Posted by beardedlady on July 8, 2002, at 18:00:23
In reply to Re: Where do we draw the line? » beardedlady, posted by Lini on July 8, 2002, at 17:10:20
Lini:
> I don't know about sloganeering (never heard the term before), but you're right, these are all subjective terms, which is why we have a moderator to make those kind of calls. So actually, we don't determine it, Dr. Bob does.Dr. Bob has said that he wants to make this board safe and supportive. He does a pretty good job. But he gave a few PBCs to a poster who quoted Salvation Army literature, saying that this was sort of like advertising, or sloganeering. I never understood why it wasn't allowed. Many people quoted song lyrics. I wrote posts in support of Ani Difranco. Phil made the analogy that if someone put, "Eat at Joe's" on the bottom of every post, it would be like selling something. Well how can one sell the Salvation Army? It's not something you can buy. And he wasn't saying "I did this" or "you should do this"; he was quoting.
I see many similarities between what that poster did and what some others do. When I ask where the line is drawn, I'm asking Dr. Bob how he makes that distinction. Why is it proselytising in one place and not another?
I think it's okay to ask for clarification, as well as to disagree with the moderator in a civil way. Moderators make mistakes. And yes, it's his ball, and if he doesn't want us to play with it, he can go home. And if we don't like the game he wants to play with it, we can go home. But I would hope Dr. Bob wouldn't act that way and that others wouldn't offer that as a valid reason why he could. But I am seeing more and more posters go home because they don't like this game anymore.
> I think that sometimes someone could interpret the things that I write as "preachy" and I definitely have a "style" that is all my own. And if I wanted to respond with poetry or song lyrics to every post, I would probably annoy some analytical types. But, would I be being unsupportive? I don't think so. I really do think that that is the bottom line -- are you trying to be supportive, or is it obvious that you don't care how the other person feels or if you hurt their feelings?
Dr. Bob told me long ago (on this very board) that it was difficult to determine someone's intention. I had asked him whether he really thought someone intended to hurt another (who actually wasn't hurt at all) and that intention should have been taken into consideration. He said that would be too difficult. When I told him he was already determining negative intention with every PBC or block he issues, he sort of agreed that he had to rely on interpreting intention to issue them.
> Some people on this site like to draw things with the various symbols on the key board. No one thinks that this is unsupportive, cause I think that everyone understands CTRLALTDEL's (I think that is the right handle) intent to be positive and part of his/her style of communicating.
I don't think that analogy is a good one. Before we had the Faith board, dozens of people complained about the same thing, and it was not the little animals drawn by Dr. Eamer. Nor has anyone complained about a preachy style or song lyrics or poetry or any of the other styles we have. Profanity and intolerance and downright rudeness are the usual causes for complaint. Religious answers to non-religious questions are another. And now that the faith board has been developed, the same answer to every different poster's thread is another.
>I guess I think that that is where you draw the line, based on someone's intention (not ability) to communicate positively. And like I have said above, I think people need more opportunities to clarify their intent before they get the boot.
I believe Zo attempts to communicate positively, yet her posts are scrutinized. And I have seen other posters say some absolutely horrible things to people and get a fourth and fifth PBC.
I have also seen someone get a week for saying evil things about a dead person and another get a four-week block for calling someone disruptive. Heck, I told a poster who had made a rude comment to Phil (something like, "Shut the hell up and go back to bed") that he'd made a rude comment, and I was given a PBC. I didn't say something someone could take as accusatory! I said a fact! "Shut the hell up" is a rude thing to say, especially to someone who was merely telling him that it was against the rules to post how to get meds without a prescription!
I agree with your above posts regarding parole. I have asked for similar things--especially with regard to intent. I hope you have better luck.
I'm totally sick about this, and I'm leaving the board too. I wanted to say goodbye in a better way, but I think most people who want to know how to get in touch with me. I may write a little farewell letter if I'm not blocked tomorrow.
But I find it a sad state of affairs that a person can get blocked for quoting me because my intention (from a post with no message, yet) was deemed to be better than that of someone who was clearly distressed about the way her questions were being answered.
beardy
poster:beardedlady
thread:6087
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020627/msgs/6105.html