an argument, that would be wrong, but if discussions develop into an argument or start containing insults then they can do something about it which is why they are there. - simon
Amazing did just that - he started a thread to specifically challenge IslandWoman about Ray Franz - and he said he would lock that same thread if if got out of hand in his opinion. A moderator who argues, then threatens to lock the thread when he deems it gets out of hand is not moderating - he's participating, using his moderator's credentials for clout.
I said "spirited" discussions. If they have a firm point of view, and they are discussing a topic, then I think they should stand aside as a mod ON THAT TOPIC only. That leaves plenty of other mods to keep the peace. Stopping some discussion mid flight could be seen as wrong if you were taking part in that discussion. -smack
Well said. Btw, Amazing didn't close the above referenced thread - another mod did. IslandWoman wasn't the argumentitive poster - neither was I, imho. Hell, if I were a mod, I would have closed it down as soon as Amazing posted....lol - I disagree with him on that issue.
And that's why I'm not a moderator. Btw, slightly joking about my moderating skills, or lack thereof (always need to add disclaimer for humor impaired posters.)
Many good opinions on this thread. Thank you.
waiting
