While there may be no external 'big brother' perhaps we have collectively become one ourselves.

OK, I just have to object to be called part of a collective 'big brother'. As I recall, this term comes from the Orwell novel 1984.

From [link]

Published in 1949, this darkly cautionary and prescient vision of the near future was a warning against the dangers of a totalitarian government fueled by high technology. Orwell envisions a world devastated by nuclear war and poverty, where the West has fallen under the spell of a totalitarian socialist dictator, Big Brother. A political demagogue and religious cult leader all rolled into one, Big Brother's power and mystery are so immense that one may wonder if he even exists at all.

Big Brother's Ingsoc Party (English Socialism) has perfected the uses of high technology to monitor the lives of its populace, and to insure unswerving loyalty through surveillance, propaganda and brainwashing.

So at what point in the last few weeks did the surveillance, propaganda and brainwashing happen? Or did you perhaps overstate the case?

Having this thread open to the public, I think, makes a huge difference in how trouble gets handled. Anyone with a userid can voice an opinion, and as evidenced by this and our pre-Phoenix discussions on the matter, we don't shut up even after consensus has been reached.

I think playing the "how would we deal if something WORSE happened?" game is counter-effective, since we can't predict everything, and we're all in agreement that the etiquette guide should remain vague so that we can deal with problems as they come along, based on the community response rather than a checklist of offensive behaviors.

Rob, I don't think it's really necessary to argue about that.

Is my personal feeling. & other people's, I believe, as well.

Right now, only ita has access to the Admin ID.

I didn't know that. OK then. John's way doesn't require any changes (and hopefully won't be needed).

and we're all in agreement that the etiquette guide should remain vague so that we can deal with problems as they come along, based on the community response rather than a checklist of offensive behaviors.

Seeing as I completely agree with what you said, Jess, I think I was unclear - I didn't mean we should start listing offensive behaviors and the appropriate responses to them. I just think that it's good we're not 'afraid' to check the boundaries, to remind ourselves that there are difficult scenarios that call to tough decisions.

I'm glad that we are able to post-mortem, vent, re-hash, and basically just let ourselves get settled again after the Recent Unpleasantness. I was on another board where a member was banned after sub rosa discussion by the mods. The banning took a lot of people by surprise, but unfortunately the banning came along with an edict of We Shall Not Speak of This Again. It led to a lot of backchannel nastiness, etc.

I'm also glad that all of this discussion has taken place where any Buffista, from the tall to the small, can read and take part in it. Another board I'm on (not the one mentioned above), created a discussion thread that was only for members #X and lower and those they chose to invite to join the party. Talk about feeling like you're not one of the 'cool kids.' Given that the board was already more than a little cliquish, this did not help matters in the least.

BTW, it's fun to be able to see what people's membership numbers are, but I'm glad that you have to go looking for them in order to find them. I hate when these things are displayed, or when the number of posts a person has made is displayed.

Oh, Nilly, we x-posted -- I wasn't responding to anything you said. (Or anything at all, specifically, other than I'm seeing what I feel is a lot of needless worrying about possible future events. I'm not opposed to endless discussion over what the best ways to build and maintain our wonderful community are, but I don't think we need to be so nervous about how we'll deal with problems. If past performance is any indication, we're really pretty damn good at it, and we should relax and enjoy what we've created.)

I think the point about the use of the term Big Brother is a useful one.

The kind of totalitarian society that was described in 1984 is one where people don't know what the rules are, so they go around in fear of breaking them.

Here we know what the rules are, in broad terms, and we discuss openly the implications of them when we need to.

If this was a secret thread where only certain Popular Kids came and talked behind people's backs, you'd have a point with the Big Brother thing. But you can't have a public "collective Big Brother" -- it's a contradiction in terms.

Rob, I don't think it's really necessary to argue about that. Is my personal feeling. & other people's, I believe, as well.

Well, if anyone's personal feeling is that we've drifted into the land of Orwell's 1984 in the last few weeks, I have to suggest, with respect, that they read 1984 again. Because there just isn't any comparison.

If we spend hours and hours obsessing about "the next time" or "it could be worse," well, the phrase that comes to mind is "the terrorists have won." Straighten up from the paranoid crouch, folks. They'll come, we'll deal with them. Is that Spike hot, or what?

Another board I'm on (not the one mentioned above), created a discussion thread that was only for members #X and lower and those they chose to invite to join the party.

Wow. That's... unpleasant.