Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (36621)	5/2/1999 3:49:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Edwarda, I think you are over-complicating the issue. While it is nice to think in terms of how a community polices itself, the analogy fails in certain important respects. Communities have the right to police themselves through coercive measures. It can establish ordinances aimed at preventing a variety of noxious behaviors. Laws are routinely passed prohibiting noise, creating a public nuisance, and any number of other aesthetic infractions. We on SI have no similar enforcement power. Furthermore, peer pressure does not seem to be as effective in cyberspace as it is when people interact physically. People seem to feel that they have greater license to act badly under the cloak of anonymity. Nor do I think the terms need to be tightened. They are pretty clearly stated IMO. Nor do I think that Bob ought to be put in the position of monitoring each post. But I do think he needs to look at complaints very carefully. People join SI with the expectation that certain standards will be adhered to. [I know -- preposition at the end] I think it is a breech of trust when SI does not enforce those standards, or selectively enforces those standards in the face of legitimate complaints, just as I would find it a breech of trust if the police selectively enforced laws against speeding based on the wealth of the offender [a recent cartoon in The New Yorker]. I am not familiar with the people who were expelled from SI, so I have no comment. But I must ask you this: who will mourn the expulsion of EE? Who will stand up and say that this individual provides anything of value to a forum aimed at investors? I suspect the silence will be deafening. CTC