Posted by Dr. Bob on December 1, 2003, at 19:19:45
In reply to a clarification and another point, posted by mair on December 1, 2003, at 17:46:10
> Why should [posts which are so blatantly offensive] remain, and what is the point of issuing a PBC to a person who has posted such material?
> > When posters are considered by the author not to have been civil, messages to that effect are posted. Others would do this privately, by email, and that would have the advantage of being less embarrassing. If done with sensitivity, however, posting [and not deleting the uncivil posts] offers the advantages of clarifying the limits for others, modeling conflict resolution, diminishing any paranoia about activity "behind the scenes," and allowing others to contribute to the process.
> > http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/research.html#Best> You use your untrammeled discretion all the time. I don't see why it can't be used to block people (without a prior PBC) in the most offensive cases.
What difference would it have made to issue a block instead? IMO, the less trammeled I am, the more discretion I should show...
> of more importance to me is that such posts not receive the same treatment as all of the other more marginally uncivil posts which really are at least addressing some subject at hand.
This isn't always easy. In general, I try to err on the side of having as few restrictions as possible. I'm open to suggestions, but "blatantly offensive" I think would be a little too subjective...
> When I was in middle school, I made a fairly earnest attempt one day to have a more than peremptory conversation with my father. After listening to me try to explain something of importance, his only response was to point out to me how many times I used the word "uh." I felt pretty deflated and my guess is that Phil's reaction to the response he got was much the same.
I'm sorry if he felt deflated, especially if my not responding myself was a contributing factor, but I think it would be asking a lot to insist that people always stick to the point...
Thanks for the input, seriously,
Bob
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:282363
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20031120/msgs/285677.html