I'm a big believer in vigorous discussion, and I don't think any of our exchanges recently reached the level of flame war.In fact, they were cordial and forthright. But I can see how some folks get upset when the talk gets a little hot & heavy. It's perplexing. Rattling around in the back of my mind is a rule from some Utopian novel: a society agreed to rules something like, "Try not to give offense, and don't take offense too easily." We're our own little society where all are welcome to comment. I always think of our often-fascinating chats as if we were sitting around a breakfast table and engaging in friendly talk and debate. So rather than censer, I would urge our leaders to quietly talk into the ear of anyone who's getting a little out of control -- just send a private email saying, hey, maybe it's time to cool it. Just my 1/2 cents' worth. jb --- On Wed, 12/9/09, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote: From: Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] How to handle "wars" on UA To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 9:10 PM On 09 Dec 2009, at 16:24, David Rankin wrote:
Chuck,
This discussion had nothing to do with what you perceive as "fact".
Actually Chuck has left the list (another victim of our recent climate change flame war). He certainly was not the first which has me wondering about ways to keep such things from happening in future. One option would be to have the system set that if a certain numbers of folks post, either to the list or to the administrators, that a discussion has gone on too long the administrators would cut off the discussion. The liberal side of me sees that as a form of censorship. During the recent war I found myself using the "delete" key very liberally. But, then again, if a discussion becomes so heated and drawn out that it drives folks away, maybe such an option should be pursued. You opinions (on this and other way of handling wars) would be much appreciated. patrick co-admin _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com