CF Digest Regarding Censorship, Oct 12 2005
(03/23/05)
This is a paradox: Moderation
does not equal censorship; however, Moderation
is censorship. The
real heart of the matter is-- What is it that is
wanting of censorship? In the
wanting of censorship, the Eplaya has to serve two masters- The E-playa
community and the BMORG.
actiongrl wrote:Ultimately a decision like that [a prohibition of the Edit button] does rest with the group who administrate and own it - those who created the board, those who are responsible for its maintenance, those who volunteer to implement its goals by their efforts.
(03/27/05)
(04/05/05)
Essentially, this statement (
up-thread) is asserting the existence of the BMORG-Volunteer Eplaya Oligarchy. Regardless of what the people of the "
community" want, the
ultimate interest of an oligarch lies in the maintenance of the
established order. Unfortunately, if the Eplaya Admin team strictly follow the
needs of the Oligarchy, our community will experience those kind of results one
usually finds over time under the rule of an oligarchy- namely, obligatory participation in the
Oligarch's choice, a lack of innovation and creativity, a supression of the human spirit and a morass of dumbness.
If the maintenance of this Oligarchy depends on enticing the participation of a population whose people (Westerners) are already accustomed to the inalienable entitlements to assemble, to worship, to speak, to print and to petition for change, then this Oligarchy would best be served by
understanding that the
consensus of the people will probably include
disappointment and
frustration at the encumbrances of no working Edit button and
de facto censorship. This
disappointment and
frustration will hamper the endeavor toward creating a good and well-rounded community on Eplaya.
(03/30/05)
For any "
Moderator" to hint that he may lock down a thread, chiding someone for being
off-topic or
overly-personal is (unfortunately) a passive and subtle form of
censorship. Some forms of censorship are relatively necessary such as removing posts that crash your browser, posts that display Larry Harvey's home telephone number, etc. But overall, censorship should be
avoided whenever possible.
There is no one here who is
qualified to
censor, against those whose opinions "matter", those whose opinions are (
perceived as) extraneous personal comments. There is no one here who has the
overarching intellect to
comprehensively know the
intentions and
subtleties of every writer- What may appear to a "
personal remark" may actually be a
design toward a higher intent at "herding cats". The Moderator(s)
should not attempt to try to moderate opinion.
Moderation has to evolve of
itself via written public rebuttal.
(03/24/05)
Having a "
voice" is so
primal that people will contort themselves in the most amazing and harrowing ways to get their message out and
be heard. This
primal need has a lot to do with what drives people to create
art. Humans seem to also possess a
primal need to
moderate other people's
voice. This
primal need has a lot to do with what drives us to
wage war. This is a
conflict within the
human condition. Censorship is
very rarely justly applied. Censorship causes
intense emotions of
infuriating anger,
depression,
resentment,
betrayal and
persecution. Censorship is
evil.
(03/30/05)
Fascism is
not an
outside force. Fascism exists within our
own human nature and it is probably something that we
all should strive to overcome. Fascism
continually creeps on Eplaya. The
concepts of Fascism are kind of tricky which makes it a bit more difficult to get one's head around them. But Fascism is
here. There's no sense in
ignoring it. The most readily available conduit toward promoting Fascism is "message-moderation" and therefore we need to proceed
carefully. One element of Fascism is the ideology of creating a
perfect order (within a thread).
(04/21/05)
At the
provincial level,
where the list of topics is at, the Admins and Moderators should collar themselves at the
no-slack end of a chain made of gold. An Admin or Moderator can easily br
eak the chain, only to be seen as a mad-dog on the loose. At the
provincial level, topic names will range all over the place, from the opaque and the inane, to the significant and the deliberate, to the pointless, the mispelled, the mischievous, to the normal, to the drab, to the functional, to the fab, to the fecund. And the n
umbers of Topics that a user will have to
page through to
scan it all will possibly range into the in
finity of fear's
oblivion. Unfortunately, it will be in
our own fascist nature to want to clean up these provinces, to make order out of apparent chaos, to
fence it in,
for the good of everyone else. Some users will promote a
much needed cleansing of this board with all the drama of
falling down a hill! It's at these times that an Admin or Moderator should appreciate their being tied by the gold chain- The Admin or Moderator is no user's agent.
The provinces of Eplaya, by their
own nature, will always be
jungles. You can't tame a jungle, except by cutting it down to ex
tinction . We very well know, that the
lively life
is in the jungle, where things eat and things
get eaten. We're newbies
every
day . User feedback that advocates the taming of the jungle for the sake of the newbies is ignorant and harmful advice. We're here because we're
self-reliant and because we want to be here. And
regardless of all our
engineering, we're still in a jungle of humanity where our crude nature resides. We can make a better BBS. But
beware the fascist pipedream of creating a perfect order in concrete. The
jungle is much more
alive.
(09/19/05)
Censorship equals Fascism.
Sincerely yours,
Captain Fuckwit
