Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Silmarien Aldalome" data-source="post: 2564366">WizO Adele - the overall ethos of the Policy is great.But, I have several concerns - and would like to discuss several items with you please.Before beginning, want to reinforce that I agree that harm-avoidance by avoiding racial, homophobic, etc comments is a great idea.But having posted for a while now - I've identified another kind of harm.&nbsp; See below, under &quot;On-Topic&quot; section.Two points:1. By fiercely regulating the on-topic/off-topic agenda - the policy creates disruption, unease, anxiety, and a sense of intrusion.&nbsp; It's the &quot;will the mallet come out of the sky&quot; factor for a post that is not strictly on-topic.&nbsp; That is - the policing itself is harmful in this instance.&nbsp; It disrupts sense of Coummunity.&nbsp; Both these points contravene WotC policy.While 'policing' is needed to some degree - for the other kinds of harm you've described, I think WotC have gone too far with some of their distinctions.2. Items frequently do naturally overlap - and the distinction between &quot;zones&quot; here at WotC is in many senses an artificial dichotomy.The one that I have the greatest problem with is the role-play/non-role play distinction.&nbsp; Even the players handbook uses role-play &quot;posts&quot; to highlight it's rules by example.Role-plays bring dead-code to life - they inspire posters, warm up threads, and have many pro-social functions.So, what is so wrong about using a role-play example to demonstrate a rule-of order?&nbsp; How do you really separate role-play from rules discussions - when the two are deeply interactive?Why is WotC so invested in this particular distinction?&nbsp; And how does WotC's investment into the delineation between Role Play and non Role Play assist to build a better community?&nbsp; How does is stop harm?&nbsp; How does the policy cause harm?Isn't &quot;community&quot; about fun?&nbsp; And where's the harm in some overlap?Spam is a social lubricant.&nbsp; It keeps threads &quot;warm&quot; as opposed to clinical, hard, compassionless and cold.&nbsp; Spam makes us laugh, it can really be used to break the tension.&nbsp; It has a whole host of functions for actually avoiding harm.&nbsp; A whole host of pro (c.f. anti) social functions.Isn't harm about anti-social behaviour???&nbsp; So, why should WotC policy discourage pro-social behaviour?&nbsp; What for?My conclusion is &quot;it's not the spam - it's how you use it&quot;.&nbsp; And I would like to see several things changes in WotC policy.1. Diversification of your policy on the On-Topic/Off-Topic item.&nbsp; Some off topic posting is impossible to avoid, and is great for thread-life.2. A revision to acknowledge that your policy, being about harm avoidance, might consider how to &quot;loosen the hold&quot; on some of the areas (see above comments about on-topic/off-topic).&nbsp; The central point being that &quot;policing&quot; is intrinsically threatening - and potentially harmful - and as such, should be used for &quot;real&quot; harm avoidance (ethnic slurring, homophobia) not for an imagined harm (on-topic/off-topic).3. Acknowledgement that Spamming has multiple uses, and to write a policy that actually permits some spamming - provided the spamming is used for prosocial purposes.An exmaple &quot;Please use spamming prosocially - and limit it to only a proportion of the thread's content.&quot;E.g. &quot;You may use Role-Plays to highlight a technical point - or to have some fun - but limit the use of role-play posts on non-role-play boards.&nbsp; We recommend no more than about 20% of posts....&quot;Looking forwards to your comments.Thank you</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Silmarien Aldalome, post: 2564366"] WizO Adele - the overall ethos of the Policy is great. But, I have several concerns - and would like to discuss several items with you please. Before beginning, want to reinforce that I agree that harm-avoidance by avoiding racial, homophobic, etc comments is a great idea. But having posted for a while now - I've identified another kind of harm. See below, under "On-Topic" section. Two points: 1. By fiercely regulating the on-topic/off-topic agenda - the policy creates disruption, unease, anxiety, and a sense of intrusion. It's the "will the mallet come out of the sky" factor for a post that is not strictly on-topic. [b]That is - the policing itself is harmful in this instance. It disrupts sense of Coummunity[/b]. Both these points contravene WotC policy. While 'policing' [i]is[/i] needed to some degree - for the other kinds of harm you've described, I think WotC have gone too far with some of their distinctions. 2. Items frequently [i]do naturally overlap[/i] - and the distinction between "zones" here at WotC is in many senses an artificial dichotomy. The one that I have the greatest problem with is the role-play/non-role play distinction. Even the players handbook uses role-play "posts" to highlight it's rules by [i]example[/i]. Role-plays bring dead-code to life - they inspire posters, warm up threads, and have many pro-social functions. So, what is so wrong about using a role-play example to demonstrate a rule-of order? How do you really separate role-play from rules discussions - when the two are [i]deeply interactive[/i]? Why is WotC so invested in this particular distinction? And how does WotC's investment into the delineation between Role Play and non Role Play assist to build a better community? How does is stop harm? How does the policy cause harm? Isn't "community" about fun? And where's the harm in [i]some[/i] overlap? Spam is a social lubricant. It keeps threads "warm" as opposed to clinical, hard, compassionless and cold. Spam makes us laugh, it can really be used to break the tension. It has a whole host of functions for actually avoiding harm. A whole host of pro (c.f. anti) social functions. Isn't harm about anti-social behaviour??? So, why should WotC policy discourage pro-social behaviour? What for? My conclusion is "it's not the spam - it's how you use it". And I would like to see several things changes in WotC policy. 1. Diversification of your policy on the On-Topic/Off-Topic item. [i]Some[/i] off topic posting is impossible to avoid, and is great for thread-life. 2. A revision to acknowledge that your policy, being about harm avoidance, might consider how to "loosen the hold" on some of the areas (see above comments about on-topic/off-topic). The central point being that "policing" is intrinsically threatening - and potentially harmful - and as such, should be used for "real" harm avoidance (ethnic slurring, homophobia) not for an imagined harm (on-topic/off-topic). 3. Acknowledgement that Spamming has multiple uses, and to write a policy that actually permits some spamming - provided the spamming is used for prosocial purposes. An exmaple "Please use spamming prosocially - and limit it to only a proportion of the thread's content." E.g. "You may use Role-Plays to highlight a technical point - or to have some fun - but limit the use of role-play posts on non-role-play boards. We recommend no more than about 20% of posts...." Looking forwards to your comments. Thank you [/QUOTE]

Verification