Posted by Atticus on January 21, 2005, at 22:26:58
In reply to Re: Blocking Policy, posted by alexandra_k on January 21, 2005, at 20:59:59
What about the larger issue surrounding blocking here: the assessment of penalties? Simply doubling the last block strikes me as an exceptionally simplistic way to dole out penalties. People get blocked for weeks for inadvertantly using the word *ss. It's the eight-week length of this block, and the frequently oversized nature of others, given the "crime," that I think really needs to be reexamined. Dr. Bob, couldn't there be categories of violations, as with the law IRL, that draw proportionate sentencing? It seems to me that a completely unprovoked attack on someone for no apparent reason (and it's happened, recently, with the Herman Munster business) clearly merits a more severe reprimand than advice given with a shot of vinegar, which is essentially Chemist's crime. Yet Herman Munster got blocked for a week, and Chemist is blocked for eight weeks. I don't buy the "give the newbie a chance argument." It seemed to me very apparent that Herman Munster knew exactly what he was doing. It's the inconsistent seriousness of civility violations and their resultant penalties that draws so much ire in you direction, Dr. Bob. I feel it creates the impression that rather than working from a common-sense, impartial system, you're making this up as you go along. Rightly or wrongly, it creates a sense that you are being arbitrary or, at the very least, unimaginative in your rigid sentencing guidelines. How about you arrange offenses -- with our input -- into degrees of seriousness? (Ranging from a Herman Munster-like scorched-earth assault at one extreme to use of a word like *ss at the other.) Please give it some thought. Decisions like the Chemist block only serve to -- in my mind -- make you seem smaller, less authoritative, and more deserving of being challenged. Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:445000
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050116/msgs/445511.html