Hi Elisabeth, Thanks for your final response on the religion thread. My reply was merely a response to your prior post on that thread. My reaction to an atheist is "benign neglect" and I have expressed this before. It is no different as towards someone who smokes, divorced, lives a homosexual life style, or cheats on their spouse. What they do is their problem. Yet, I would not stand idle if they publicly make the case that their life style is fashionable and progressive. Sorry, a few of us Goans, have blown a hole in that "intellectual" image. Below are my thoughts on the Norm de Plum.
Periodically, we see active (often controversial) Goanet members exposed by others, and by themselves, for violating Goanet rules and using "Nom de Plume". At first I bought into the rationale of nom de plume, with sympathy and understanding. Yet the more I think about this, the more I am disturbed. None of these views may apply to the specific cases under discussion. But they address the general principles. Firstly, the rules are made for a reason. And living up to that code is in itself imparts a discipline to live upto all the rules. Are we hearing excuses camouflaged as high sounding and praiseworthy rationale? If the rationale is valid, that raises a whole set of other issues. Does nom de plume give one an unfair advantage? Can some now write posts and express opinions, that they do not have their personal decency to defend, their reputation to uphold, or their family name to protect? Others may be protecting their identity from their own family, who know their true philosophy and practice or frankly even their medical condition. It is for this reason that, I made the case for individuals participating in controversial posts, to place their "label" for clarity of intent. And others have requested to identify the place of residence of the poster. Does the probability rise of a link between a nom de plume and controversial posts? And when a controversial post is shredded, just term it as "of course it was just extremely facetious." If Goanet has psychopaths, should not these be exposed to the moderators? Should not psychopaths be expelled from Goanet rather than, that be that rational for Goanet to make exceptions? Are the rest of us not also potential victims of psychopaths? If we give nom de plume to paranoid individuals, should exceptions be made for other mental situations? Who will make that determination? Nearly all Goanetters have family and / or business interests in Goa or in the Diaspora. These could be affected by writing a post that many others may disagree. It could also work the other way around. Yet, these considerations force us to write decent and sensible posts, and not posts that acquaintances, friends or family could be embarrased or ridicule us about. Are we going to permit "some nut" to deter us from our goal or for Goanet to change its character, or rules? I have had some private and public idiotic responses. I have just placed those individual names on my list of "Not worth opening their posts". Dialoguing with an individual with a nom de plume is conversing with an undercover person. There is always the feeling, "what else is this person trying to hide" or "fake"?" This leaves a bad taste in one's mouth to knowingly dialogue with such an individual. The only persons in my community who have assumed names are FBI informants and rehabilitating sex offenders. I know there are exceptions to the rule. Yet, the moderators have to make the decision whether Goanet is going to be "kuch be chaltai hai", or do the rules apply to ALL in an open democratic set-up. Regards, GL _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
