Something I've been pondering re: community modding
Kick them to the door. Hard. Tell people about them. Document what they do. Don't let them participate in your community, your mailing list, your journal. Yes -- even if they haven't done anything problematic in your space yet. Because they will. They will use fear and intimidation; they will use sockpuppets; they will use lies. They will push good people until the good people are the ones who step over the lines, in rage and frustration, and then play innocent.
- jacquez
This is something I've really been pondering, well, today, although it's related to something I've been pondering for a while.
During the whole LJ elections thing, I did a fair amount of pre-emptive banning in this LJ. Not that any of the people were particularly likely to come here, but the possibility was not zero, and I decided that having seen them cross the line from asshole to outright malice elsewhere, I was under no obligation to wait until they did it in my space to put a sign on the door keeping them out of my space.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas has pretty much standard internet practice, to say nothing of standard fandom internet practice. In other words, a person's (mis)behavior on one list/community/person's LJ shouldn't or doesn't tend to result in them being ousted/bannned from another. Personal LJs are probably the exception to this, although even there I had a moment of, "Well, they haven't done anything here..." Certainly, unless there's massive stuff going on I know nothing about, it's rare (not unheard of, but very, very rare) for someone to be banned from a list/community/archive for actions taken on another list/community/archive. And there's just a general sense of "that is Not Done" about it.
And you know, I'm beginning to think this is a bad thing. I'm not suggesting it should be common, because let's face it, fandom is not known for underreacting, so the fact that people don't just commonly ban someone for behavior elsewhere is probably not a bad thing. On the other hand, I don't think it should necessarily be Not Done, ever. I think there are certain behaviors (persistent or egregious sockpuppetting, outing other fans over fan grudges, using deliberately neuro-triggering icons, to name some recent examples) that cross a hard enough line that there ought to be more repercussions.
The unspoken policy that what happens in one space stays in that space, at least as far as actual repercussions, is what allows truly destructive and malicious people to continue spreading their malice, to continue engaging in bullshit, to continue hurting people. And I think there has to come a point where, "Well, she's always behaved here" isn't good enough. I think it should be a pretty distant point, but I think it should exist.
- jacquez
This is something I've really been pondering, well, today, although it's related to something I've been pondering for a while.
During the whole LJ elections thing, I did a fair amount of pre-emptive banning in this LJ. Not that any of the people were particularly likely to come here, but the possibility was not zero, and I decided that having seen them cross the line from asshole to outright malice elsewhere, I was under no obligation to wait until they did it in my space to put a sign on the door keeping them out of my space.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas has pretty much standard internet practice, to say nothing of standard fandom internet practice. In other words, a person's (mis)behavior on one list/community/person's LJ shouldn't or doesn't tend to result in them being ousted/bannned from another. Personal LJs are probably the exception to this, although even there I had a moment of, "Well, they haven't done anything here..." Certainly, unless there's massive stuff going on I know nothing about, it's rare (not unheard of, but very, very rare) for someone to be banned from a list/community/archive for actions taken on another list/community/archive. And there's just a general sense of "that is Not Done" about it.
And you know, I'm beginning to think this is a bad thing. I'm not suggesting it should be common, because let's face it, fandom is not known for underreacting, so the fact that people don't just commonly ban someone for behavior elsewhere is probably not a bad thing. On the other hand, I don't think it should necessarily be Not Done, ever. I think there are certain behaviors (persistent or egregious sockpuppetting, outing other fans over fan grudges, using deliberately neuro-triggering icons, to name some recent examples) that cross a hard enough line that there ought to be more repercussions.
The unspoken policy that what happens in one space stays in that space, at least as far as actual repercussions, is what allows truly destructive and malicious people to continue spreading their malice, to continue engaging in bullshit, to continue hurting people. And I think there has to come a point where, "Well, she's always behaved here" isn't good enough. I think it should be a pretty distant point, but I think it should exist.