Posted by Jane D on January 13, 2002, at 16:09:50
This is a response to a thread on psycho babble at http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020110/msgs/89940.html
Let's hear it for mob rule!Like Dinah I remember middle school without much fondness. "If you are friends with X you can't be my friend". "If you don't help me attack Y I will attack you". "If you don't agree with everything I say we are not friends". For those of you who haven't lived thru it (some people say that it is mainly a "girl thing") - trust me - it's brutal and counterproductive. Today's corporate culture shows you a very watered down version (and is also counterproductive).
THE ORIGINAL POST from JohnX2 and was replied to by Dinah
From JohnX2:
> >
> > Hi Big Brother,
> >
> > Over on the Silicon Investor Newsgroup,
> > you should see the complete and utter disregard
> > of courteousy shown towards others. Yet many of the
> > groups are well monitored using a DEMOCRATIC process
> > whereby the users of the group vote whether or not
> > to ban someone fom posting from the newsgroup.
> > Until this policy or some other non Orwellean
> > process is adopted, I will no longer be posting
> > to psycho-babble. Things have gotton out of hand.
> >
> > good day,
> > john.From Dinah:
>
> I just got a terrible flashback to middle school and high school. Sometimes "democratic" doesn't mean fair. Why would a "democratic" poll be any better than Dr. Bob simply posting the rules and enforcing them? Most people who are blocked realize in advance that they will be blocked, whether for incivility or for violating the illegal drugs source policy. Fair warning is given. So you might say these people choose to block themselves in order to make a point. Fair enough. They have the right to do so, although the offending posts might be deleted and so the point might never be made.
> Yes, you might say, but the majority will have decided on the rules and who gets blocked, so the majority will be better off. This brings me back to my school memories. The majority may be better off, but who will protect the minority? This site is also supposed to be supportive for those people who don't necessarily subscribe to the majority view. Currently it is. And I am one vulnerable and often minority view babbler who hopes that the site will always remain that way.
> Just my humble opinion.
> Dinah
>
> Incidentally, this is really a PB Admin discussion, and I suppose I should have posted this there and provided a link, but I really don't know how to do that. Is there a tutorial?
poster:Jane D
thread:2646
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20011216/msgs/2646.html