At 08:29 AM 6/3/2010, B Feddish wrote:
>         I was going to remain silent on this one but since you have taken it
>upon yourself to call me a racist in a public forum which gets stored in
>archived form indefinitely I feel the need to defend myself.  Using the term

Dear Volks,

Gentlemen, please!  This is undignified.  Bryan, I'm disappointed.

First of all, I'm quite sure you're aware that the policy here is for
moderation issues to be discussed in private.  I'm sure you're also
aware that the policy is widely observed in the breach.  Up until now
Ben and I have not suspended anyone's privileges on the list for that
or any other reason.  Perhaps that was a mistake, because it tends to
suggest that we're not serious about the rule(s); but regardless,
other people's flouting of the rule is no reason for you to, nor is
the fact that you're angry an excuse.

Second, I commend to your attention that saying that some [label,
behavior, whatever] is racist is in no way the same as saying that
some person is racist; and conflating the two is at the very least careless.

Third, you are asking too much of your moderators.  If you want
perfect dispassion then you should be prepared to pay the big
bucks.  Someone suggested to me a while ago that the moderator job
required a person to behave like a "Fair Witness" in Heinlein's book
_Stranger in a Strange Land_, and in fact that's in general what we
try to do.  But if you demand perfection of either of us we're sorry
to be unable to oblige.  If you want a crack at the moderator job I'm
imagine that could be arranged without much difficulty, but aside
from that here we are, warts and all.

You've successfully identified one of Ben's hot-buttons, and possibly
one of your own as well.  Now what?  We still have to get along and
treat each other with civility for the list to continue to succeed,
and part of civility is not airing the dirty laundry in public, which
is why our policy of private discussion of moderation issues exists.

Fair enough?

Yours,
David