On Sat, 26 Jun 1999, Bill Southerly wrote:
> This person quickly develops strong supporters in the group for
> his right to offer these type of questions (e.g., the free speech arguments)
> and logical arguments why they are related to the groups discussion of
> teaching (e.g., these are the type of questions students often ask) and strong
> non-supporters who reject anything the person says as useless or in some
> instances racist, sexist, etc (though in each instance the statements are
> open to interpretation). We then typically start into a discussion of whether
> this person should be able to ask these type of questions. This happens every
> few months and we are in the middle of one now.
Ban discussion of what is appropriate to the list manager only. State
that policy in the Welcome message, and periodically repost that and other
policy statements. Remind people (again in the policy intro) that while
you want open and free discussion, the list itself is not a democracy but
a benevolant dictatorship. If people feel that you are being unfair or
they want a wider discussion, they are free to set up other lists.
-j
--
Jeffrey Goldberg +44 (0)1234 750 111 x 2826
Cranfield Computer Centre FAX 751 814
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://WWW.Cranfield.ac.uk/public/cc/cc047/
Relativism is the triumph of authority over truth, convention over justice.
