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Originally posted by tyche:
I haven't been back since, mainly b/c - to put it tactfully - I feel that the list doesn't have strong enough administration to crack down on trolls and abusive people.
Administration? What's that like? I've always wondered whether WillTara ever had moderators, or if it spun out of control, or if they intentionally keep a (very) low profile....
I asked this because I saw an amusing thing over the weekend (Well, amusing to me. Less so to the people involved.) My roommate frequented a posting board which was populated by people about as devoted as we are. (Maybe. Ok, not really.) She pretty much "lived" there, in that it was where she spent 90% of her net time.
It wasn't as peaceful a place as the kitty board, however, and the moderator pulled the plug over the weekend; with the message "If you can't play nice, you won't play at all." Seems there had been a lot of flaming and cliquish-ness recently, so he got sick of it and expressed his displeasure in the most final way.
I thought it was amusing, because such a thing would never happen here. [1] But it is kind of pathetic, too (in the sense of "pathos inducing", rather than the common connotation of "mildly disgusting") because I see my roomie and others scrambling to find "a new home".
Community and the net. It's a curious thing.
It bears thinking about.
--
revision_Johanna (-Black belt in idle speculation)
[1] It would nver happen here, of course, for the following reasons:
a) Kitties never fight. Never ever. And if they do, it's by accident. And they apologize immediately. (Or the moderators kill all involved, clean up the mess, bury the evidence, and erase the memmories of all involved.) Because Kitties don't fight.
b)Strong, Fair, and Present moderators. Our mods work hard to keep this place a haven. Look at the number of posts which are essentially "I have never said this before, but I feel comfortable enough to say it here." They (and the minions) protect this place from trolls, flamers and just plain nasty people. And they do it so well, most of the time no one really notices. (Sorta like the shire and the rangers...)
c) Decentralized control. Yeah, the mods are dictators, with tyranical powers (in the ancient Athenian sense of "tyrant") and that is good. But there is a bunch of them, and there is a sense of "checks and balances". We won't have a "rogue moderator" take us all down. Plus- that whole "Backup board" thing....
d)Strong sense of community ownership. Most Kitties feel that they are members of the board as a whole, rather than to some small subgroup. That's probably the most important element of all. When a community fragments, and subgroups divide into non-overlapping memberships... that's when feelings get hurt and things get ugly.
e) and, lastly, an almost fantical devotion to the Pope.
[This message has been edited by revision_Johanna (edited March 28, 2002).]
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