On 7/22/08, Ken Arromdee <arromdee(a)rahul.net> wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008, Alec Conroy wrote:
Is it possible a desysopping could be as simple
as "We think you could
be more useful to the team as an editor than an administrator?"
Whatever you call it doesn't change what it is; they had permission before,
and now don't.
Taking away privileges of someone because they "participated in conflict"
when their participation consists of being attacked or of reporting attacks
is wrong.
Well, many users tend to think the factionalism problem is something
above and beyond mere victimhood. If you deny that premise-- if you
look at the situation and see straightforward "abusers are abusing the
abused", then of course you have a simple straightforward course of
action-- ban the evildoers. In such a case your only problem is how
to convince everyone else.
If the problem is more complicated than this, however, then the
solution is far less straighforward. When starting this thread,
George Herbert made a convincing case that there is a trend of
dangerous factionalism. if that's the case, how would we go about
mending the wounds?
I don't know.
Taking the problem seriously. That'd be a start.
Not procrastinating and hoping that, left alone, the problem will just go away.
Maybe getting the most-affected people off the front lines, into
places where aren't responsible for inter-user conflict, but while
still assuming good faith on their part.
And telling them that it's for their benefit is a
transparent lie.
Mostly, I'd say it's for the benefit of the project. But ideally it
would be for the benefit of both.
If I was a janitor and was fired because I reported
being harassed by
another janitor, and policy was to avoid complaints by firing all people
involved in the complaint, I'd think that was wrong.
Granted. But I think a better metaphor would be "in addition to
sincerely pursuing your each and every one of your harassent claims,
we also think it would be best for all involved if you were
transferred from janitorial services to A/V Services. It's a less
hostile work environment and the pay is exactly the same. :)
Alec