Re: Fed up with Eric's Rules

[Win Day <winday -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM>]

At 07:51 AM 10/27/98 -0800, Mark Nichols wrote:
>For too long, Eric Ray has controlled and restricted information on
>this list.  When people have raised controversial, inflammatory, or
>decisive topics, he has stopped the threads, issued his idiotic little
>ADMIN posts, and removed members who expressed their ideas. Eric might
>not have a responsibility to publish, but he has taken his job as list
>moderator WAY too far.  He has gone beyond merely policing the group,
>to practicing full-scale censorship and  ppression.
>

I, for one, agree with Eric's policies on the inappropriate nature of the
posts for which he suspended some posting privileges.  These postings were
not controversial, they were offensive to a great many of us on this list.

I have no problem discussing, rationally and civilly, such subjects as
gender bias in technical communication and in the technical communicators'
workplace.  But the posts were neither rational nor civil; nor did they
discuss technical communication.

>A growing number of us are sick and tired of his  fascist rules.
>Under the guise of moderating this group to only talk about technical
>communication, Eric wipes out all dissension and topics which he
>personally feels are irrelevant.  Hey Eric - some of us would like to
>hear those ideas!
>

There are various other mailing lists for technical writers.  If you are
not comfortable with the rules on this list, you are welcome to subscribe
to one or more of the others.  I do, although if the nasty, bigoted posts
move to the other lists I will unsubscribe.  I don't need that kind of
nonsense in my inbox.

>In the last three months, Eric has removed scores of members for
>violations of his intolerant rules.  This list has become a laughing
>stock of the technical communications community.  Some writers find
>this list so horrible, they will not even accept posts forwarded from
>the list.  My manager thinks this list is a utter and complete waste
>of time. The woman in the cube next to me dropped off the list almost
>a year ago.  Her reasons "nothing even remotely interesting is ever
>discussed on the list.  That guy controls every word on there. You
>can't post anything without a nasty message from him."
>

Oh, I don't know.  We have discussed gender bias in language and in the
workplace, politely and rationally, several times over the years that I
have subscribed.  It's when the discussion degenerates into irrelevant,
insulting terms that Eric has had to step in to restore order.

The technical writers that I know and admire, the ones with whom I work and
the ones with whom I wished I could work more closely, have a different
opinion of both the list and Eric.  You, of course, are entitled to your
own; please post them somewhere else.

>Recently, Eric removed George Mena for his ideas about confrontations
>between men and women - While Mr. Mena's ideas were controversial,
>they were also a legitimate opinion about workplace confrontations.
>Because the sensitives of a few meek readers were offended, we missed
>the opportunity to explore Mr. Mena's ideas.
>


George Mena's message, posted in response to a legitimate request for
advice, had nothing to do with the original post!  The original message was
NOT about gender discrimination in the workplace.  It was about dealing
with a difficult supervisor who happened to be a woman.  Period.

Mr. Mena chose to take that post and interpret it in a way in which it was
not intended, as the original poster has since confirmed.  He did so in a
way that I, and many others on this list, found extremely offensive.

I did not ask Eric to suspend Mr. Mena's posting privileges.  But I did
thank him after the fact.  In my opinion, it was an appropriate response,
and within his responsibilities as list administrator.

>In a removal a few months back, Eric kicked a member off because he
>made a public attack on Eric's ridiculous warnings about the use of
>sexist language.
>

Sexist language is not appropriate on the list.  If, in fact, this is what
happened (and we have only your word that this is the case), then Eric was
again within the bounds of his responsibilities.

>In his most recent removal, Eric kicked off Andrew Plato, for his
>biting and hilarious satire of the Ugly Incident thread.  I loved Mr.
>Plato's posts.  They were often the brightest thing on this list.
>

Perhaps for you they were.  For me, they were rude and insulting.

>I am sick and tired of every interesting or remotely controversial
>idea being squashed on this list.  I have another account on this
>list.  I made this "phantom" account so Eric could not kick the "real
>me" off. The fact is, I know that if I made these complaints through
>my "real account" Eric would kick me off in an instant.
>

Eric, and Oklahoma State, operate this list out of the goodness of their
collective hearts.  Anyone who can't agree to abide by the clearly-stated
rules is welcome to unsubscribe.

>So, I am asking everyone to leave this list and begin using the
>listserv newsgroup rather than this mailing list.  The newsgroup is
>bit.listserv.techwr-l.  You will need a news reader to access this
>newsgroup.  You can access the newsgroup through www.dejanews.com.
>Anyone can post to the news group, regardless of being an "approved
>user."  This will allow for a freer exchange of ideas and information.
>

Once again, please, if you feel that strongly about Eric's rules, why
*don't* you unsubscribe?  Then the rest of us can get back to the purpose
of the list, which is to discuss issues pertinent to technical communication.

<SNIP>

>Incidentally, Eric, myself and others hold numerous "phantom" accounts
>on this list. To be blunt, you cannot stop these message by merely
>kicking me and my colleagues off. We can sign up a virtually unlimited
>number of "phantom" accounts due to the way this list is structured.


WHy bother?  Don't you have anything more constructive to do?  <sigh>  You
know, when my children act like this they get sent to their rooms till they
can act like polite human beings.  Fortunately, I know they'll outgrow this
phase.

Win
------------------


Win Day, Technical Writer
Mississauga, Ontario

mailto:winday -at- idirect -dot- com

http://webhome.idirect.com/~winday

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