The two poignant issues hotly debated on this board involve both banning posters who transgress established guidelines and the issue of using moderators to delete offensive posts.
There have been several reasonable points made on both sides of these issues and I think it fair to say that unless we come up with some creative thinking to offer some new alternatives that no matter what Simon does he is going to have some people who are either happy or unhappy with the course of action he chooses. Indeed, the present controversies are fast becoming volatile emotional issues.
Instead of rehashing the points made by each side and judging their merits, I present here a potential compromise for solutions to both the problem of moderating posts and dealing with the banning issue.
THE FREE SPEECH ISSUE
I fully understand that many people on this board are either offended by profanity or dislike reading it. Suggestions have been made that more creative writing or alternative methods can be used to express your feelings, but we have the technology here to allow a way to have let both sides have their cake and eat it too. What is the technology? It is the creative use of text coloring and sizing by moderators.
EXAMPLE 1
For the point of demonstration, the following paragraph taken from an actual post on JWD will be used as an example of how moderators can remove offensive material from posts without really removing it.
<snip> original text:
It would be one thing if the potty-mouthed performers were just the men. Everyone knows men, especially creative types like actors, can be a little rough around the edges. But, sadly, most of the cussing comes from the ladies. From the moment the delivery man unzips his fly to the moment he finishes all over her face, every word out of these ladies' mouths is "F this" and "F that." Can't I make it through a single triple-penetration scene without hearing things like, "F my tight C-word with your huge blankety-blank, you big, black you-know-what"?
<snip> modified text
It would be one thing if the potty-mouthed performers were just the men. Everyone knows men, especially creative types like actors, can be a little rough around the edges. But, sadly, most of the cussing comes from the ladies. From the moment the delivery man unzips his fly to the moment he finishes all over her face, every word out of these ladies' mouths is "F this" and "F that." Can't I make it through a single triple-penetration scene without hearing things like, "F my tight C-word with your huge blankety-blank, you big, black you-know-what"?
ANALYSIS
As you can observe the potentially offending material (used only as an example here, not that the wording was that offensive) was made difficult but not impossible to read. If the reader of such a thread came across such an altered post, it would be possible for he or she to carefully examine and read the original wording. The casual reader would be spared the exposure to offensive wording and could choose to simply ignore further investigation but would still understand the authors intent.
The only modifications of the board software needed to accomplish this are putting in the option for such a light font coloring and for the moderators to lock the editing on that particular posting if they had reason to change the visibility for violation of forum policies.
If wording used by the author was redundantly aimed at causing harm to others or grossly offensive to all, the entire offensive section could simply be deleted.
BANNING OF POSTERS
Using the same principle of posting visibility, Simon may want to consider adding another management tool outside of warning and banning posters for rule violations. For example, a visibility penalty could be levied against a transgressor who has ignored a warning or who has made an obvious intent to violate the community respect by posting offensive material aimed at upsetting people. The fine could be that the next 50 posts by this individual would be in tiny type or in a color more difficult to read than normal text but not as difficult to see as offensive text.
EXAMPLE 2
<snip> original text
Hey Ladies, My heart don't pump blood. It pump love!! Call me at 1-(607)-537-1914.Sweet Cat Fred Hall
<snip> modified text
Hey Ladies, My heart don't pump blood. It pump love!! Call me at 1-(607)-537-1914Sweet Cat Fred Hall
ANALYSIS
Both the sizing and coloring of text can be used as an incentive to encourage respect for community norms. It is not the final word in making everyone play by the rules but until such time that the diversity of people at this site accept the principle of play nice it is an interim strategy to make this site enjoyable by the majority of readers.
Kind Regards,
Skipper
Edited by - mindchild on 17 August 2002 13:13:3