re: EDITED FOR CRUDE LANGUAGE. KEEP IT CIVIL, OR PLEASE COMMENT ON A DIFFERENT SITE WHERE EXPLETIVES ARE WELCOMED. HERE THEY AREN'T. -- TYEE MODERATOR (moderator, “NDP Would add 3 Billion to B.C. Deficit,” Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee, April 10, 2009)
Moderator:
I don't know how many sites there are that actually, as you say, WELCOME expletives--which makes it sound as if their arrival is greeted with warm cheers and eager hopes for more! I know that, for instance, Salon.com (a fairly sophisticated, literate news site) doesn't censor (or too much censor) expletives, and they certainly are used, sometimes in abundance, and the reason may be that they are seen or can be imagined by the eds. as a valid way of most accurately/truthfully expressing oneself. What is civil, respectful, becomes at times at Salon that which is most HONESTLY expressed. Expletives don't necessarily debilitate, and can actually serve to ENCOURAGE good, lively, debate. Their "permission" also suggest a respect for EMOTION as rightful enabler of good thinking -- they can add some of the life that constitutes a lively debate, an idea many traditional, regressive sources would deem worse than a colossal joke.
Now I've seen expletives from posters to Tyee, so I'm guessing that's essentially the case here as well. And despite the requests for cookie recipes, or was it favorite holiday films?, this obviously doesn't seem a “Good Housekeeping” sort of site. But if what you're saying really is please don't go OVERBOARD, because this well can lead to cruel treatment/abuse as well as a marked diminishment in good debate, then I wish you'd said as much. For the way you say it looks to be a practice OF incivility, rudeness -- dehumanization, even, for you seem to be eager-ready, capital letter emblazoned, to banish those who swear to porn sites or equally base/barren but appropriate "homes" for the wicked. But just in case you really mean it when you say you tolerate NO expletives, you must know that this speaks of a near Victorian assessment of what is civil. You may feel strict propriety serves the times and the Tyee well. But you must espy that since the up-and-coming always seems to articulate themselves with unnerving trespass, it's really hard to imagine swimming well upstream amidst all this.
Please take care in how you yourself express yourself. Sometimes when you announce yourself on the site, you are as severe as God, or a thundering, castrating parent (How is what you said not some 50’s patriarchal, "SO LONG AS YOU LIVE IN MY HOUSE, YOU'LL LIVE UNDER MY RULES!," kind of talk?). And we don't want readers either padding themselves on the back for being good boys and girls who practice "right speech," nor tredding with trepidation if they suspect they too might stray off the righteous path. All such lessons the potential in the offerings from Tyee's disparate, worthy contributers.
I say all this because this kind of mod visitation has thundered its way into enough conversations, to draw my concern and alarm.
Link: NDP Would add 3 Billion to B.C. Deficit (The Tyee)
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