> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Gautam Mukunda
[snip]
> After reading all of the traffic related to this topic, and regardless of
> who is right or wrong, I would like to humbly suggest to the list owners
> that, in the future, these types of warnings be made off-list and private.
> I am not making this suggestion because of the resulting discussion, but
> there is no point in publicly embarrassing or humiliating someone when a
> private email would likely make the point.
I would like to enthusiastically agree (that's three times for Gautam and
me, so those of you who have fainted, sorry). I've been moderating and
managing on-line communities for about 15 years now. Without fail, public
warnings provoke just the kind of argument that's taking place now. I warn
in private and when circumstances force me to remove somebody from a list,
it happens quietly. And I'm *extremely* reluctant to do so -- only for
spamming or repeated personal attacks. (If you think we get very passionate
here, you'd melt in the flames of an argument among people with cancer
regarding alternative treatments, spirituality, the Great Drug Conspiracy,
etc.)
I'd like to add that until there's an automated consensus mechanism for
enforcing the community's will, we'll have to rely on humans to do so. So I
have a hard time considering it inappropriate per se for anyone to sent a
complaint to said humans, as some have suggested. Final thought: it is
inappropriate to impugn motives to such actions. I don't remember and I
don't really care who said it, but the suggestion was made that Jeroen
turned to the list owners (I call myself a manager, since any list I help
run is owned by its participants) because he was losing an argument. Maybe
true, maybe not, but certainly not something anyone else can know. Jeroen
probably doesn't know his "true" motives, being human. Who among us does?
I'd like to suggest that we turn this topic into a discussion of what we've
learned, so that we can move on. So who agrees that we have learned not to
warn people in public? What else?
Nick
