A rant about respect.
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:48 pm
I do hope the mods will give this a slight amount of leeway.
I want to give my "after the smoke has cleared" view of the aftermath.
First and foremost, what happened this weekend was an abuse of authority.
A former site admin, McGruff, had become very rigid in his position on OOP. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and steadfastly defending that position. To be clear, I feel the same rigidity in my thinking about certain political issues.
However, he became intolerant of people expressing an alternative viewpoint. This is where the problem began. On more than a few occasions, McGruff and I would butt heads over where OOP should be used. He advocated its use in all situations, I took a more moderate view that while OOP is incredibly powerful, there are in fact situations where it is not the ideal choice.
I want to be crystal clear on one thing: I was more than occasionally difficult in those threads. Several times in fact - including being warned by another moderator.
The key is that as the threads continued, I became less difficult, and more steadfast in my resolve to debate the issue, and not the people who held the view. McGruff unfortunately took the opposite approach. As arguing continued on, he would make blanket statements insulting anyone that would disagree with his point of view.
That too is not uncommon, but unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the tale.
It finally came to a boiling point in which the active moderator team asked McGruff to voluntarily step down. Rather than do so, he chose to hijack the forums, ban numerous mods, users (myself included), and make veiled legal threats against them.
Now that the damage is repaired, it is important that we take the high road, and acknowledge that McGruff was both a valued and active member of this community. We all have bad days, myself included. However, while doing so, we do have to learn from the experience.
Showing respect to people who share a different viewpoint isn't just part of the forum rules. Its not even just good behavior. It is the very minimum we should expect from people.
Personally, I regret how things ended up. I regret that my actions were the justification a tyrant used to hijack a community and splinter it. But I don't at all regret that I stood up to a tyrant abusing his position - in public, in private, and finally, on a second forum in exile.
There are things worth making a stand over - even online. Respecting others is one I hold very close to my heart.
Since the events of the weekend, Feyd promoted me to Moderator. I appreciate him doing so, and I don't take it lightly.
As a moderator, I assure you that I will continue to champion the respect of others just as I did as a user.
I prefer not to attack or speak to the issues involving McGruff any more after this. I think the issue is best left behind, as a learning experience.
I think we can all move forward learning something from it. Personally, I've learned to measure my statements much more carefully. I hope that McGruff can take away from this that being factually correct (and I don't think he was) doesn't give you the right to be morally wrong, and disrespect people who disagree with you.
To McGruff, I sincerely hope that we can put this behind us. As a moderator or user, I welcome you to any forum I am on. I will however hold you to the same standard that I hold everyone else to: To show respect for different opinions, and for the people that hold them.
I want to give my "after the smoke has cleared" view of the aftermath.
First and foremost, what happened this weekend was an abuse of authority.
A former site admin, McGruff, had become very rigid in his position on OOP. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and steadfastly defending that position. To be clear, I feel the same rigidity in my thinking about certain political issues.
However, he became intolerant of people expressing an alternative viewpoint. This is where the problem began. On more than a few occasions, McGruff and I would butt heads over where OOP should be used. He advocated its use in all situations, I took a more moderate view that while OOP is incredibly powerful, there are in fact situations where it is not the ideal choice.
I want to be crystal clear on one thing: I was more than occasionally difficult in those threads. Several times in fact - including being warned by another moderator.
The key is that as the threads continued, I became less difficult, and more steadfast in my resolve to debate the issue, and not the people who held the view. McGruff unfortunately took the opposite approach. As arguing continued on, he would make blanket statements insulting anyone that would disagree with his point of view.
That too is not uncommon, but unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the tale.
It finally came to a boiling point in which the active moderator team asked McGruff to voluntarily step down. Rather than do so, he chose to hijack the forums, ban numerous mods, users (myself included), and make veiled legal threats against them.
Now that the damage is repaired, it is important that we take the high road, and acknowledge that McGruff was both a valued and active member of this community. We all have bad days, myself included. However, while doing so, we do have to learn from the experience.
Showing respect to people who share a different viewpoint isn't just part of the forum rules. Its not even just good behavior. It is the very minimum we should expect from people.
Personally, I regret how things ended up. I regret that my actions were the justification a tyrant used to hijack a community and splinter it. But I don't at all regret that I stood up to a tyrant abusing his position - in public, in private, and finally, on a second forum in exile.
There are things worth making a stand over - even online. Respecting others is one I hold very close to my heart.
Since the events of the weekend, Feyd promoted me to Moderator. I appreciate him doing so, and I don't take it lightly.
As a moderator, I assure you that I will continue to champion the respect of others just as I did as a user.
I prefer not to attack or speak to the issues involving McGruff any more after this. I think the issue is best left behind, as a learning experience.
I think we can all move forward learning something from it. Personally, I've learned to measure my statements much more carefully. I hope that McGruff can take away from this that being factually correct (and I don't think he was) doesn't give you the right to be morally wrong, and disrespect people who disagree with you.
To McGruff, I sincerely hope that we can put this behind us. As a moderator or user, I welcome you to any forum I am on. I will however hold you to the same standard that I hold everyone else to: To show respect for different opinions, and for the people that hold them.