Recall BWE

[sparklecat]

for a member it's all fine and dandy to stay within the rules without knowing them. but how can a mod judge if others are abiding by the rules if he doesn't know the rules himself? unless he's making them up on the spot... oh wait

I think it's still the same principle; if his judgment calls are in line with what a moderator going by the charter would decide, then it doesn't really matter if he's aware of this or not. And I haven't seen any moderating on his part that's a problem, myself.

[Testycalibrated]

Regarding charters, rules, complaints, my recall and this message board:

There is actually a good reason to ask for my recall. Perhaps my experiment regarding decency and where the line crosses is a good reason though so I should really say, a better reason.

I have a confession: I have no idea what the charter says. And I'm not likely to read it in much more detail than I already have.

I think I read most of it but I just voted yes to everything because it kept popping up at the top of the screen and I hoped it would go away if I voted. I actually don't care what's in the charter. I'll follow the rules unless I can't, but I don't care what they are. The whole world is full of rules and I decided long ago to reserve that space in my brain for things I find more interesting. Someone always tells me when they think I've broken one. That's nearly always how I discover them.

That doesn't mean I try to break them. I do try to adhere to a basic sense of decency and the guidelines that I remember, but all this creation of a new utopian government that will have a strict policy to deal with consistency appears a bit silly to me. It is an internet forum. And it's a good one. It already has everything it needs to work and work well. In fact, I think it is working well aside from the fact that some people get put off by the weird TH threads and the neurotic TH moderation, leading to a few people deciding not to post here.

Consistency need only mean that posts which appear to assign intended and perceived value judgments of others' intrinsic worth should be candidates to be moved to TCH or TCR. For those who make a deal out of it and abuse the system by consistently pushing their personal subjective and negative value judgments on the board, banning or suspending is a matter of convenience. It's just too much work to spend all the board's time dealing with one individual's personal venom.

In the spirit of disclosure that's swept the local zeitgeist recently, I decided to disclose that fact so you all can know for sure where I'm coming from. I do this for the entertainment. I care that it exists and I'm willing to do my part to help out; that's why I agreed to moderate. I like to read interesting things written by interesting people. I like ideas. That's what this board is about for me. (even town hall although it's gotten pretty far out in WTF land lately)

I will let you in on another secret. I use my own rules in judging whether to move a post. I follow a basic guideline which weighs the kind of value being placed on another poster, the intent of the author and perception of the audience, with me having to imagine the intent and perception. That means my judgment comes into play when I move a post. Fortunately, the posts don't disappear. You can go and read them if you want. Moderators in that sense can't help setting the tone for the forum they moderate. And that doesn't impinge on anyone's freedom to pursue ideas. If a moderator moves dissenting posts, that's one thing. If that happened, Febble would start the recall and Ravenscape would be the first vote. There is no 'protect staff' mentality. Believe it or don't.

Not to say I disregard rules. I don't. When my basic sense of decency clashes with a rule in a rulebook somewhere, I try to consider my own bias or opinion. If I discover a bias on my part, I try to incorporate the rule and I try to apologize for any transgressions I may have committed.

If I think the problem lies in the rule, I explain my differences as best I can and basically either disregard the rule, letting the chips fall where they may, or make a statement about the rule's errancy and try to change it. The latter takes more effort and so it happens less frequently. This is one of those less frequent times.

We have plenty of rules just in the one idea that we are here to discuss ideas.

We/I want an environment where ideas have the room to develop. That happens when arguments are weighed on their merits and information is brought as evidence to be included in the ideas. As such, I like the idea of gardening. Moving posts that are significant derails seems an appropriate role for mods. As far as I know, it is the only role for mods. It is also the thing that makes TR into the good part of what was iidb. That's why, shocked though I was at the offer, I accepted the role of moderator. It's one way to give back to a group and place that I enjoy.

One of the things about pursuing ideas is that incorrect information confounds a discussion. If it appears that someone has intentionally misled others by posting skewed or false information, or if someone displays other marks of a lack of integrity, I think there needs to be a way to take that concern out by itself and hash it out so that the original idea doesn't devolve into the void of insults and drama but the issue doesn't linger unaddressed in the original thread. The compost heap works as a reasonable place for that kind of thing. I'd like to see more tightly moderated, one on one threads for more specific accusations but that's a personal preference which I tried to develop with the 'Support or retract" thread idea in E&O.

So, procedure away. I will be mightily entertained but minimally affected. I will continue to move posts that are off topic or contain content-free or subjective value laden insults in E&O and Politics. I will continue to chuckle at posts that make me chuckle. Unless you recall me for not knowing what the charter says. Which is fine too.

Lol. Good times. I can't believe I was this idealistic.

[Old Dan]

Thanks fer bumpin this thread, I aint seen it before... done voted Yes in the poll.

[Testycalibrated]

I haven't voted in it. BWE is dead though. Long live testy.

[Testycalibrated]

Now I've voted yes.

[schneibler elf]

I wonder what ever happened to that guy

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk 2

[Old Dan]

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk 2

memescape

[Mike PSS]

It was tied 25:25 so I voted 'Yes' to kick it over the top.

RECALL BWE!!!

[daap-umop-bnp]

voted no to make it a tie again

[nostrum]

broke the tie

BWE is saved!

[rmacfarl]

[Old Dan]

It's tied now, yall, what does the Charter recommend?

[schneibler elf]

It recommends shut up stopper

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk 2

[Faid]

Voted yes to break the tie and feel important

[Pingu]

Can I change my vote?

[Faid]

Hold on lemme change onto my sock

[sock_down_deep]

Hey I missed this one! Go BWE! We splintered personalities need to hang together!

[daap-umop-bnp]

shut up socker

[PerseusOmega9]

Can an admin add an abstain option

[Old Dan]

It recommends shut up stopper

[Testycalibrated]

What do we do in the case of a tie?

[Figuer]

seems I just broke the tie...

[Figuer]

recall BWE from what position?

[SkepticTank]

Posting.

[Figuer]

oh, this is from 2009...