We’ve had an interesting set of posts lately.
We’ve had a non-ancap lecturing ancaps about how they should and should not post to elevate discourse. In spite of his alleged concern for elevating discourse, he then deems it fit to call LvMI-affiliated people some very ugly names. After he is temp-banned for doing so, the moderators get called out for censoring him. Yet in another thread, it is expressed that we are not censoring enough; an ancap would like us to ban “not teachable” people. This dovetails with a few posters repeatedly, over the past month or so, flaming opinionated non-ancaps, and calling for their banning.
So on one side we’re being accused of silencing dissent in order to promote a certain worldview. And on the other side, we’re being asked to silence dissent more, so as to make people of a certain worldview more comfortable.
Let me just say again, contrary to the accusations of former, and the requests of the latter, the moderators do not, and will not, ban or delete posts for ideological reasons. Yes we do have a mission: to advance the scholarship of liberty in the Austrian tradition. But advancing a school of though is not the same thing as cosseting it. In fact the two things are antithetical. We do not refrain from silencing pro-war or pro-intervention posts in order to be fair to war-mongers and etatists, but rather because the best way to discredit their arguments is to openly, and civilly debate them. Even if they themselves are “not teachable”, then continually refuting them in debate will serve to teach others.
I know this won’t convince the people it is primarily addressed to. And I know the mods, the “accusers”, and the “demanders” could go around and around regarding this forever.
But enough is enough. I believe there is a silent majority of readers and members out there who are sick of all this. The value of the forum for people only interested in learning (and not in personality clashes) is severely dilluted by all this moaning and groaning back and forth by certain regulars. I can only imagine how much of a turn-off it would be to come here interested in learning about Austrianism, and to constantly see “drama posts” at the top of the page. (Actually, I don’t need to imagine; I distinctly remember what it was like being a newbie, and constantly being bombarded by gladiatorial ego clashes.)
That is why I’ve created Community group called “Member Issues” for people to vent there. EDIT: As nirgrahamUK says: to become a member with posting rights; go here: https://forum.freecapitalists.org/groups/memberissues/members.aspx
If you want to call a member out on something, then “take it outside”; meaning, post in the Member Issues forum, and let your adversary know about the post. That is the one and only place for drama now. The main forum is reserved for discussions about ideas themselves. Complaints in the main forum about the members expressing those ideas, and the manner in which they express them, will now be considered off-topic, and deleted. That includes: accusations of trolling, accusations of dishonesty, accusations of insanity, questioning another person’s credentials, and questioning another person’s character.
And as always, schoolyard insults are always out of bounds, no mater where they’re posted.
Subscribe and unsubscribe as necessary to deal with issues with other members. Subscribe permanently, if you like to tune into member drama. Feel free to stay unsubscribed if you want to tune it out. But please, let’s stop yelling at each other on the forum front page, potentially ruining the learning experience for the silent (or at least less-vocal) majority.
I’m cross-posting this in the Member Issues forum. If you would like to respond to this new policy, please do so there.