If you are a moderator, check your privilege.

[FoxFoxFox]

I see more and more threads here being locked without any good reason. Threads are being locked left and right seemingly on whim and without care for the human element. If you are a moderator, check your privilege. Killing a potential conversation and blocking someone's path of self-discovery just because you personally don't want to see the content is tyranny. 

Here are a couple of examples: 

 

As a whole, I notice this community is becoming a little less tolerant. Hopefully this is just a phase. 

 

[Rilles]

inb4 lock

[allislove]

2 minutes ago, Rilles said:

inb4 lock

"In b4 b&" = There is no doubt that someone is about to get the banhammer because of their churlish behavior. (c) Urban dictionary 

[Bill W]

This will be locked up soon so thought I'd get in now.

Got no beef with you and I don't suck up to moderators as I don't care for them either way, they are just as wise and unwise as the rest of the us, but they do have a job to do and I've not seen an interesting thread get locked. All the threads I've seen get locked are required to be locked, with the key thrown away. It's for our own good. This forum has to be above the average forum in terms of quality or what's the point in being here.

I know quality can be subjective, but it doesn't take much to see that virtually all locked threads are not for this place, they are for the 95% of the internet. Standards here are higher and they need to be. 

 

[Bill W]

Moderators are also the teachers to a degree. Leo has said this place isn't just some place with free speech. It's a school here and sometimes we have to be put in the naughty corner. That's why we are here, to better ourselves. 

Edit: I know I said mods are just as wise/unwise as the rest of us, but they still the teachers, in a designated role 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Bill W

[FoxFoxFox]

The fact that you guys are so certain that this thread will be locked because it criticizes the moderation team is indicative of some degree of fear, and fear does not occur without reason. All of you - if you are honest - can find at least one or two examples of where a thread was locked seemingly because the discussion was not agreeable to a moderator. Now I do not believe that this thread will be locked because I don't think either of the moderators here are actively malicious (quite the opposite actually), but this thread is a gentle warning that they should not allow their own prejudices to factor into their decision-making when it comes to interpersonal interactions. A teacher who calls you lazy, or stupid, and then blocks your ability to respond, is never a good teacher.

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by FoxFoxFox

[Joseph Maynor]

There are pros and cons to delegation of power.  This is a very difficult systems issue to face when you're doing Community Building Work as an aspect of Personal/ Interpersonal Development Work.  I've thought about this and tried to look at how to keep the pros and leave behind the cons of the way that this Forum system currently works.  One of the things I want to do in my community is allow moderators to temporarily quarantine content or users (for no more than 24 hours) and to recommend punishments, but all final decisions come only from me.  You wanna apply the Paradox of Individualism And Collectivism in your Community Building Work.  Leadership needs to be located at a point.  Delegating leadership can be a bad input to a system.  These are really tricky issues in Interpersonal Development Work.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Joseph Maynor

[Bill W]

2 minutes ago, FoxFoxFox said:

A teacher who calls you lazy, or stupid is never a good teacher.

I'm not saying it's a great tactic to do that and I might not like it done to me but can you honestly say that? This sentence is an example of concrete thinking. I'm here to break free from my concrete thinking and stay more in "not knowing mind". I doubt you really think a teacher can NEVER be a good teacher if he says a certain thing? 

You say that it will be locked out of fear. We all suffer from fear, all of us, every single one I reckon, but I doubt very much fear is a factor in thread locking. This is an assumption on your part. You probably have more fear about this thread than the mods! If you are honest? I'm not fighting with you. You obviously feel strongly that things are being unduly censored. 

[Joseph Maynor]

This is a video worth watching if you're interested in Community Building Work and leadership in a Community.

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Joseph Maynor

[FoxFoxFox]

@Joseph Maynor

A wiser man than me once said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. These are not simple words, yet they are applicable to any situation no matter how mundane or extreme. Of course, I'm not saying the moderators here a corrupt by any sense of the word, I'm just saying that when you have the power to shut someone up with the click of a button, it's easy to find ways to justify your abuse of power. You might say that this is not a big deal, but you have to understand that the topics being discussed here are potentially dangerous, and they might be coming from less-than-stable minds. Some people here might be looking at this forum as an avenue to fight against the rejection they feel when they try to discuss topics like this in other places. Being rejected and blocked without any good reason, and being called names for asking questions is simply unacceptable behavior.

@Bill W

We have been give reason, and logic, and a conscience. What good is human life if we don't apply these faculties at all times? 

[Bill W]

23 minutes ago, FoxFoxFox said:

We have been give reason, and logic, and a conscience. What good is human life if we don't apply these faculties at all times? 

We do apply these faculties all the time, for better or worse.

The person who starts the thread uses reason, logic, and conscience and so does the mod or Leo who then locks it.

When there is a clash, the Mods/Leo reserve the right to lock up. Our job is to start debate, share stuff and their job is all of that plus the monitoring. Anyway, the person can actually start another thread but try to fit it more in line with what is expected. 

[Joseph Maynor]

35 minutes ago, FoxFoxFox said:

@Joseph Maynor

A wiser man than me once said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. These are not simple words, yet they are applicable to any situation no matter how mundane or extreme. Of course, I'm not saying the moderators here a corrupt by any sense of the word, I'm just saying that when you have the power to shut someone up with the click of a button, it's easy to find ways to justify your abuse of power. You might say that this is not a big deal, but you have to understand that the topics being discussed here are potentially dangerous, and they might be coming from less-than-stable minds. Some people here might be looking at this forum as an avenue to fight against the rejection they feel when they try to discuss topics like this in other places. Being rejected and blocked without any good reason, and being called names for asking questions is simply unacceptable behavior.

This is why the leader of any Community should have high moral character.  And this is within your control whether you wanna develop high moral character.  Plato's concept of the Philosopher King gets at this.  Not enough individualism and the system breaks down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher_king

Edited June 17, 2019 by Joseph Maynor

[FoxFoxFox]

@Bill W Well see what your own conscience tells you and act accordingly. I'm only doing the same. The expectation should not be to have people's opinions fit our ideal. That is the reason blocking and censorship happens to begin with. 

[FoxFoxFox]

@Joseph Maynor Yes.

[ajasatya]

As a moderator, I am here to serve the community. I lock threads that satisfy one of the following items:

• The subject of the thread has a reputation of causing inflammatory wars;
• The subject of the thread has a reputation of offering little to zero learning experiences to the forum users;
• The OP has no genuine interest in learning and just wants to rant instead of actually facing his/her difficulties;
• The initial subject has lost its trail (very common) and the thread becomes dead in terms of learning material;
• The users don't do anything else except for trying to prove their own ideas right;
• The thread does more harm than good to the OP or to the community in general;
• The thread conflicts with the forum guidelines.

If you notice any abusive behavior from me, make sure to hit the report button and the other mods will be aware of my actions.

Truly yours,

[Leo Gura]

Some of those locks were made by me.

And so was this one.

I am taking action to clean up this forum. People are being banned and low quality threads are being locked.

[outlandish]

Nicely said @ajasatya - I feel he speaks for me here, if not the rest of the mods as well.

If you feel a thread has been unjustly locked, or a mod has made a bad call, feel free to report it. We are all human and are going to make mistakes. There's lot of grey area that we operate within.

This isn't 4chan, we're tying to keep discussion on a bit of a higher level around here.