The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72600 Message #1252145
Posted By: GUEST,Treehouse
20-Aug-04 - 11:58 AM
Thread Name: BS: What to do about obnoxious MC members?
Subject: RE: BS: What to do about obnoxious MC members?
I don't know about your world Little Hawk, but the Mudcat Cafe this summer doesn't even remotely reflect it.
Georgiansilver, I live in an urban neighborhood in the US. Yes, we have the equivalent of the laddie/lager louts and lasses behavior in the US, it is known by many names. Beer boys. Frat boys. Girls gone wild. Those are all labels put upon the worst aspects of anti-social behavior while no one in authority is looking.
That is what this is really about. People from both sides of the Atlantic are behaving badly in the Mudcat Cafe because there is no authority figure here to stop them from doing it. That is why they only inhabit unmoderated internet chat forums. They get thrown out of the moderated forums for their bad behavior. For good reason.
Which is why a good number of old timers like Little Hawk keep claiming that moderation is the equivalent of censorship. It isn't. Forum moderation is where a group of people agree to have discussions according to a previously agreed to set of rules, and those who refuse to abide by those rules are removed. It isn't censorship, it is consensus building.
When there is so little to celebrate or embrace in the Mudcat Cafe, why should I try and paint phoney smiley faces on a bad situation, just to "be positive". That is a manipulative guilt trip from the offending group. This isn't about being positive or negative. It is about an open airing of long held grievances. Only when an honest airing of grievances takes place, can solutions be found.
Therein lies the difference.