As a long-time reader of this list, I have to say that I think Stevan's role as moderator is invaluable for this community. The very act of his summarizing and responding to the postings clearly helps the discussions from meandering in an unhelpful way (note that I only say 'helps' since this clearly does not entirely prevent!) People can post their disagreements with Stevan's summaries - but for me they certainly keep the discussion reasonably focused ...
Tony Hey -----Original Message----- From: American Scientist Open Access Forum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 4:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Nihil obstat On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 3:52 AM, Andy Powell <[email protected]> wrote: > To be fair, I think Jean-Claude is primarily accusing you (Stevan) > of summarising his arguments back to the list incorrectly rather > than censorship per se, No, actually I think he thought I had not posted his posting. I think every poster, whether moderator or not, has the right to summarize to postings of other posters, as he understands them, and to criticize them as he sees fit (as long as the criticism is not ad hominem, defamatory. libelous, or off-topic). > then noting that having the role of both moderator and prime > activist doesn't always sit comfortably. As moderator all I do is keep the list on-topic, and filter out flaming and spamming. As poster, I do what everyone else on the list does: I express my own views to the best of my ability and knowledge. In this discussion, please let us separate the question of whether I have, as moderator, suppressed relevant postings, from the question of whether there is some sort of incompatibility between being moderator and poster. > On the few occassions that I posted to this list, I have tended > to do so in response to (and sometimes in disagreement with) > a post by Stevan and if I'm honest, I do find it odd that my post > then has to wait for moderation by the person I'm arguing with. Have any of your postings failed to appear? > All of which leads to a very simple question... does this list > actually need moderation? Unless you want to see the dozens of spams that appear in my gmail box every day, you better keep this a moderated list. But I repeat, if there is a plurality opposed to my moderation, I am happy to hand over to someone else. Stevan Harnad
