Moderation Thread — SSP Version
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:05 pm
Hello everyone,
After observing the first few days of the new forum, I have a few thoughts.
First, this new forum will largely be what you make of it. It can be a place where Ideas can be explored and discussed without interference from trolling, personal animosity, long-standing grudges, etc. Or it can be a marginally more civil forum than Paradise in which people try to get away with as much as they can within the rules while reporting or calling out the behavior of people they dislike or disapprove of. We can only do so much as moderators. And, from a moderation standpoint, having a separate forum that is only marginally better than Paradise isn’t with the time and effort.
Second, in my time as a moderator, I have had to do very little moderation in Celestial. As none of have had to do much in the moderating there, we’re going to need to huddle up as a mod team to figure out where the boundaries are between Paradise and Super Paradise. During this break in period, I hope folks can see their way clear to cut us and each other a little slack.
Third I think the reason we rarely have to moderate in Celestial is that there is a polite and respectful culture that has developed there that people who post there understand and respect. If you haven’t spent time reading or posting in Celestial, I’d ask you to do so. The rules are the same there and here.
Finally, a couple of more specific suggestions First, to cultivate a respectful culture here, rethink your use of inflammatory language, especially labels for individuals or groups. If you mock or insult a group that someone else’s identities with, that’s an insult to them whether you single them out or not. Resist the temptation to take a swipe at people you dislike, whether actively or passively aggressive — play the ball, not the person. We all know how to address what a person says rather than who the person is. Doing those things will take us a long ways toward building a culture that will permit and encourage the open sharing of ideas.
After observing the first few days of the new forum, I have a few thoughts.
First, this new forum will largely be what you make of it. It can be a place where Ideas can be explored and discussed without interference from trolling, personal animosity, long-standing grudges, etc. Or it can be a marginally more civil forum than Paradise in which people try to get away with as much as they can within the rules while reporting or calling out the behavior of people they dislike or disapprove of. We can only do so much as moderators. And, from a moderation standpoint, having a separate forum that is only marginally better than Paradise isn’t with the time and effort.
Second, in my time as a moderator, I have had to do very little moderation in Celestial. As none of have had to do much in the moderating there, we’re going to need to huddle up as a mod team to figure out where the boundaries are between Paradise and Super Paradise. During this break in period, I hope folks can see their way clear to cut us and each other a little slack.
Third I think the reason we rarely have to moderate in Celestial is that there is a polite and respectful culture that has developed there that people who post there understand and respect. If you haven’t spent time reading or posting in Celestial, I’d ask you to do so. The rules are the same there and here.
Finally, a couple of more specific suggestions First, to cultivate a respectful culture here, rethink your use of inflammatory language, especially labels for individuals or groups. If you mock or insult a group that someone else’s identities with, that’s an insult to them whether you single them out or not. Resist the temptation to take a swipe at people you dislike, whether actively or passively aggressive — play the ball, not the person. We all know how to address what a person says rather than who the person is. Doing those things will take us a long ways toward building a culture that will permit and encourage the open sharing of ideas.