I think it's part of what moderating is about. For example, I often read the comments section in articles in the Guardian. One recent comment got deleted, with the following message:
"This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards http://www.theguardian.com/community-standards. Replies may also be deleted." This is very common and I have no objection to something like it being implemented at FFL. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote : And that's not what "moderating" is about. It's for extreme circumstances which are usually rare. You should never give moderation over to a tech illiterate. It just makes them a laughing stock. Perhaps it's time to create an FFL-Ex Yahoo Group. ;-) On 07/07/2015 11:13 AM, salyavin808 wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> mailto:no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : It's very simple, Duv. There are now some community standards to be observed when posting to this group. There is nothing remarkable about that. It is long overdue. Rubbish, MJ got kicked for nothing that hasn't been said a million times before, so what if Buck decides it's suddenly beyond the pale to have an opinion he doesn't like? That's all it is. Sheer opportunism and hide behind the guidelines. We aren't children for god's sake. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> mailto:no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : It's on you RICK ARCHER. You have not even once come here and explained why you are okay with what Doug is doing here. It's as if you said, "Let's fuck up the place and see what comes out of the ashes." Did you say that? We don't know, and that's on you. Why? We deserve YOUR ANSWER. We've supported your ownership here for over a decade. We've always honored your forbearance and wisdom, but now, when we're all adrift, you don't show up. WHAT IN THE FUCKY FUCK FUCK are you thinking, Rick? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <curtisdeltablues@...> mailto:curtisdeltablues@... wrote : Just as Maharishi said, "the movement belongs to those who move" (slave labor of course) FFL belongs to those who post. Today I see two valuable contributors, Michael and Xeno ! have been canned following Barry's "first shoe dropped." I want to weigh in that I oppose the way content is being examined, evaluated, judged here, and believe sincerely that the power to ban posters is in the wrong hands. First of all the Yahoo "guidelines" are just that. They cover Yahoo's back side and are not meant to be Vedic laws to be enforced. Obviously if they cared about these enough to enforce them it would have happened long ago when things were really riled up on FFL during the infamous reign of the 3 Rs. The idea that this place has become much worse is a fabrication. FFL has lightened up considerably in the last few years. There was no problem to be solved that needed this kind of crackdown. And they are too vague to be guidelines, it basically says, do what you want on your sites because defining limits is too hard. They have used airy platitudes and these are not objective rules in any sense of the word. It is a moot point, Yahoo does not care, it is up to us. Concerning Feste's point about Xeno trying to hurt that guy in the real world, I believe this is an important point to consider. This is the only level where I believe banning is appropriate. So I reread the post a few times and noticed that there are no names mentioned. This means that you would have to be a regular reader of this site to even understand what he is referring to. And if someone is that far up FFL's butt, they already know about his activities. I even knew about his trip and I don't give a S. More importantly he did not repeat linking his name to the offense so it could be picked up by search engines as a connections so it was unsearchable. This is important because when people came after me and got canned for it, it was after repeated offenses. One or two would have slipped by the radar but they insisted on making it a big deal through relentless repe! tition. In all the hoopla and over reaction we seem to miss Xeno's point. This behavior is exactly what he nailed it as, hypocrisy. It shows an amazing degree of lack of self awareness not to realize that this moderator is perpetuating the exact thing he fears from the movement: judging adult behavior and free will by subjective standards and then meting out the punishment of exclusion from the group for the contrived "offenses." Xeno was putting his finger in the eye of hypocrisy and did it without using names or jacking up the search engines. It was a noble act IMO and losing him from this forum is a huge content loss for a thoughtful perspective. I would challenge anyone to match me post for post of contributions he has made intellectually to this forum and you can show me equally thoughtful posts from that other guy with his finger on the trigger. Michael is also a loss to the site. Stephen mentioned that he doesn't like posters with an "agenda." The important aspect of agenda is that the motive is a hidden one, not that it expresses a strong personal POV. Michael was transparent about his motives for posting here. He represented a strong POV and I valued it. I wish there was a person who represented the movement's side as passionately. That would make for some great conversations. The only person who used to fill in for that role was N. But he was so far from mainstream movement thinking and English was a second language so he was left only with personal attacks of which I was the target of many for years. I never thought he should be banned for that. I thought the freedom to express himself damned him just fine. FFL is only as good as it's contributor's content. Losing Barry, Xeno and Michael is a loss to the site whether you agree with them or not. If the ban had been for Judy, I could have written everything just the same. Generative people, willing to put time into t! his site and create content makes this a valuable place to read. Many of the people, who are behind this change have been very light on detailed, thoughtful content over the years. Provocative people inspire us to write here. It PROVOKES us. It often takes that kind of provocation to decide to take time from our busy lives to share ideas with a bunch of strangers. Our moderator is reacting as if this is his own intellectual fiefdom and the bannings so far have represented his personal offense at posts that he should have taken care of by offering his own clearly stated opposing opinion on. He cut the conversation short because he has never shown any ability or interest in this area of detailed back and forth discussions here. So he is taking out those who do contribute one by one. I do not share the values represented by the current moderator and believe that this is already having a chilling affect on content here. It is limiting the value of this site as an intellectual resource for me. I am going to send this post in an email to Rick in hopes that he will rescue this valuable resource from the direction it is going. How many contributors have to go before we all realized this is no longer FFL as Rick intended it anymore?