Re: <nettime> apropos of nothing

As one of the (very?) few conservatives on this list—by which I mean conservative relative to the list as a whole—and someone who has been on the list for something like 20 years, I have a few observations:

— Overall, I am impressed with the degree to which the move away from active moderating did not negatively affect the overall quality. I say that not to take away from the work of the moderators, but just as an observation on the community as a whole.

— At the same time, two components have been an active and essential part of my experience with nettime: a filter on my email that files all messages automatically, and the delete button.

— The filter because it makes it easier to manage the flow, especially when someone exhibits troll-like behavior or is simply too passionate to let go.

— The delete button because it is crucial to any digital experience. I do not consider myself obligated to read every post, to feel inflamed by every trollish post. I consider it, rather, my right to delete them and move on.

So while I think putting Bard on moderated status is the right call, I find the idea that this list is a home to potential fascists to be ludicrous and, in and of itself, a fairly fascistic take on freedom of thought. How about just using your delete button once you realize someone is a troll who should be ignored?

Lastly: Bard’s remarks about Charlottesville were awful. However, we kid ourselves if we think that he is alone in thinking he can stand outside that fight. Putting him on mod status does not change the fact that many people—too many people—find something appealing in Trump’s statement that there were “good people” on both sides. Muting him only mutes our collective awareness of their existence, it does not change the fact that they are there.

Sascha

Sascha D. Freudenheim
sascha@sascha.com

On Nov 6, 2018, at 10:36 AM, tbyfield <tbyfield@panix.com> wrote:

I'd like to go back to lurking, but a few replies below. Mainly, this: Bard occupied too much space, so I hope we de-occupy it with more forward- or outward-looking things. Nettime does best when mods are seen and not heard.

On 6 Nov 2018, at 15:22, Nina Temporär wrote:

A Nazi gets granted that status only after a long week and many hate mails with many crossed lines, but I was already
On moderated status….for what exactly?

For softly criticising Felix a few months ago, funny enough, on a related topic, when he totally out of the blue used the Defence of a women as a line of argumentation against someone else?

Nina, you aren't on moderated status. Several messages were delayed, as I said, for some technical reason, mostly because of some difference between the subscribed address and the sender. I didn't take notes, so I'm not sure what the issue was in the case of your mail — but it wasn't delayed deliberately in any way.

On 6 Nov 2018, at 15:32, Menno Grootveld wrote:

Although I certainly do not share all of Alexander's notions and ideas, and although I do not discount the possibility that he actually is one of these 'trolls', I don't support banning him from nettime permanently. I have to admit that I am a bit shocked by the eagerness with which some people seem to be wanting to 'shut him up,' as I do not consider this a productive way of having a discussion. The problem remains of course that a lot of people feel offended by his posts and that the discussion I am referring to has gotten out of hand recently, so the best solution would probably be to put him temporarily on 'moderation watch'.

Menno, I set Bard to mod status rather than kicking him off the list. If we call it temporary, we'd need to set up some kind of criteria for switching it back. If Bard wants to initiate a private discussion about that, he can do so of course, but I don't think it's the best focus for the list right now. If he sends any messages, we'll review them at some point — but since his destructive style thrives on speed, we'll do it on our own time.

Cheers,
Ted
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