[IMC-bristol] proposal to ban IP addresses

[James Venables]

Hello Kyra,

This all sounds good in principle. I would also be happy to do a bit of 
moderating myself, but my concern on that one is that because I already 
contribute a lot to this site via BSTW, & because I'm always emailing 
this list too, I probably tend to tightrope along 'dominating' this 
newswire myself, but if you do want an extra pair of eyes let me know.

A real concern I do have is with the idea of having a separate area for 
'ranting', and if you're talking about moving people into that area this 
would be a potentially very explosive thing to do.

Someone on UK indymedia proposed something similar on UK IMC a few 
months ago, but as I remember they phrased it in terms of 'more 
intelligent' and 'less intelligent', or something similar. Phrased in 
those terms the chronically elitist potential of such a much becomes 
clear, especially if people are effectively forced into that area on a 
subjective basis.

I would argue that 90% of the time any definition of a 'rant' is 
entirely subjective, as the saying goes 'one man's rant is another's 
reasoned debate'. If people volunteer to go into a 'rant' space that's 
one thing, pushing people into it would be potentially very destructive 
& elitist.

James
-- 
James Venables