Important Threads/Info & Poor Behavior
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:41 pm
Well a new development just revealed a problem I had never seriously thought of… aspects of it are discussed in many forum threads and the Google video Surviving Poisonous People…
One of the main resource linking threads on the MOUL forum was edited out by the creator. This is a thread that attempted to collect links to threads that answer many of the community’s FAQ’s. Essentially removing what the author thought was of great value to the community. While several negative adjectives come to mind to describe the behavior and person the actual problem I see is how the community decides to treat those involved, how moderators handle it and why.
I am deliberately omitting links to the MOUL discussion.
Personally, for a commercial site such as MOUL, I would have the “I’m taking my ball and leaving’ post removed. On the other hand, leaving it lets people decide about those involved.
Restoring a removed post from a backup raises ethical questions. Technically, once the information is published on a forum, it generally becomes public domain. I don’t recall a copyright disclaimer on the MOUL site or on many forums for that matter. I mean this in regard to the content. The site designs, brand names, other trademarks, etc. are all copyrighted. But a contributor’s original material is in a grey area. Without the presence of a clear statement in the forum rules that all material added becomes the property of the forum owner, I can’t see using a removed/restored post. Even then I doubt it would be a choice popular with the community.
Another aspect is whether one discusses the poor behavior or lets it pass. We generally consider challenges to ideas acceptable and often desirable. Debate is not bashing. Comments on personality or implying the idea is of a weak mind are bashing. Being questioned on ones thinking seems like a purposeful way to either understand or pull another into thinking out their position. In general I see the questioning as educational even if people can misuse it. So, what type of behavior do we want to encourage or discourage? And how do we go about it?
From psychology we know that bad behavior has to be challenged or it continues and evolves. Whether training animals or kids (I hear there is a difference) negative behavior has to be corrected. So, allowing such behavior to continue on a forum tends to lead to escalation of bad behavior. How does a moderator make corrective posts?
Another problem is how does one protect valuable information? The poster in this case was generally considered trustworthy… What happens when such a person proves to be … my thesaurus is not helping me be PC here … whatever and starts removing what we consider of value to the community?
One of the main resource linking threads on the MOUL forum was edited out by the creator. This is a thread that attempted to collect links to threads that answer many of the community’s FAQ’s. Essentially removing what the author thought was of great value to the community. While several negative adjectives come to mind to describe the behavior and person the actual problem I see is how the community decides to treat those involved, how moderators handle it and why.
I am deliberately omitting links to the MOUL discussion.
Personally, for a commercial site such as MOUL, I would have the “I’m taking my ball and leaving’ post removed. On the other hand, leaving it lets people decide about those involved.
Restoring a removed post from a backup raises ethical questions. Technically, once the information is published on a forum, it generally becomes public domain. I don’t recall a copyright disclaimer on the MOUL site or on many forums for that matter. I mean this in regard to the content. The site designs, brand names, other trademarks, etc. are all copyrighted. But a contributor’s original material is in a grey area. Without the presence of a clear statement in the forum rules that all material added becomes the property of the forum owner, I can’t see using a removed/restored post. Even then I doubt it would be a choice popular with the community.
Another aspect is whether one discusses the poor behavior or lets it pass. We generally consider challenges to ideas acceptable and often desirable. Debate is not bashing. Comments on personality or implying the idea is of a weak mind are bashing. Being questioned on ones thinking seems like a purposeful way to either understand or pull another into thinking out their position. In general I see the questioning as educational even if people can misuse it. So, what type of behavior do we want to encourage or discourage? And how do we go about it?
From psychology we know that bad behavior has to be challenged or it continues and evolves. Whether training animals or kids (I hear there is a difference) negative behavior has to be corrected. So, allowing such behavior to continue on a forum tends to lead to escalation of bad behavior. How does a moderator make corrective posts?
Another problem is how does one protect valuable information? The poster in this case was generally considered trustworthy… What happens when such a person proves to be … my thesaurus is not helping me be PC here … whatever and starts removing what we consider of value to the community?