Posted by spoc on June 26, 2004, at 0:43:23
In reply to Re: archives are swiss cheesed » Dr. Bob, posted by zenhussy on June 25, 2004, at 14:15:20
> ...showing me the door for 48-52 weeks... >
<<<<<< I feel it's a bone-chilling concept all around, that things can be handled that way... That should be the message board equivalent of a remedy only used when something was so serious, the death penalty was the other considered option... When I remember that this practice lies beneath, it reduces faith or attempts at faith in the other lesser things I may not agree with but try to see in the best light possible... Kind of like trying to believe in a cause, then losing your motivation to persevere in standing behind any of it because some of its darker principles are extreme enough to negate the rest (or at least make you question them too).
I do wish the specter of blocks of that length in cases like this and many others would be obliterated. I think a max *far* below that would be equally effective in "teaching lessons" or punishing... Period; *AND* possibly more so, as there wouldn't be so much time for anger and resentment over the block formula alone to build on the part of that person (and others) by their return. I don't see how those components of punishment can ever be constructive.
If it's to be compared to how we do need sentences of increasing length in our judicial systems, then shouldn't we be using a relative scale of numbers and multiples, to acknowledge that this is a message board and these aren't "crimes" in the same sense? (If this math is thought to already *be* appropriately relative, then I'm just speechless...)
(Zen, this has got to be an excruciating time for you, and one where some things only feel better stated publicly. But I do hope, like many, to have you here! Maybe there should be an email list/circle for times like this -- where things could be expressed without dilution or risk -- between the party involved, Dr. Bob, and anyone wanting to add comments or follow it... Then there'd still be some satisfaction of public redress... Maybe links to those correspondences could even be posted somewhere, since we *can* post links here to things that don't meet Babble's own civility rules...)
poster:spoc
thread:360326
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20040527/msgs/360565.html