David - I appreciate that you are always trying to refine the rules here to make the forum better. And I agree with a previous poster that you've never taken advantage of your status as List Manager to change the tenor of the discussion towards your own political viewpoint. And I really appreciate the low wages you are paid for this.
But one problem I have with the Mpls List is the iceberg approach of the rules. You continually insist that when a member has a problem with the behavior of another member, they should write to the member personally or to you personally - not proclaim the problem to the List as a whole. Also, when you kick someone off the List, you never say a word about it. You have kicked people off, haven't you? I think this is exactly the wrong way to go about it. How can those of us that remain truly know how the rules are enforced if we never hear about it? In my opinion the credibility of the List suffers much more when we don't understand what's going on than if we heard everything (admittedly perhaps more than we want to hear sometimes). Please let us know when and why anyone's been kicked off the List. I would also like to know when members receive reprimands, but publicizing such warnings are much less important than the "death sentences." Personally I think Brian Rice way overreacted. Sure this forum is rough, but that's the way politics are. What I read in this forum is 100% more honest than the pabulum politicians spin to the public. Better rough and occasionally unfair discussion than dishonest discussion. And the Park Board didn't even get trashed that badly. Compare it to the libelous discussion about the police after the bikers and Somalian incidents. I hope that Brian Rice continues to contribute to the forum, where there could be a free flowing discussion about whether the new park building will be revenue positive, negative, or neutral. Mr. Rice actually made some good points about the new building that I hadn't heard before. But he interspersed his comments with tantrum-like comments about everyone else's comments, which made his contribution rather unpleasant to read. I think Mr. Rice's approach to debate more harmful to our discussion than even the over-the-top satiricism of Mr. Keuttal (sp?) Mark Anderson Bancroft ----- Original Message ----- From: "List Manager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mpls list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 9:02 AM Subject: [Mpls] Rules change > The Board of Directors of Minnesota-E-Democracy (our sponsoring > organization) has agreed to a change in our rules. > > Under "Removal From the List" (at http://www.e-democracy.org/mpls), the > current wording is: > > 6. Any member removed from the list for the above reasons may not return > for one year. They may read the postings from the WWW archive, but not > post to the list. > > The new rule will state: > > 6. Any member removed from the list for the above reasons may not return > for six months. They may read the postings from the WWW archive, but > not post to the list. > > Why the change from one year to six months? > > The new rule is consistent with other E-Democracy forums. It is less > severe, but may be more broadly applied. > > As always, I will try to work with repeat violators, but this gives me a > more precise tool to penalize persistent minor rules violators. I had > asked the board for a two-month penalty for those who repeatedly violate > minor rules, but the board decided penalties within our forum will be > consistent. > > According to our rules, members receive one warning before any > expulsion. As many members will attest, I try to work with members, > especially those whose violations were inadvertent or in the heat of > passion. I will still do that, but as recent forum criticism has > evidenced, a decline in civility can greatly undermine the forum's > credibility. Final warnings mean just that: the next one will result in > a six-month suspension. > > Please, everyone, strong opinions are fine, but personal attacks and > uncivil rhetoric will lead to expulsion, no matter how strong your > points. > > David Brauer > List manager > > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
