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Currently I do not control much in the way of webspace. I used to, certainly. I was moderator for numerous boards, blogger extraordinaire and managed more discussion forums and general bulletin boards than I can count - certainly unusual for someone with my rather low level of my technical skills.
Largely it has been because I have always had something to say. Always. I am a gobby git at heart and it's rare I see a soap box I am not willing to merrily perch on top of.
Sadly most of these places I ran, policed, moderated, edited, controlled etc became too much time and effort for me and I generally either passed over the reigns or, in most cases, simply left altogether. I still feel some guilt about that. I feel there were some very useful, very productive and generally very good places fell apart or drifted away because of my disinterest or lack of time. It makes me wonder sometimes if I am becoming the jaded, disinterested, apathetic norm I so despised and spoke out against. Is loss of energy and idealism - and righteous fire - an inevitable sign of getting older? Rather depressing really, makes me think there's not much hope for the world if those eternally destined to control it will always be the ones less inclined to care about it.
But I digress. As I said, I used to manage many webspaces and in them all, unless policy forced my hand otherwise, I worked on a vague set of principles. I've never really articulated them here because any arguments in my journal(s) have been aimed at me (and therefore, any use of moderation power or influence would be deeply inappropriate, in my eyes) and generally because this just hasn't been a space of intense debate. However, I will lay out my points here:
1) To begin with, I have always used minimal intervention - because I'm lazy and because people place down words and they are there for them to live with. I will not aid people hiding their unfortunate episodes - nor will i hide my own. I do not delete or edit my own comments, posts etc (except for spelling mistakes, duplicates etc)
2) If you have an argument, issue or plain old rant at me I will NEVER censor, mask or edit your words (well, hardly ever - I don't believe in absolutes. If you post my real name and address, for example, I'm deleting that crap). No matter how uncivil, insulting or even grossly offensive and even prejudiced. I know this seems strange to people who consider their journals their safe space as to why I would never think of censoring attacks against me - it's because it IS my space (barring LJ's random policy quirks) so it is inherently safe. Yes words can and do indeed hurt me, but the fact I hold all the sticks and stones here makes me confident enough to let anyone else use all the words they need to. In other words (and quite illogically) the fact I CAN censor makes me feel like I never HAVE to censor.
3) If you have an issue, argument or incandescent rage against someone who is not a browser of this journal by all means vent spleen, rant and rave away. It is unlikely in the extreme that I would censor such (I won't say never - I'm not much of a believer in absolutes - but rarely). I likes me a good rant.
4) If there is a debate between 2+ people in my webspace I will usually not involve myself. Because this is my webspace and I have the power here. There is nothing more stifling to a debate than someone with the hammers sitting in - especially if they seem to take sides. I know this from endless lunch break debates ended when one of the Senior Partners stick their oar in. "Well I think this - you disagree?" "You're still my boss?" "yes" "then no, no I don't. Go away now." To say nothing of rather a lot of wasted time on debate forums. I'm much more comfortable heatedly debating away in someone ELSE'S space than my own
5) If I do have a view on the discussion in question I will probably post a whole new post entirely. It's what I do. Occasionally I'll comment on the first comment of a thread, but usually a new post. It lets me express my opinion on a topic without stifling, taking sides or unleashing the flying monkeys
6) This all being said - please be as civil as possible. Most of the people who roam around these parts are at least fairly reasonable most of the time - even the ones I disagree with. I know that we all have issues close to our heart that cause us to get hurt, be furious and generally want to express ourselved in the most vehement terms and I know even the most well intentioned of us will stamp all over someone's painful areas sometimes - so a quickie on civility:
a) focus on the ISSUE more than the person
b) attacking or furious language will rarely do anything but cause a reciprocation of same. Then I get an inbox full (I do have comment notifications on). I say again, most of the folks here are good folks even in their clueless moments. They can get there with some prodding. But many of the people here are also (sorry folks) largely opinionated, sassy, brash, strong, mouthy, passionate beings who won't respond well at all to bludgeons. A lot of the rest are quite shy and retiring who will just retreat and begone. Neither of which is a result. Now, if something that happens here causes you to spit bile and hellfire elsehwere then I will think not an inch the less of you. I do the same myself.
c) If you DO hurt someone - whether it by intent or thoughtlesness then please ACKNOWLEDGE that (don't ignore or brush it off). Even if you don't agree with them or what they're expressing, please acknowledge the hurt. It's a good step and is a foundation for civility
d) This is the net and the written word. It can be misinterpretted. People make posts at 4:00am after too many tequilas. Some of the posts are just going to be plain BAD. Ill thought out, ill considered, ill conceived. It happens. When it does then the bad poster would do a good job of retracting, apologising and clarifying while the readers would be well served by giving a second chance.
7) My first point of intervention is always private - through contacting the interventionee privately. I do NOT agree that one should support one's friends no matter what and I do believe in telling your friends when their arse is showing - however I will usually do so discretely (at least at first. Of course if I tell them their arse is showing and they STILL keep jiggling their arsecrack around then I'm just going to scream "for gods' sake, put some bloody trousers on!")
You know there were other points as well but, for the life of me I can't remember them. I'm also leery because I have fell afoul ofone two three many too many vodkas and cokes and lager and limes before typing this and it's 1:15am so I'm not sure if I may be posting a Bad Post of my own nor am I willing to trust my judgement on details
Edited for inevitable typos
Largely it has been because I have always had something to say. Always. I am a gobby git at heart and it's rare I see a soap box I am not willing to merrily perch on top of.
Sadly most of these places I ran, policed, moderated, edited, controlled etc became too much time and effort for me and I generally either passed over the reigns or, in most cases, simply left altogether. I still feel some guilt about that. I feel there were some very useful, very productive and generally very good places fell apart or drifted away because of my disinterest or lack of time. It makes me wonder sometimes if I am becoming the jaded, disinterested, apathetic norm I so despised and spoke out against. Is loss of energy and idealism - and righteous fire - an inevitable sign of getting older? Rather depressing really, makes me think there's not much hope for the world if those eternally destined to control it will always be the ones less inclined to care about it.
But I digress. As I said, I used to manage many webspaces and in them all, unless policy forced my hand otherwise, I worked on a vague set of principles. I've never really articulated them here because any arguments in my journal(s) have been aimed at me (and therefore, any use of moderation power or influence would be deeply inappropriate, in my eyes) and generally because this just hasn't been a space of intense debate. However, I will lay out my points here:
1) To begin with, I have always used minimal intervention - because I'm lazy and because people place down words and they are there for them to live with. I will not aid people hiding their unfortunate episodes - nor will i hide my own. I do not delete or edit my own comments, posts etc (except for spelling mistakes, duplicates etc)
2) If you have an argument, issue or plain old rant at me I will NEVER censor, mask or edit your words (well, hardly ever - I don't believe in absolutes. If you post my real name and address, for example, I'm deleting that crap). No matter how uncivil, insulting or even grossly offensive and even prejudiced. I know this seems strange to people who consider their journals their safe space as to why I would never think of censoring attacks against me - it's because it IS my space (barring LJ's random policy quirks) so it is inherently safe. Yes words can and do indeed hurt me, but the fact I hold all the sticks and stones here makes me confident enough to let anyone else use all the words they need to. In other words (and quite illogically) the fact I CAN censor makes me feel like I never HAVE to censor.
3) If you have an issue, argument or incandescent rage against someone who is not a browser of this journal by all means vent spleen, rant and rave away. It is unlikely in the extreme that I would censor such (I won't say never - I'm not much of a believer in absolutes - but rarely). I likes me a good rant.
4) If there is a debate between 2+ people in my webspace I will usually not involve myself. Because this is my webspace and I have the power here. There is nothing more stifling to a debate than someone with the hammers sitting in - especially if they seem to take sides. I know this from endless lunch break debates ended when one of the Senior Partners stick their oar in. "Well I think this - you disagree?" "You're still my boss?" "yes" "then no, no I don't. Go away now." To say nothing of rather a lot of wasted time on debate forums. I'm much more comfortable heatedly debating away in someone ELSE'S space than my own
5) If I do have a view on the discussion in question I will probably post a whole new post entirely. It's what I do. Occasionally I'll comment on the first comment of a thread, but usually a new post. It lets me express my opinion on a topic without stifling, taking sides or unleashing the flying monkeys
6) This all being said - please be as civil as possible. Most of the people who roam around these parts are at least fairly reasonable most of the time - even the ones I disagree with. I know that we all have issues close to our heart that cause us to get hurt, be furious and generally want to express ourselved in the most vehement terms and I know even the most well intentioned of us will stamp all over someone's painful areas sometimes - so a quickie on civility:
a) focus on the ISSUE more than the person
b) attacking or furious language will rarely do anything but cause a reciprocation of same. Then I get an inbox full (I do have comment notifications on). I say again, most of the folks here are good folks even in their clueless moments. They can get there with some prodding. But many of the people here are also (sorry folks) largely opinionated, sassy, brash, strong, mouthy, passionate beings who won't respond well at all to bludgeons. A lot of the rest are quite shy and retiring who will just retreat and begone. Neither of which is a result. Now, if something that happens here causes you to spit bile and hellfire elsehwere then I will think not an inch the less of you. I do the same myself.
c) If you DO hurt someone - whether it by intent or thoughtlesness then please ACKNOWLEDGE that (don't ignore or brush it off). Even if you don't agree with them or what they're expressing, please acknowledge the hurt. It's a good step and is a foundation for civility
d) This is the net and the written word. It can be misinterpretted. People make posts at 4:00am after too many tequilas. Some of the posts are just going to be plain BAD. Ill thought out, ill considered, ill conceived. It happens. When it does then the bad poster would do a good job of retracting, apologising and clarifying while the readers would be well served by giving a second chance.
7) My first point of intervention is always private - through contacting the interventionee privately. I do NOT agree that one should support one's friends no matter what and I do believe in telling your friends when their arse is showing - however I will usually do so discretely (at least at first. Of course if I tell them their arse is showing and they STILL keep jiggling their arsecrack around then I'm just going to scream "for gods' sake, put some bloody trousers on!")
You know there were other points as well but, for the life of me I can't remember them. I'm also leery because I have fell afoul of
Edited for inevitable typos