Goonhub
04-16-2020, 02:47 PM
Let me tell you exactly how that would go down, because it's how it's gone down in basically every chat group i've seen where such a rule has been attempted.
persons 1-5: having a perfectly fine conversation about a hot social issue topic, not getting nasty, not necessarily all agreeing with each other, but keeping it reasonable
person 6: hey that breaks the 'don't talk about hot societal issues' rule, can it
timeline a: persons 1-5 stop. there is no conversation. silence reigns for a while. this isn't better
timeline b: persons 1-5 don't see it or ignore it, so person 6 brings in an admin, who now gets to decide between preserving the LETTER of the rule by forcing a conversation that wasn't causing trouble to cease, or preserve the SPIRIT of the rule by telling person 6 that there's nothing there worth silencing. this isn't better
i *promise* you that trying to ban a subject that deeply effects people's lives will not end well. at best, because it's so ill-defined by necessity, it'll have a chilling effect on all conversation because 'what the fuck is politics, is the latest episode of a popular tv show a hot societal issue, what's okay, nobody knows'. at worst, it'll be used as a bludgeon by some to try and shut up people they do not like - 'they are talking about the city they live in and the city they happen to live in is the capital city of their state, POLITIIIICS', or a different gaggle of assholes will play 'i'm not touching you' with it for weeks while the admin team argues for days about whether or not this or that is 'political' because even though they didn't come out and say anything about a given candidate, they're using all the talking points, their avatar is an obvious reference, zub zub zub.
it's a godfucked mess no matter how you slice it. intentional communities where the community managers / moderators / what have you are actual paid employees and trained by professionals struggle with it, we're a group of volunteers. we don't have a hope in hell of threading the needle and doing this correctly, and we're basically guaranteed to make it infinitely worse if we try.
i really do think the smartest course of action is to come down on people being shitasses, whether they're being shitasses about politics or the relative importance of the oboe in an orchestra. 'no shitasses' is infinitely easier to follow and administrate than 'no politics', i promise you that
persons 1-5: having a perfectly fine conversation about a hot social issue topic, not getting nasty, not necessarily all agreeing with each other, but keeping it reasonable
person 6: hey that breaks the 'don't talk about hot societal issues' rule, can it
timeline a: persons 1-5 stop. there is no conversation. silence reigns for a while. this isn't better
timeline b: persons 1-5 don't see it or ignore it, so person 6 brings in an admin, who now gets to decide between preserving the LETTER of the rule by forcing a conversation that wasn't causing trouble to cease, or preserve the SPIRIT of the rule by telling person 6 that there's nothing there worth silencing. this isn't better
i *promise* you that trying to ban a subject that deeply effects people's lives will not end well. at best, because it's so ill-defined by necessity, it'll have a chilling effect on all conversation because 'what the fuck is politics, is the latest episode of a popular tv show a hot societal issue, what's okay, nobody knows'. at worst, it'll be used as a bludgeon by some to try and shut up people they do not like - 'they are talking about the city they live in and the city they happen to live in is the capital city of their state, POLITIIIICS', or a different gaggle of assholes will play 'i'm not touching you' with it for weeks while the admin team argues for days about whether or not this or that is 'political' because even though they didn't come out and say anything about a given candidate, they're using all the talking points, their avatar is an obvious reference, zub zub zub.
it's a godfucked mess no matter how you slice it. intentional communities where the community managers / moderators / what have you are actual paid employees and trained by professionals struggle with it, we're a group of volunteers. we don't have a hope in hell of threading the needle and doing this correctly, and we're basically guaranteed to make it infinitely worse if we try.
i really do think the smartest course of action is to come down on people being shitasses, whether they're being shitasses about politics or the relative importance of the oboe in an orchestra. 'no shitasses' is infinitely easier to follow and administrate than 'no politics', i promise you that