[MD] Where I'm at [Administrator Message]

[Krimel]

[Krimel]
People here have a right to say whatever the hell they want; at least 
until recently when people are being bullied into silence. I know 
that Horse does a great job here but WTF?

[Arlo]
All discourse communities have topical 
boundaries, some very narrow and some quite broad, but it is this 
topical idea that defines the boundaries of the community. Typically, 
this is self-enforced, but when self-enforcement fails there is 
usually some authority to reenforce these boundaries. (If you go into 
an PTA meeting and the everyone is talking about their sexual 
liaisons from the weekend, some authority will have to move the group 
back into its topical domain).

[Krimel]
I am not at all sure what "topical boundaries" one could put around a
metaphysics. Isn't that a term that includes, well, everything. One could
argue about tone and context of course which is what seems to be happening
but I don't see how topical boundaries apply to either metaphysics or
Quality.

[Arlo]
This said, non-topical discourse can be very healthy. No PTA would 
last long if the members if no social presence was permitted. And I 
am certain Horse knows this, which is why a lot of "social presence" 
discourse makes up the body of the list's posts most days. We are 
social beings, and we our very nature come to appreciate the 
familiarity of those we interact with. Personally, I have little 
problem with people I've come to know and care about sharing their 
ups and downs. We all share, to some degree, elements of our social 
world outside the list in the list.

[Krimel]
Right, those social meanderings seem to me to be good for the MoQ community.
I have objected complains and calls for action because someone posts too
often or isn't quite on track. That kind of "tattling" strikes me as being
corrosive to the community.

[Arlo]
This is not about anyone's right to "say whatever the hell they 
want", this is about the boundary as to when non-topical discourse 
overwhelms topical discourse to the detriment of the community. This 
is not AA. This is not the PTA. Horse makes the decision when this 
boundary has been breached, and as such he does an exemplary job. 
I've never known Horse to uphold this boundary as if its some 
non-negotiable event horizon, and his decisions are always fair.

[Krimel]
As I said to Horse, he is the arbiter of what can be said here and if we
don't like it we can leave. But I think your analogy of AA and PTA meetings
is flawed. What you say might apply well to face to face meetings of people
who are trapped in direct contact with each other and for whom time is an
immediate concern. While virtual communities do mimic real life communities
I think some of the "real" life time constraints don't apply here. Deleting
and ignore posts is not time consuming and is hardly the problem it is in
real world meetings.

[Arlo]
Indeed, all 
Horse did was state (and I am in full agreement) that messages that 
are intended to be private communications should remain private 
communications unless all parties involved give their consent. 

[Krimel]
I guess my problem with this is how is Horse supposed to enforce this? He
can't delete a post that has already been sent. All he can do is remove it
from the archives or ban the person who sent it. I fear that part of the
problem here is that within this virtual system the only possible penalty
for infractions is the virtual equivalent of the death penalty. What
concerns me is people calling for the use of the penalty for the virtual
equivalent of have a boom box in your car.

[Arlo]
But wherever Horse 
finds this moving towards imbalance, he has to act in the best 
interest of the community, for if we slip into a forum of "anything 
goes" we will surely lose all relevance. Again, to date, I have never 
found Horse's judgement to be anything but fair.

[Krimel]
I think Horse has had to make some difficult decisions and while I might not
have decided the way he did, I recognize the difficulty in making such
decisions and respect his calls. On the other hand making those decisions
tends to lead to the need to make more of them. It's kind of like those grey
squirrels invading Scandinavia, once you have a couple of them, they breed
like crazy. People need to be more careful about what they wish for because
what I see trends that are not conducive to community flourishing.