At 10:10 PM -0400 8/2/07, Manu Sporny wrote:
It is vital to have people that can challenge the status quo, people such as Andy, involved in a community such as this.
I agree that challenges to the status quo can be useful, but it is NOT valuable to have members of community who will challenge it in abusive ways-- any more than it is useful to have members who will defend it in abusive ways. (I'm not saying you are such a person, Manu; just pointing out that the need to be non-abusive extends to everyone, regardless of where they stand on any issue.)
His replies reflect reservations that several members of this community choose not to express out of fear of retaliation.
To date, the administrators-- of which I could be considered an unofficial member, though I've done next to no administrative work since the list was founded-- have not "retaliated". Ever. They act to defend and preserve the community's nature, and do so with great reluctance. Too much reluctance, in my opinion, but that's the nature of this community. Andy does not get banned for challenging the status quo or expressing reservations. Andy gets himself temporarily banned from time to time because he can't seem to bring himself to treat other members of the community with respect and civility, nor to avoid borderline trollish behaviors. I think that's a shame, because much of the time I find myself in at least partial agreement with what (I think) he's trying to say. But if that sounds in any way like a defense of Andy's attitude or criticism of the administrators' actions, it is neither. Nobody has the right to poison discourse and damage the community, no matter what they're trying to say.
-- Eric A. Meyer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Principal, Complex Spiral Consulting http://complexspiral.com/ "CSS: The Definitive Guide," "CSS2.0 Programmer's Reference," "Eric Meyer on CSS," and more http://meyerweb.com/eric/books/ _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
