Really? Wow, your messages are so detailed and thought out - I would love to see the ones you threw away!
As for all of this grok stuff, I have lurked here for a long time and enjoyed your political and religious comments as much as any on science. I would hate to see the total ban go in effect just because it was abused by one or a even a few. I see the issue here the same as Stephen, grok tried to inject politics into just about every message. It seemed to be a compulsion on his part and distracted from the purpose of this mailing list. It is up to the moderator to determine when it has gone too far. I'm actually surprised he let this go as long and as far as he did, I think he showed great restraint. I would hope that there is no hard and fast rule, but if that is the way it is going forward, I will respect it and miss some of the banter and discussions of the past. Let's face it, grok had plenty of warnings here, and I'm sure privately as well. I for one don't think that forums such as this should attempt to be fair and treat everyone the same. I am new here and I don't expect that I will be treated the same as someone who has posted here for years and has EARNED the respect of the moderator and other members. I should be, and expect to be, held to a higher standard - jumping into a group like this and being disrespectful and disruptive should not be tolerated. As for the whole real identity issue. I think in forums such as this your real identity should be generally required. If you are discussing such extreme points of view, political or otherwise, that YOU feel you can't use your real identity, that would be a good clue that this is the wrong forum for your posts. I can think of exceptions - someone who might have their career threatened by posting under a real identity. I think it is better not to have hard rules, but to trust the moderator to use his good judgment. C. Michael Crosiar ________________________________ From: Stephen A. Lawrence <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 11:09:17 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:BAN ON POLITICS still in effect here Harry Veeder wrote: > If political commentary is banned, why not ban religious commentary as well? The specific problem was caused by incontinent spraying of political issues over every topic which was introduced. Religious commentary, which has occasionally gotten a bit out of hand in the past (partly encouraged by misbehavior on my part, I admit), played no role, and has not been a problem for a good many months AFAIK. FWIW I, personally, write about twice as many messages to Vortex as I actually send. My general approach, for the ones I don't send, is a) Write it b) Read it over c) Think about it d) Trash it after deciding it's too far OT or too snarky
