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mafaldahopkirk mafaldahopkirk at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 13 12:42:04 UTC 2002


Dear group members,

I am writing in complaint of the moderator's behavior towards the many
lists of HPFGU. There have been many rules and restrictions on certain
topics from George W. Bush to Richard Abanes. I feel that this makes 
the
lists lackluster because they don't have many controversial topics to
discuss for the fear of being kicked off.

Let me name a few of the moderator's problems:

Penny: She doesn't listen to anyone, despite the obvious OTness of
Shipping. Also runs the HPFGU list like a members only club, for that
new members are not respected, despite being more active posters than
any more established members.

Evidence of Penny's behaviour towards posters and her lack of 
including
the other moderators in the argument:
But, as long as I'm the List Owner, shipping posts that use canon will
*always* be on-topic. Rest assured, the shipping threads only last 
for a
short while & only come up every few mths or so. ? Penny Linsenmayer,
Saturday 15 December 2001

This was in response to a poster named Elizabeth Dalton, who had
complained about the OTness of the shipping. The said moderators were
discussing on the private Mod board about including her in their List
Elves until the said shipping discussion, in which Penny posted the
above ADMIN message on 15 December. They completely dumped Elizabeth 
as
an idea for List Elves because she didn't comply with Penny's views.

The said message from Elizabeth Dalton (31633) was deleted, so to
prevent the readers to form their opinion on the HPFGU-Ship.

John: Shoots his mouth off at every occasion, makes his own point on
posts instead of reading through the posts. Especially when the 
subjects
are sensitive to sexuality or Wicca. Same example from the post from
Elizabeth Dalton:

"Over on the Mods list, we have in the not-too-distant past discussed
whether to move shipping to OTChatter or its own list, and decided not
to, for the following reasons. (Oh, and Elizabeth, it is beneath you 
to
accuse Penny of imposing her own personal preferences on group policy,
as the decision was made by the entire Moderator Team. I would hope 
that
you will apologise to her for that unnecessary and immature comment.)"
-John Walton, Saturday 15 December 2001.

Why should she apologize for her own opinion? This is an example from
the not so recent Shipping wars, and this was immature on John's 
behalf
that he totally shot her down.

The management is totally opaque i.e. the list is run according
to Penny's masterplan, with no apparent thought for the other 3700 odd
members. All new list management is selected by old, so only people 
who
fit their view on things are accepted. Therefore, there is a vapid
principality amongst the moderators, with no differing opinions on
things. This in turn, makes the HPFGU list incredibly boring and
unimaginative, no wonder why most of the people aren't speaking, for
fear that even the name Mundungus Fletcher would get them kicked off.

When the management discuss (in private) who to select as new elves, 
they base their decision on who is the most responsible and most 
levelheaded of the people they are considering. Yet two of the 
moderators, John and Penny, are anything but responsible and 
levelheaded.

In other words, John Walton and Penny Linsenmayer fall below the
standards they themselves set for list management. They also seem to
select underlings which are the least likely to disagree on the way 
they run things.

There is a culture on the OT list where free discussion is discouraged
if the topic is considered controversial, merely because some members
feel the need to rant at such topics (John, for example). It is
not the subjects that are the problem, but the members who cannot 
argue reasonably. Members who make
the list unpleasant should be warned, not the subjects under 
discussion
banned (this is all about the OT board, obviously, not the mainlist).
Such as the recent discussion of Richard Abanes (in which John BROUGHT
up, even when he knew that the mods had a rule of the topic banned,
which the authoritarian Penny brought up). Already there are new 
members
asking who Richard Abanes is and they should have the right to know 
who
he is, so I recommend restarting the topic of Richard Abanes because 
he
pertains to the world of the Harry Potter books. Even though he is 
very
very against Harry Potter in general, he is indelibly linked to Harry
Potter because of his fundamentalist christian views. Therefore Abanes
is on topic for the OT-Chatter list and discussion is restarted on him
on the said list, with or without the moderator's/moderators' consent,
because there are new members who would like to know who he is and 
what
books he writes even though I know there are people offended by him 
but
there is an interesting side to him.

The Moderators are representative of Penny's views, not the views of 
the
nearly 4,000 strong membership. In short, John and Penny are
inappropriate as moderators. Unfortunately nothing will ever change,
because they have assembled a team of underlings who will only support
them and e-mails such as mine will be condemned and swept away.

Thank you,

Mafalda Hopkirk







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