[governance] On acceptable and unacceptable criticism

[Norbert Bollow]

[with IGC coordinator hat on]

Dear all

Please keep in mind what it takes to have an environment where
constructive discussion takes place.

It is acceptable and in fact good and valuable to have postings
that others disagree with. The same applies to postings that
express such disagreement, and give reasons for the disagreement,
etc. Some postings fall in both of those good categories, for example
when someone characterizes and criticizes something that is in his
view an unfortunately trend in civil society, that is legitimate
criticism, and at the same time probably others will disagree.

On the other hand we have also had a different kind of postings:  
Postings that do not seek to move a debate forward, but only make
disparaging remarks about a viewpoint that is disagreed with. Such
postings violate the rule against “sequences of messages by one or more
participants that cause an IGC list to become a hostile environment”.
This kind of postings is particularly harmful when directed against
minority viewpoints (likely with conscious or unconscious objective to
prevent the effective expression of those viewpoints) or when directed
against actions of a coordinator (actions of coordinators can be
legitimately discussed and --if that is desired-- appealed, but
disparaging remarks about actions of a coordinator are just as much
against the posting rules as personal attacks against anyone else.) 

Greetings,
Norbert

-- 
Recommendations for effective and constructive participation in IGC:
1. Respond to the content of assertions and arguments, not to the person
2. Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept

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