Rule #1: Don’t ruin or derail interesting conversations.
I’m pointing this out because it’s something that I do a little differently than other moderators. I’m not going to ponder endlessly what counts as a personal attack, or what people meant by their implications, or who did what to whom three months ago to provoke some outburst today. But if people are having a Good Conversation, don’t screw it up by going into personal attacks, goading diversions, non-sequitor/provocation image posting, or other internet-child antics. It’s not that I won’t issue bans or warnings for personal attacks, but if two people are going at each other viciously, I’m more likely to just kick the whole thread over to the Rant House where SGE people don’t have to look at it. If, however insulting or otherwise crappy behavior derails the kind of discussion that I feel behooves this place to be here, that will be much more likely to provoke a warning or ban out of me.
It’s been a long time. Just wanted to offer my kudo’s for your rule and the confidence, hope, and inspiration to keep to that rule now and in the future. I may add it to my signature. I wish to thank you and to say hello once more after so many years.
When you ban someone under ‘rule number one’, you should also not mention the ban on the thread and move any posts about the ban (if the banned person comes back and mentions it) into help and suggestions.
Otherwise, the ban itself risks derailing the thread as it turns into a discussion about the merits of the ban and the moderator and the moderator’s ability.
Uccisore is one of few decent moderators left. He filters out the spammers, flamers and crazies and so maintains a certain level of discourse. Also, he doesn’t immediately censor all controversial viewspoints like some do.
Can’t win 'em all! That’s for the compliments though. In the interests of full disclosure, I have to say I’m a total nerd and suck at parties unless it’s the kind of party where everybody brings a laptop.
You’re the first person who ever called me a leftist, and I live in Alabama. Think about that man. Does that mean that maybe I’m not actually a leftist, but that maybe you call people leftists when you don’t like them?
I dunno man, I think you should get out more. I’m not saying that to try and be mean or anything. I just get the impression that you could end up out some place late at night, and have some random set of experiences and have your whole view of the world changed instantly.
Exactly! Contingency chance and change. It’s the same for all of us. It’s just that for the hard-core objectivists [especially the political extremists – left or right] they are already more or less hopelessly embedded in one or another rendition of this: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=185296
So, changing their mind is almost never just a matter of changing their point of view. After all, their point of view has now basically become the embodiment of The Real Me. They simply have too much invested in it emotionally and psychologically to ever back down.
Still it can happen. Folks like David Horowitz and Dennis Miller and Jon Voight were once staunch liberals. And of course there are the liberals like David Brock and Arianna Huffington who were once staunch conservatives.
But they are the rare exceptions. There by and large only to prove the rule.