Posted by Racer on September 3, 2004, at 13:57:06
In reply to Re: emotional creatures--dr. bob, posted by alesta on September 3, 2004, at 10:49:18
(Warning: this is the sort of subject where I can see so many sides that I never seem to reach a conclusion. This is just rambling on the idea.)
In my own very amorphous opinion, this is a really tough call for Dr Bob. He has a lot of conflicting needs to balance, and there's probably no way to make everyone happy with his decision. Having hard and fast rules, which he has, is likely to set off these little tempests now and again, when a popular poster is blocked, but making a different set of rules for popular posters would pretty well defeat the purpose of the basic rules, and of the boards here as a whole.
Now, personally, I do like chemist a great deal, I think he provides a heck of a lot of really great information for a lot of people, and that there's a great deal of value in the information he provides. And, personally, from the parts I've read of the original thread, I think that the information chemist provided about MDMA was absolutely appropriate, that the first response to it was an example of someone with a conflicting need -- in this case, seeminly, a need to contradict -- expressing that need, and that the post which followed that was -- trying to be civil here, and not to interpret another person's intent based on my response to it -- perhaps not exactly on point in its reaction to chemist's post.
Having seen earlier exchanges between some of the posters involved here, my view of the whole thread is deeply colored by that history. I was struck by the fact that chemist really was quite restrained, and seemed to be making a very great effort to remain civil. Since I rarely come by the Admin board, I didn't see his request for assistance here, but I can see how he would become quite frustrated when he was doing his best to conform to the civility policy and there was no protection from the administration of the site. Frankly, I'm pretty sure I'd have gone beyond sarcastic myself, in a similar situation.
On the other hand, there is the issue of being a Good Administrator. That doesn't always mean being democratic, in any sense of the word. I think SLS said it effectively way back at the start of this thread, so I won't bother to reiterate.
In the end, Dr Bob makes mistakes, he's not perfect, some of his decisions upset people. He may even keep these boards around for his own research projects, and may be playing games to further that end. For that matter, he may keep these boards up solely because he's got a sadistic need to torture us all, to make us all even sicker than when we found this place. The bottom line, for me, is that he does keep these boards up, we do have a safe place to create a community for ourselves, and I do think that he tries to apply his rules fairly -- even when I don't agree, and even when my own feelings get hurt.
If I were Empress of the Universe, I'd give a Free Pass to most of the 'regulars' and the 'old guard' here. That would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it? If I could persuade Dr Bob to commute chemist's sentence, I would. On the other hand, it's still the thin end of the wedge. I don't think chemist deserved a four week block. But changing the rules might be a precedent that comes at a very high cost for the site.
In conclusion, and the firmest conclusion I can reach for myself on this matter, I'm just glad it's Dr Bob's call and not mine!
poster:Racer
thread:384533
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20040902/msgs/386061.html