And... the Snarking thread got locked.

[Elinore]

In a move we all had to know was coming, the <a href="http://
www.renaissancefestival.com/community/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19754&whichpage=1">original
thread</a> that prompted the creation of this group was locked this
morning. I made PDFs of the thread, because I feel the discussions
that it inspired were very interesting, and valid, and a suspicion
that this thread will end up being deleted. I am not surprised that
this thread was locked, because people were disagreed with what
appeared to be heavy-handed moderation in the sewing and garbing
forums. Please understand that all of the posts in this thread were
polite, and had well-reasoned arguments, except for one poster, who
went back and deleted what he had written because he had misunderstood
what we were talking about. None of the posts broke the forum rules,
except for one, which was deleted by a mod before I read it, and so
really couldn't tell you if it actually had broken the rules.

I am disappointed, because I felt the discussion was making us really
think about how we talk about garb and sewing on the forums. The "Day
of Wrong" thread disappeared, because it could have been considered
snarky, even though many faires have such a day. Other threads have
been locked unreasonably, and many people are shying away from helping
out as much as they have in the past, due to the fear of being
considered snarky when all they are trying to do is help answer a
question, and give an alternate viewpoint on a problem. There is
nothing wrong with sharing your research with others, and there is
<i>nothing snarky about it</i>.

This thread locking is exactly what is making people so upset. Saying
you respectfully disagree with someone is <i>not a personal attack</
i>. Under the forum rules, the thread on snarking <i>should not have
been locked.</i>

I will post the PDFs if the thread ends up disappearing.

[silve...@gmail.com]

I must say that I'm pretty disappointed with the thread-locking as
well. For the most part, the conversation was insightful and
thoughtful, and people were expressing their viewpoints politely.
When making major moderation decisions, I personally think it's good
to take into account the culture of the forum as a whole - and by
closing off discussion, that's not happening.

There are plenty of other outlets to discuss garb - but there are some
great people there that I will miss if I end up having to leave the
forums, which makes me kinda sad. We'll see how it all plays out.

-S

On Dec 10, 11:04 am, Elinore <niela...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In a move we all had to know was coming, the <a href="http://www.renaissancefestival.com/community/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1...">original

[Elinore]

I completely agree. And thank you for joining the group! I really do
not want to leave the forums, either. Too many great people and great
resources, but it's going to be damaged if the thread closing and
deleting continues. I hope their new system works out okay...

On Dec 10, 10:14 am, "silvers...@gmail.com" <silvers...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I must say that I'm pretty disappointed with the thread-locking as
> well. For the most part, the conversation was insightful and
> thoughtful, and people were expressing their viewpoints politely.
> When making major moderation decisions, I personally think it's good
> to take into account the culture of the forum as a whole - and by
> closing off discussion, that's not happening.
>
> There are plenty of other outlets to discuss garb - but there are some
> great people there that I will miss if I end up having to leave the
> forums, which makes me kinda sad. We'll see how it all plays out.
>
> -S
>
> On Dec 10, 11:04 am, Elinore <niela...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> > In a move we all had to know was coming, the <a href="http://www.renaissancefestival.com/community/discussion/topic.asp?TOP......">original