Thanks to the new list-server, I now have the capability to moderate certain members' posts. I am doing that for a few members. Why am I becoming a censor? Under the old procedure, I only had two choices for chronic rule-breakers: I could warn them, and I could expel them. Despite the frequent warnings that SOME of you have gotten, I really, really, REALLY don't like to kick people off...I've only done it twice, once for consistently non-Minneapolis posts (global warming guy) and once for consistent, near-libelous inflamed language. However, a tiny minority of our members consistently violate the rules - -most often name-calling/one-on-one disputes, and also non-Minneapolis posts. At the same time, these are some of our more articulate members whose policy positions deserve to be heard. Rather than lose their valuable perspective, I've decided to nip the rule-violating stuff in the bud - especially because some of the rules violations, especially inflamed language, begin nasty word-fights that are hard to undo. I will let the members whose posts are being moderated know privately. **I have tested this capability on one member before announcing this policy, and I was wrong to do that. I will apologize to him privately, and I pledge to invoke no other new rules before announcing them first. My sincere apologies to the entire list.** The term of the moderation will be for a month, an in-between step between a warning and expulsion. This gives me a greater chance to work with people privately. Some may feel this is about the policy positions in their posts. Rest assured it is not. My hope is to strengthen those policy arguments by focusing them, and eliminating the extraneous written spitting that distracts, depresses, and causes members to leave the list. The appeals process is the same...anyone who objects can appeal to the Minnesota E-Democracy board, procedures are spelled out on the home page at http://www.e-democracy.org/mpls One other new rule: The list-server gives me the capability to set a length limit on posts. As an experiment, I have set that limit at 15 k. That is actually quite large - nearly every post is smaller, except ones that a) don't detach the lengthy post they are responding to or b) accidentally are sent in HTML, MIME or other fancy formats that add on lots of extra characters. I'm hoping to ease your downloads a little, and maybe get us all thinking about efficiently stating our cases and clipping posts we are responding to. As I said, just an experiment. Let me know what you think at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks, David Brauer List manager _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
