>A couple of points (I wasnt sure if I should take up
>list bandwidth so I took the liberty of a direct
>email). I have been on the list for many years now
>though I only post occasionally for various reasons.
>
>One of those reasons has to do with the
>confrontational and aggressive tone of some of the
>posters (fuck the greens etc). I have encouraged
>several of my friends to sub to the list and this is
>one of the main things that they find alienating and
>one reason why they dont post or suggest more often to
>others to sub.
>
>I have long appreciated the list as a semi-public
>space for the left but I believe that it could be even
>more useful to more people without this sort of thing.
>I hope that as moderator you will consider intervening
>in that spirit.
I appreciate this, and I have to say I'm torn about a response. I don't like it that a rough tone keeps people from posting, but on the other hand, I think political discourse in the U.S. often suffers from an excessive politeness. So I do try to regulate the tone here, but not too tightly. If I had to boil down the principle to a simple rule, it's that "fuck you!" is not ok, but "fuck the Greens" is - i.e., strongly stated positions are ok, but not personal hostility. I don't always enforce that - there was too much hostility in the thread on individualism, but there were also real issues at stake too. And too much of the "fuck the Greens" sort of thing would not be ok - there's that Engelsian point at which changes in quantity become changes in quality. But instead of me stepping into the role of listmom, it'd be nice if the more volatile among us could deploy the flamethrower more sparingly.
Doug