Is it fair for moderators to be promoting politics here?

[UncleMatt]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. Aren't mods supposed to be neutral and objective? MSimon is anything BUT that. Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum, not on a website that is supposed to be centered on polywell and technology.

Thoughts?

Comments?

Keep your politics OUT of this thread please!

[MSimon]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. Aren't mods supposed to be neutral and objective? MSimon is anything BUT that. Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum, not on a website that is supposed to be centered on polywell and technology.

Thoughts?

Comments?

Keep your politics OUT of this thread please!

Communism is the wave of the future. Power to the people. Dictatorship of the proletariat. Trotsky was right. Capitalism is exploitation of the masses. Profit is theft.

Fair enough?

====

Engineers have a very strong tendency to libertarian/right wing politics. I'm an engineer. So sue me.

[UncleMatt]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. Aren't mods supposed to be neutral and objective? MSimon is anything BUT that. Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum, not on a website that is supposed to be centered on polywell and technology.

Thoughts?

Comments?

Keep your politics OUT of this thread please!

Communism is the wave of the future. Power to the people. Dictatorship of the proletariat. Trotsky was right. Capitalism is exploitation of the masses. Profit is theft.

Fair enough?

====

Engineers have a very strong tendency to libertarian/right wing politics. I'm an engineer. So sue me.

Thanks, MSimon, for posting yet more proof of what I am talking about. Please go elsewhere to promote your politics. This is NOT a place for you to abuse your mod status to promote your agenda. I think MANY of us are VERY sick to death of it.

Any of this getting through?

[MSimon]

But I tell you what. I'm sick and tired of being moderator. It takes an hour to three a day and I have to check in frequently.

You tell Joe you want the job (No pay and you get complaints) and you can have it.

[UncleMatt]

But I tell you what. I'm sick and tired of being moderator. It takes an hour to three a day and I have to check in frequently.

You tell Joe you want the job (No pay and you get complaints) and you can have it.

Get gone then, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

[chrismb]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. ...Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum

Just hijack it back, then! At least he's got something to spout. I'm always happy to see either pitch, from anyone, and I'll judge a response, or otherwise, on the merit of the spouting rant.

There's too much mediocrity in the world these days. I like moderate extremists, though I tend toward very extreme moderation myself, but only at the conclusion of the debate! Gotta keep stirring 'til the sauce thickens sufficiently....

[chrismb]

Get gone then, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

That line is funny, though! But let's not get there just yet.

[MSimon]

Uh. Explain how posting abuses my mod status?

We operate on a very loose moderation system here. Joe's orders.

I fix urls that are too long. Graphics that screw up the formatting. And otherwise I don't touch nothing or remove posts or anything. Joe's orders.

In the 2+ years I have been here we have had one guy who abused his posting privileges so bad that I had to delete his posts. And eventually he was banned.

Any way. The rule (lightly enforced) is politics in General. I try to stick to that. Mostly.

Lots of folks here like to discuss politics. We let them.

But as I said. If you want the job of moderator just ask Joe.

[chrismb]

But as I said. If you want the job of moderator just ask Joe.

You're doing just fine! Don't let it get ya. Just fishing, is my guess, and he got a bite from you! There's not enough fusion news about, that's the real problem. The noise-to-signal ratio has gone up a tad as a consequence.

[TDPerk]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. Aren't mods supposed to be neutral and objective? MSimon is anything BUT that. Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum, not on a website that is supposed to be centered on polywell and technology.

Thoughts?

Comments?

Keep your politics OUT of this thread please!

Communism is the wave of the future. Power to the people. Dictatorship of the proletariat. Trotsky was right. Capitalism is exploitation of the masses. Profit is theft.

Fair enough?

====

Engineers have a very strong tendency to libertarian/right wing politics. I'm an engineer. So sue me.

Thanks, MSimon, for posting yet more proof of what I am talking about. Please go elsewhere to promote your politics. This is NOT a place for you to abuse your mod status to promote your agenda. I think MANY of us are VERY sick to death of it.

Any of this getting through?

If you don't like it, keep your objections to yourself, start your own lefty thread, or make actual counterarguments. It's not MSimon's fault the leftist mind is withered and a womb only to misery.

[MSimon]

But I tell you what. I'm sick and tired of being moderator. It takes an hour to three a day and I have to check in frequently.

You tell Joe you want the job (No pay and you get complaints) and you can have it.

Get gone then, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

Take it up with Joe. As soon as he changes my status I'll cease moderating and you can have the job.

I doubt if you can handle it though. You don't seem very tolerant of differing viewpoints.

Fer instance chris and I have gone at it hammer and tongs. I still like him and appreciate his views. And he is one sharp cookie who has straightened me out more than once. I doubt if you could tolerate much dissent from your views.

But put it to Joe. He is the boss.

[pfrit]

In general I like the way that the site is run. The only change that I would make is to add a new News forum that was tightly fusion focused that was not allowed to drift. That way there would be a "fun" news forum and a "Polywell" news forum. Perhaps if we just fell into the habit of posting items in the news forum with thread rules that forbid thread drift for polywell/hard fusion news. If someone posts a news thread about something like time travelling birds, that is certainly news, but can drift where it wants, but if they post a thread about new polywell news, the mods could delete any thread drift posts with impunity.

[MSimon]

But as I said. If you want the job of moderator just ask Joe.

You're doing just fine! Don't let it get ya. Just fishing, is my guess, and he got a bite from you! There's not enough fusion news about, that's the real problem. The noise-to-signal ratio has gone up a tad as a consequence.

I was just pointing out that moderators get no special privileges in my own sublime way.

Because of Joe's rules I just get to do the occasional bit of scutt work. That is the only actual privilege I have. Whoop te do. Besides I don't think our new friend wants the "job". He couldn't go around deleting stuff he didn't like. It is against Joe's rules.

What was my big moderating job yesterday? I went through a thread and added a space to a number of quotes to make the urls in them clickable. I doubt if any one noticed. And that is how Joe likes it.

[MSimon]

In general I like the way that the site is run. The only change that I would make is to add a new News forum that was tightly fusion focused that was not allowed to drift. That way there would be a "fun" news forum and a "Polywell" news forum. Perhaps if we just fell into the habit of posting items in the news forum with thread rules that forbid thread drift for polywell/hard fusion news. If someone posts a news thread about something like time travelling birds, that is certainly news, but can drift where it wants, but if they post a thread about new polywell news, the mods could delete any thread drift posts with impunity.

No deletions. The most that could be done is a move. And I don't think I have ever done a move. Mostly the people on a thread handle topic moderation on their own.

Like: "Why don't we move this to General."

If there is anything like general agreement I could tighten up the news section. But as Chris has said. With so little news coming out there is not much to talk about except when a newbie joins and needs help.

So news is anything fission or fusion related. But I'm not too fussy. I moderate here like I do on my own blog. Very, very, loose. Joe might do things a little different, but he has a day job. If he even posts once a month these days it is special.

My only contact with Joe is to give him a heads up if some one is having trouble signing up. We used to get a lot of pron spam (I miss it) but Joe fixed it so that that hasn't happened in about a year. That was instant deletion (after I made sure - heh). I was much more useful then.

Any way these days I visit Fred Lapides who has very tasteful stuff. We used to get the very crudest crap. Which was interesting but not appealing.

[Diogenes]

I am just curious if anyone else has an objection to MSimons constant right wing politics being spouted all over the general forum here. Aren't mods supposed to be neutral and objective? MSimon is anything BUT that. Hijacking threads to promote your political agenda belongs on the myspace news and politics forum, not on a website that is supposed to be centered on polywell and technology.

Thoughts?

Comments?

Keep your politics OUT of this thread please!

Well to be completely childish, THEY started it !

I was completely in favor of excluding politics from what is ostensibly a science/fusion web site. I warned that no good would come of it. When I saw my wheedling going for naught, in accordance with my principals of "Enlightened Hypocrisy" I jumped in with both feet.


I personally LIKE political fights. I am a politics junkie, and I think one of the most significant characteristics a person can have is concern for their country.

I agree with MSimon's politics more often than not, and where we disagree we sometimes go at it with hammer and tongs, but wise people have said before, the answer to bad speech is not prohibition, the answer is more speech.



Benjamin Franklin once said,

"...when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is. always an overmatch for the latter:"


Could THAT be your objection to MSimon's politics. Are your ideas getting overmatched in the realm of public debate ?



If not, then fight back. Don't prohibit ! Oppose !