Posted by strikeeagle on October 08, 2000 at 12:20:17:
In Reply to: No it was Lakers Fault ALONE!! posted by Napstero on October 08, 2000 at 10:47:43:
| Napstero, My experience suggests that it takes the participation and permission of a community to lead to the destruction of that community. In society, some communities bemoan the takeover of gangs and drugs, yet do little to change the situation. Other communities (sometimes only a few blocks away) bemoan the takeover, and ban together to push the problem out of their neighborhood. They don't fight the problem on it's own level. Rather, they simply reveal themselves, and do not allow the activities that they find abhorrent to occur in their community. The members of these neighborhoods are omni-present, and do nothing more than make it known that the behavior is unacceptable. Nothing more. Nothing less. If we are to prevent our community from being taken over by those who's activities we abhor, we all must make our presence known, and make one and all aware of what we consider unacceptable. To do this, each of us must do no more than point out an objectionable post when we read it. No criticism need be made. No finger pointing is necessary. Simply posting something along the lines of, "Hey, 'Joe', I think maybe you're a little off topic here. Let's get back to the fun.". If a flame results in response to the comment of disagreement, IGNORE IT! And, the whole board can move on. If the offending poster keeps up with the behavior, the whole community IGNORES the offending party. It's kind of hard to have flame wars when everyone ignores the flames and the bait. Think about it. If we'd ALL done this with Everyone who flamed on RS, the flames would have lasted for, perhaps hours, rather than days. But, for this to succeed, each member has to commit to the principles of the board. As Bush Pilot pointed out, it is a fine balance between a censored board, and the kind of open conversations that we all enjoyed on RS. The ONLY way you can have fully open exchanges without the threat of censorship is for every participant to moderate himself. I believe that it really is that simple to solve this situation. It takes EVERYONE to make it work.
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