On 16/11/2008, at 1:10 PM, Nick Arnett wrote: > > I don't think that's my business. He is what he is. > > I find greater peace when I manage to accept people as they are, > rather than > as I think they should be. I would invite others to do the same, > but I''m > not saying they should.
There's two sides to that. Yes, people have different opinions, viewpoints and characters, and it is good to be accepting of a range of views and opinions. One should certainly at least hear many views in order to explore ideaspace before settling on one's own position. But the other side is that in a community, there is behaviour that is simply unacceptable. Ad hominem, falsehoods and abuse (particularly unprovoked) are among those. It is hard to accept trolling. It is best to start by explaining where the offender is outside the range of acceptable behaviour or agreed code of standards. However, once someone consistently refuses to adhere to those, telling them outright they're out of order is the next reasonable step, along with replying to their posts that stay within the spirit of discussion and calling out ones that don't. Moderation follows - personally I think banning is extreme, and in a community like this simply choosing to pass over emails from certain individuals is usually enough. Charlie. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
