> In the interest of list quality, we have strengthened our stance
> on ad hominem (attacking one's character as opposed to debating one's
> ideas) attacks, with a zero tolerance policy.
I am disappointed that a organization like ExI, which ostensibly values
rational thought, has chosen to follow a zero-intelligence policy on
anything. Human beings have marvellous minds that to date no machinery
has been able to duplicate (despite our best efforts). Why are so many
authorities afraid to use them? Zero-tolerance policies substitute
blind automatic rules for what should be the exercise of human judgment.
We weaken our ability to fight such policies elsewhere when we succumb
to the temptation to eliminate judgment and responsibility ourselves,
just as we complain that politicians and others do.
Authorities should have the courage to take responsibility for their
own subjective judgments and their actions. This is a subjective matter,
and /should/ be a subjective matter. ExI should simply say "If we, as
the owners/administrators of this list, find someone's beheavior to be
inappropriate for any reason based on our own human judgment--which is
far superior to any blindly applied set of rule--we will take action
that we feel justified, and stand behind that action. End of story.
It's your list, your power, your responsibility. I, for one, would be
far more likely to support any action taken if I knew that a human
being took personal responsibility for it than if it were merely the
blind application of some rule. I respect people, not rules.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:25 MDT