I have been quite an inactive member of the GX forum for some time now. It is only recently that I ventured out to read some of the posts on the "Goanet Moderation" issue out there. While I can understand Fred being upset over all this, considering that he has been in the line of fire for some time now, I am a bit disappointed with his emotional response, rather than an objective or an impassioned analysis and/ or rejoinder.
Fred probably got carried away by the hysteria that was generated on Goanet, and misunderstood and misinterpreted Cecil's post and his true intentions. This is the general impression I got, after reading Fred's response. Fred also erred when he tried to draw a parallel between Cecil's post on this issue, and his earlier columns on Remo. While in the latter case, Cecil used humour to hit Remo hard and he was quite clear and forthright about it, an elementary reading and understanding of the present post would quite clearly show that Cecil made a few tongue-in-cheek statements without any deliberate or malicious intent to harm Fred's reputation and feelings. In fact, Fred forgets that there are a lot of positive statements about him in that post as well. Sometimes, we need to give others the benefit of doubt. Sometimes, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of others, in order to understand others. Fred must realise that this is one of those times. After reading Fred's response, I have now gone back and re-read all the posts on the said issue. I observe that barring an odd poster or two who are overtly offensive probably because they have their own axes to grind, none of the others have really questioned Fred's sincerity, integrity or honesty as a journalist, or as a person. Their basic problem is limited to the issue of Moderation on Goanet, something that has consistently been ignored by him and other Moderators. My general observation is that when issues like these are left unaddressed or ignored, they pile up to haunt you, trouble you and provoke you. This is what we are seeing now on Goanet. To be fair to Fred, I am highly disappointed with the personalized manner in which this discussion has charted its course on the GX forum. Most of the aggrieved members, by trying to individually blame Fred, are missing the wood for the trees. The fact remains that whichever Moderator is responsible for the post rejections, there is something that is called collective responsibility. Every moderator is thus collectively responsible for the acts of any individual moderator and Bosco or Herman or Viviana would be as liable for the post rejections as Fred would be, whether Fred is responsible for the post rejections or not. Therefore, the aggrieved members should have directed their grievances to the Goanet Admin Team in general, instead of targeting Fred on the basis of assumptions and presumptions. Mervyn is spot on when he says that moderating a forum like this is such a thankless job. It is unfortunate that this simple issue is creating so much bitterness within one another. A joint unified collective response by the Admin Team on this issue would do everyone a whole of good. Cheers Sandeep