[At-Large] (not really about) Travel Funding

[Roberto Gaetano]

Jacqueline A. Morris wrote:

> 
> Yeah -I get it.  North Americans aren't going to change so 
> everyone else has to change (grow "thick skins") instead. 
> Thanks for the welcome and understanding. 
> These responses really let me  see the cultural bias in all 
> its glory and  WHY it's so difficult to get new ppl involved. 


I wonder whether we are not trying to look at the problem from the wrong
side, and culture has little, if anything at all, to do with it.
Not all North Americans and/or Europeans have "thick skin" and use abusive
language disguised in free speech. Actually, most of them are pretty
civilized and able to sustain a calm conversation, and even to listen
carefully.

The point is simply that if abusive language scares people away, there is an
incentive in using it against your opponents, so they leave and you remain
in control. The GA, to make an example, is physically occupied by a crowd
that does exactly this: in the name of freedom of expression they claim to
have the right of saying everything in whatever form, and if there is an
attempt to enforce civil discourse rules, they scream and yell against
"censorship". What escapes the casual observer is that this behaviour ends
up in being the very censorship it claims to be against: by driving away
those who have "thin skin" (or simply do not have time to lose with jerks),
they censor de facto the discourse on the mailing list.

The only way to contrast this ill behaviour is not to be scared by bullies,
and have clear rules about acceptable and non acceptable behaviour. But this
is no surprise to anybody who has been subscribed to mailing lists: it is
the common pattern that everybody uses in the internet to defend the right
of all not to be abused by a few misbehaviours.

Evan's idea of dual lists is the solution that, many years ago, has been
applied to the GA. There was a "monitored" and an "unmonitored" list, and
the ability of people to subscribe to either one, except for people who were
unable to control their behaviour, who were given only the unmonitored
choice. I respect Evan's idea, but hope that we do not have to get to that
point.

Cheers,
Roberto




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