[governance] Re: What else is discrimination?

[Norbert Bollow]

Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

> The allegations against the coordinators is indeed a serious one, of 
> bias (understanding of course your decision was made not on one 
> incident).

Based on my experience and observations, I would suggest a broad
categorization of email discussion lists and other online fora as
follows:

a) Groups in which "moderator" action, such as excluding ("banning")
members from the group, happens frequently and without availability
of any effective checks and balances.

b) Groups in which such "moderator" action happens only rarely, and
only in clear cases of continued violation of the rules, and only after
"soft" methods for attempting to address the problem have been attempted
unsuccessfully.

c) Groups in which no formal "moderator" action is used, but where
instead "flaming" (a style of harsh criticism consisting primarily
of personal attacks) is used as disincentive against violation of
the (written or unwritten) rules of the group.

The IGC Charter clearly puts IGC in category 'b'.

It is typical for groups of category 'b' that suspicion and accusations
of bias will arise when "moderator" action is taken, especially when
that is done after a prolonged period of lack of effective action to
enforce the stated posting rules.

Therefore, in groups of category 'b', the choice of the people in a role
of "moderator" responsibility is to either take what action they (after
serious reflection, examination of the situation, hesitation, etc.)
consider to be appropriate, and accept the consequence that predictably
there will be accusations of bias etc., or to take the cowardly path of
not taking "moderator" action. In the case of IGC, the consequence of
the latter path would have been the continued deterioration of the value
of the IGC list for purposes of deliberative discussion.

> As such I would like to know what you intend to do about these
> serious allegations made against you that reflects not only on
> yourselves but the IGC as well.

Demonstrate, through continued and fair work on upholding the rules of
the IGC, and the recommendation to avoid not-clearly-friendly ad
hominem remarks in general, that the accusations are groundless.

I fully expect that the quality of the conversations, and the benefits
that everyone can draw from them, will improve significantly. At that
point, the issue of potential negative impacts of the unavoidable
initial grumbling will be moot.

> IMHO a matter like this needs to be escalated

Really the only realistically available way to escalate the matter is
the appeal process.

This current email is informal, without "coordinator hat", but if you
wish to pursue that path, I suppose that one way to proceed would be to
explicitly request from the coordinators a formal, appealable, decision
on how they choose to address the accusation of bias.

> so that we all are comfortable with the process and continued role of
> the co-co's.

Alas there are very many situations where pleasing everyone is highly
desirable but impossible.

> I am sure many on this list would like decorum on this list that is
> comfortable...

I strongly agree with that objective. I however think that the path
towards achieving it does not consist in formal escalation of the
accusations of bias, but rather in what I promised above: Continued and
fair work on upholding the posting rules of the IGC, and in addition on
promoting the recommendation to avoid not-clearly-friendly ad hominem
remarks in general. If we all implement that recommendation into our
personal styles of discourse, we'll all be at a comfortable and safe
distance from any violation of the rule against personal attacks.

Greetings,
Norbert

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