Posted by Dinah on December 6, 2008, at 11:56:03
In reply to Re: rayww's latest block and 'civility' » Deputy Dinah, posted by fayeroe on December 6, 2008, at 11:19:25
The Politics board until recently had a relative consensus of opinion, which makes for peace, but not necessarily civility. It wouldn't be fair to enforce administration in such a way as to return the board to consensus. It wasn't right of us to ignore that board when there *was* consensus, really. There might not have been disagreements on the board, but that doesn't mean there weren't hurt feelings from those who chose not to respond.
Speaking only for myself, I didn't really like administering the Politics Board or the Faith board. It was difficult to understand what Dr. Bob's wishes were. And it is emotionally charged and difficult. The high feelings make it a place where it causes me personal distress to get involved. As a someone who volunteered to help Dr. Bob out, not to moderate the board, I didn't think it unreasonable to ask Dr. Bob to take a more active role on those boards. But things are as they are. There's no point in wishing they were different.
As to why the late action, as I said, we're consulting with Dr. Bob, so responses will take a bit longer.
I can certainly understand the desire of the people who post on Politics for it to go back as it was. But I will not, for my own sense of right and wrong, administer any way that is not consistent. And I thought posters who complained that Politics Board administration was lax had a point. Dr. Bob has agreed to give us feedback on posts so that we get an idea of what is and isn't ok on that board.
One benefit of having deputies administer on that board is that we hold a wide range of personal political positions, and we're careful to get input from each other on how we're "reading" posts. It's all to easy on that board to think "But this is true, so it's not uncivil. They're wrong so they must be uncivil." I think the team approach is one way to get beyond that, and to understand issues from many sides.
poster:Dinah
thread:866882
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20081003/msgs/867007.html