Re:the life of a list moderators

John writes: "The strategies, dilemmas, and lifestyle of being a mailing list or forum moderator is fascinating. Is there anyone out there who moderates a list or forum and would like to comment on that? "Freedom of speech", for example, is one dilemma that often comes up. "

I moderate the Ceremonial Magick area in AOL's "Spirituality" area... The people who use the area are fiercely independent folks who use "Question Authority" as a basic tenet of all behavior. When I have to remove posts for use of vulgarity or for flaming (these are AOL's rules), I occasionally get criticized for the action. If that's the case, I post the following:

Game Rules vs. Censorship

When we all signed on to AOL for the first time, we all agreed to the Terms of Service rules (whether we actually read the fine print or not -- and there was A LOT of fine print involved, so I suspect that the vast majority of AOL members did not read it at all). AOL is a private corporation that owns the machines that all this stuff runs on. As such, they have the right to dictate what can and cannot be done on these boards -- they own them -- this
is not a public place where Constitutional free speech guarantees come into play.

Now, this isn't censorship, as all subjects are fair game, if expressed in the proper manner. It is, rather, a set of game rules. When you play chess, do you get upset because you can't (within the rules) tip the board over if you are frustrated? As soon as you do tip the board over, it's not chess anymore. Complaining that you are limited by this reveals only your own self-imposed limitations. Anyone with a smidgeon of creativity should be able to
play the game... Those with more creativity will play it well!

The same applies to the rules of society at large (even though we rarely have the opportunity to choose these as we do an ISP). You may feel justified in stealing a car, but if you do, landing your butt in jail will severly limit your ability to continue working your Will in the world. So instead, you can figure out how to get a car using legal means. Either way you get the car, but the second option allows you to actually drive it.

I once heard Robert Anton Wilson talking about the "evolutionary value of stupidity" -- this was in reference to the laws prohibiting experimentation with psychedelic drugs, the "stupidity" being on the part of the lawmakers. The evolutionary value was that the absurd laws (game rules) forced those with a real interest in consciousness exploration to find other means. In Wilson's context that included brain machines, magick, NLP, and so forth, which
he contended were all advanced by the laws -- Those humans who were smart found ways to evolve around and past the stupidity.

Your challenge here is the same as it has always been -- play well!

Phil
http://members.aol.com/rbcfpstu

Replies:

moderators and free speech, by John Suler, 5/11/99 Re:moderators and free speech, by Phil F., 5/11/99

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