The First Scans_Daily Planet Bugle!

[sd_admin]

(Crossposted to NoScans_Daily)

After discussion, the mod team have decided to try a new approach to mod communications! Rather than spam the community with every announcement, we're going to be trying a new newsletter format to update our members with any developments with the communities, posted (semi)regularly and drawing attention to the great, the good and any changes in mod policy.

So, here goes with our very first Scans_Daily Planet Bugle!

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SD_Admin:

First up, you may notice we're still using the SD_Admin account for this post. We understand the concerns about the facelessness of the SD_Admin account and, as we've stated, the Modbot will be retired on matters of discipline to preserve transparency. All matters of discipline continue to be group decisions, but individual mods will be more visible handing out mod notes and warnings. We will, however, still be using the account for mod posts, FAQs etc, for the simple logistical reason that it means all members of the moderation team can edit posts at a later date, if required.

Moderator Stepping Down:

It is with some regret that we have to announce that neo_prodigy has stepped down from the scans_daily and noscans_daily moderation team.

We'd like to publicly thank Neo for all his hard work and contributions over the past few months, especially for sharing his experience in the areas of anti-oppression moderation and his aid towards our commitment to making scans_daily and noscans_daily safer spaces for all marginalized groups. His help has been invaluable in clarifying the rules and policies of the community, which the mod team continues to be 100% committed to.

We hope our members will join in us wishing him good luck in his future endeavors.

Suggestions Box and Anti-Oppression:

On the subject of our continuing commitment to anti-oppression moderation, like many of you, many of the mod team are still relatively new to anti-oppression work and we haven't always done the best we could. Part of our reason for reviving the Suggestion Box (SD’s is here, NSD’s is here) was to get feedback from our members on scans_daily and noscans_daily's anti-oppression stance and how we might better work on making the communities friendlier and safer spaces for all marginalized groups to discuss comics.

After taking into account recent internal debates, and the comments in the Suggestions Box, we'd like to publicly reaffirm our commitment to Scans/NoScans as anti-oppression communities and to our doing 101 level work within it. We will be examining the suggestions regarding mod practices over the next few weeks. However, we'd like to clarify that we will not be compromising either community’s strong commitment to supporting marginalized members, nor are there any planned changes to comm policy in this regard. The calling out policy will remain in place and we’d like to remind members and lurkers alike of the warning clearly displayed on the main page:

Bottom line: If slash, feminism or anti-oppressive practice makes you react negatively, scans_daily is probably not for you.

If you are one of those who have expressed concerns about our stance on anti-oppression and calling out being used in the community at all, we’d like to reiterate: the community is most likely not a good fit for you. These are policies that are ingrained into the community’s ethos and will not be compromised at the expense of marginalized groups.

Scans_Daily of LiveJournal: RISE!

The other big news of the week is that scans_daily has returned to Livejournal! Although this won't affect our, now permanent, home on Dreamwidth, thanks to Livejournal's policy of purging defunct journals the era of the strikethrough has ended and Black Lantern Scans_Daily has risen! As the community shuffles back into unlife, hungering for BRAAAAIIIINS, why not check in on the ongoing party post and sate its appetite?

Theme Weeks:

And more big news! One of the things the Mod team are looking to encourage is the return of regular theme weeks on scans_daily. Traditionally, these have been invented on-the-fly by members and we're not looking to change the spontaneity of this. However, to encourage our members to share the love, we're going to be announcing occasional theme weeks ourselves. After the success of last June's "One Perfect Moment Week" (thanks to icon_uk!), we'll be kicking off with a repeat of that theme:



So, if you didn't get the chance to post your perfect moment last year or another's appeared since, this is your opportunity. "One Perfect Moment Week 2.0" will be kicking off this Sunday with an announcement post, so get your scans ready!

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Thanks, S_Ders and NS_Ders and keep on being awesome!

schmevil, mad, sandoz_iscarot, angelophile and kingrockwell
The Scans_Daily and NoScans_Daily Mod Team

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

I'm lost.

You don't use ablist language.
You wouldn't use ablist language.
You support the ethos where we do not use ablist language.
But your problem is with telling people to not use ablist language.

Do I have that right?

[moneyless_jew]

No. My point in that particular conversation is that some of us, be we disabled, gay, str8, whatever, acclimate differently - we have different experiences, sometimes we use the r-word in different ways, sometimes we don't. My experience is as valid as anyone else's, but I do respect not using the word around here. But what I was saying earlier on yesterday was that just because I use it in my everyday life does not mean I am encouraging my own oppression. I don't feel oppressed in the slightest when I say something like, for example, "Lost was a [word omitted] show." You may see it differently, and that's fine, but I can still think you're way off and wrong.

But that's all beside the point. My major problem with what's become of the comm is extremely lax moderation and a tendency towards allowing open flamewars and back and forth poster abuse for fear that anyone, anywhere will be offended if they can't "get the rage out" in some therapeutic way, which generally translates to saying whatever you want about whoever you want for as long as you want without any real rules or restrictions.

Me, I tend to err on the side of typical forum moderation for adult human beings - if, on average, you can't handle your emotions without being way over the top and vituperative, even to people who just don't get it and never will, then you shouldn't be in a shared forum. That's why we used to ban some people back on the old s_d, remember? Not because they didn't have a point, but because they could never express it civilly.

This is the Internet. There will be dicks. On most forums, if someone's a dick, they get dinged, maybe there's some education, maybe an apology happens, maybe it doesn't, but one way or another the situation is rectified with a minimum of bloodshed. And it's done. When things get out of hand and turn into flame-hurling back and forth - even if one person has a valid point about someone's ignorance - then the community threatens to become unhinged and permanently disrupted, and generally a mod will step in and say okay, to your corners, don't do X, Y and Z, let's move on.

Is it a perfect system? No. But it prevents a great many long, drawn-out ordeals of back and forth poster abuse which turn a forum into a circus. Yet here, the circus is apparently what we're looking for. I respect the idea of educating people in a comm. But I simply don't feel enough people are being educated by this practice, if you can call it that, where anything you say is valid if someone rubs you the wrong way and you can tear them apart on a whim without any fear of any moderation, because moderating would be violating your safe space. That's not what safe spaces are about. Even safe spaces in RL have some form of moderation to avoid frenzy and disruption like that. People are frightened. They don't want to post. People have left. Things exist in a state of disruption. Where's the education?

The moderators came up with a very simple, nice idea in theory - let people express themselves however they need to when faced with an issue - that does not work in practice when this self-expression is often taking the form of angry screaming matches, and you are supposed to be a moderator of a larger community which, sorry, is not totally focused on each individual's subjectivity. Not mine, yours, or anyone else's. We all know how we'd like the world to work. We can all try to improve on it. But we still have to deal with the world, and people, and that means we have to all give a little.

If I make someone feel unsafe, I sincerely apologize. But I'd love to understand just how the suggestion of more uniform and even-handed moderation in terms of basic civility is a threat to anyone's safety.

[stubbleupdate]

So, I got 3/4 right?

[moneyless_jew]

I don't use what you define as ablist language in this comm, and I don't support using it here. I believe in the concept of the ethos. I do not feel the ethos is being properly put into practice by the mods today.

[angelophile]

Suggestions for how the mod team conduct themselves are, of course, welcome in the appropriate place. What you've continually suggested, however, is not how the mod team should conduct themselves but how other members should conduct themselves. And furthermore how the mod team should try and control and dictate the tone of members who are on the receiving end of oppression.

I think we, and other members, have explained at length why this is not appropriate.

We've now reached a point where further conversation is not productive. It's clear your views regarding the rights of marginalized members when confronted by bigotry are very different to those expressed at length by the mod team, in the community rules and ethos and the various resources and 101s.

You have been given a platform to express your views and now I'm going to ask you to step out of the conversation and this post. If you feel you are able to operate within the rules and guidelines as stated, and not make demands on other members regarding their tone, you are welcome to stay as part of the community. However, if, as it seems, this is not something you are able to do, there are many other comics communities where you will be more comfortable.

[moneyless_jew]

No, what I've talked about the moderation team's response to all members and how to handle the tenor of everyday discussion. You choose not to address that, because your mod team regularly couches any criticism of their work as though the poster who raises the criticism is in fact personally attacking posters' rights. The recent Suggestions post was once again supposed to be about just this kind of discussion of the mod team's approach, but once again it ended in a conclusion that everything is going swimmingly and other people are the problem here.

I'll do as you asked and end my involvement with this particular discussion here. It's clear to me that none of you are actually interested in discussing improving the moderation policy at this point, but I've seen these posts before and I didn't really think you were. I'll wait until the next one.