Rodney's scrubbed email about fora

Daniel van Eijmeren dve at kabelfoon.nl
Sun Jul 30 17:31:13 CEST 2006


> Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:55:31 +0200
> From: "Ole Damgaard" <ole at disneycomics.dk>

<Send your messages as plain text instead of html, and there will be no 
scrubbing.>
Emails with HTML exist for years and years already, so I think it's strange 
that the DCML-software expects users to turn off such an often used option. 
I see that as a lack of technical support. Even more because people on DCML 
have to guess for themselves what's going on, without any help from the 
maintainer or the moderator. If your message gets scrubbed, well, who cares?
That's an example of what I think is going wrong here on DCML. There's no 
communication about the current status and the future. To me it looks like 
we're running on old software that severely needs an update. But will such 
an update ever come?

<When you do some work or run a service without getting paid for it, then it 
*is* by definition a hobby.>
Okay, but when one starts an hobby that brings people together in a 
community, there should be responsibitity for it. Morally speaking, at 
least. Otherwise any fool can start a forum and leave it deserted after a 
while.
Nowadays on internet, amateur fora are popping up like mushrooms. I always 
felt that DCML had the intention to be a steady, reliable forum. But in 
recent years, it just looks like the place is just waiting to be switched 
off by lack of interest. Looking at the website of DCML, with dead links, 
I'm not surprised at all that people are leaving DCML.
http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/index.html

<Whoever owns/administrates a mailing list, has the right to moderate it. If 
you for instance created a mailing list, you could moderate that too. 
Doesn't that sound fair to you?>
>From what I've understood, there are laws and rules for raising a community. 
Human rights, for example. Or would the maintainer be allowed to block 
people who wear glasses, for example?

There's a difference between moderation and censoring. And there needs to be 
rules and clarity about what to expect from it. Otherwise there might be 
discrimination in what gets through and what gets blocked. As the blocking 
happens in private mail, I'm curious for outtakes and the explanations for 
blocking them. I want to know what the moderation means for the liberty of 
speech.

That's one of my reasons to raise up a topic at a free independent place. If 
people have complaints about blocked emails, they will have a place to 
discuss them. Anonymously, if preferred. I think such a independent place is 
important for any community.

Disney Comics Mailing List (DCML)
http://discussion.mcduck.nl/viewtopic.php?id=35

Daniël 




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