darwinistic approach to boards and forums

Trolls and abuse of power

Everyone needs to have this conversation but It always gets touchy

One site had a whole set of issues with this

the mods apparently got together and tried to screw over a singular poster and fellow mod

however the community as a whole had harsh words because they saw it happen

The mods responsible all ended up resigning

TOS
I believe ..well your here


Another site 
the guy owns it and none of these issues so far
A benovolent dictatorship

he did have to close the political section because of flame wars

he moved it to a separate area and made it invitation only


One site has the issue but not ran by a good person
Anyone who disagrees with his opinion is kicked

his mods have ran vendettas against someone


The thing I have learned
If you have to search for a reason to get rid of someone
i.e. watch for them to make a rules violation to come down hard on it
you have other problems

If you establish a set of rules
go by them

The founding issue of HH is an example
Transparency is only part of the key
Independent review of the information is part

the universe is rand on KISS

I assume you're talking about Ayn Rand here.
And if you were.
I'm sorry but Rand, in my opinion, was an idiot.

Whew.
I was afraid I was going to get a irrational response.

In a nutshell.
In my opinion, Ayn Rand does nothing but offer a highly unrealistic and largely self congratulary philosophy for those who happen to be rich and/or those who very much want to be.
It tries to make selfishness a high virtue as opposed to a societially destructive vice.

As I said it was supposed to be ran

Rand was a typo



As for her philosophy

Well I have seen the ideals
but


Hell the best way to put this applies to this conversation over the board

The best example of Rand ideas and libertarians in general come from their expression in the probability broach )l. Neil Smith(

-Let me see duels
-no taxes
-weak government
-no police
-Arbiters
-no ID's
-right to protect yourself

I love every Idea there but they problem is the same the board has

The board is young and free of most rules and is yet to codify
It takes time to grow
things happen
incidents that shape our youth becomes the sins of old age


Everyone trys to say that the above example would not work here in the real world
They missed the point that this is what evolved

The Population of that world was raised from knee high to a grass hopper
-do NOT need or want government
-they carry weapons from childhood
-expected to be self responsible from an early age



As to if rand would work in our world
Yes and no

I think heinlein is a better philosopher

I got blue mud
and the bear is stored in a cold place

I have to add, in adding a bit to Charles thoughts above about rules and such?

I think I can say I've had the experience of being a part of a team within very rigid, very unforgiving and very serious sets of rules covering a wide variety of things and to an extent the public would never appreciate. I've also run my own things over the years on much smaller scales to see it from that perspective. Now, someone gave me this nice title of 'Tech Bunny' (warm smile) and gave me the opportunity (among other things) to view the whole process from yet another and entirely different approach.

At first, I had doubts as to the open and completely free approach being taken here. In other settings? What was previously Romper Room would become something akin to a Deathmatch played on a tight clock. The shift would be almost immediate and the show wouldn't be one to miss. I guess it has struck me a bit though.....That 'wall of authority' all set to respond may have more to do with WHY such extreme rules are needed some places than ANYTHING about the members themselves.

Same members here, for instance, and some with distinguished records of being thrown out of other places...almost through upstairs windows for the drama of it all....and there is ZERO...NO...problems here. Not one. Nada. Zippo. What is different?

I've even tossed in a couple threads that could either be taken constructive directions OR bitter partisan directions. Either way was open by the nature of topic and how I set up the OP. In another place? Well...to speculate on which direction the natural flow would take is silly. It's like wondering how the gravity experiment turns out. Mystery just isn't a part of that. lol..... Here? consistently and again, WITHOUT EXCEPTION (shocking, at first)..the constructive road has been pursued.

It MAY be, we're seeing the response of people when they aren't treated like animals in tight reign because of fear they'll run wild without it. Well.. No reigns here...and I don't see any wild animals. Just good folks having intelligent discussions on some real controversial topics at times.

Edit:
I just realized how placement of this sounds
(rofl)

Its not directed at any poster just me continuing a thought
over things the have happened at other sites

I have a policy and its has evolved over the years

You dont do business with a man who screws you over

however sometimes circumstances may force your hand

-know who you dealing with

difference between a hand shake and on paper deal

-profit
is made when the deal is made not on the back end

-cash talks
put the money in hand
make sure you leave with the item
no prepay then items delivered


-change of terms
constitutes new deal

your not bound by a deal if someone tries to renegotiate terms post handshake