Re: List policies [moved from Glorantha Digest, by moderator request and indeed pertinence]

From: ian_hammond_cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_...>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 10:30:06 -0000

Alex wrote:
> That seems a legitimate concern, I agree. But the way to stop that
is to more consistently filter out "esoterica". If the de facto list policy is that you can have stuff we, the moderators, like, regardless of its actual "newbie friendliness" or "esotericness", but not anything too "negative", it's _bound_ to be perceived as invidious and arbitrarily censoring, regardless of the benevolence of the intent.<

I am not a moderator, so this is just opinion.

I think part of the problem stems from the fact that while esoteric debates are less likely to be started on this list, when a debate on this list grows heated posters resort to more complex and esoteric arguments to prove their points. Moving the debate at that point always risks accusations that the post is being moved because it has degenerated into a flame war or becuase the moderators want to censor it. It is a fairly unenviable position for the moderators. It is much easier to move posters when the topic starts out as obviously esoteric.

Ian Cooper