On Mon, 17 Feb 1992 09:25:27 ECT Martin Raish <MRAISH@BINGVMB> said: I
>think the reason my list is well focused is more a result of people
>thinking I *might* censor something, and thus not even sending it in the
>first place.
This is, in my opinion, the most dangerous aspect of moderating lists:
self-censorship. The extent to which it takes place depends, of course,
on the moderator, so it may not always be a problem.
About 4 years ago, on an unmoderated technical list, I dared to use the
word "shitty" once. This got me a warning from the list owner within 5
minutes, stating that I should know that "noone likes vulgar language"
(an interesting comment for someone who was working in NYC), and that he
would not put up with it. At this point I have to add that this was not a
normal list, started and driven by the owner; it was one of many open
lists whose technical administration the person in question was in charge
of.
I found that I was unable to mail to the list from that day on, until the
guy moved on to greener pastures. I would start typing something, and
remember that Jerkus would get upset if I used any word that might have
upset my grandmother if she had been in a bad mood. My mind would
immediately drift from the subject matter and devise ways to add
border-line words just to irritate Jerkus, without giving him something
bad enough that he could remove me from the list. I'm not particularly
fond of "dirty words", but I found it extremely upsetting to have some
self-appointed censor attempt to impose his moralistic views on the world
at large. If I had upset subscribers with my language, they were free to
let me know directly.
Anyway the bottom line is that I stopped mailing to any of the lists the
person in question was administrating, unless I had a compelling good
reason to. I refused to self-censor the contents of my messages, I
refused wasting time in endless metaphysical arguments about freedom of
speech and Jerkus's relationship to the list, and decided the best thing
to do was to save myself time and refrain from posting anything.
Eric
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