From the ListMom re: OT Discussions

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 5624

Hi --

Hmmm. . . . things seem in danger of degenerating.  I guess I'll make a
few observations, not that I'm all-knowing (but someone's got to be in
charge!  <g>).

1.  I originally made the call to allow discussions about the U.S.
election because it strikes me that we are living through a truly
pivtoal event in American history.  I've been watching CNN quite alot
during the daytime this week, and so I'm finding that topic to be fairly
at the forefront of what I'm thinking at any given moment.  I think the
same is true for others in this group.

For those reasons, I didn't (and still don't) want to necessarily cut
off the ability for people to post a news flash, an opinion or
observation, etc.   I do think it's absolutely 100% necessary that the
subject heading be appropriately labelled so that people who only want
to read about HP discussions can continue to do so.  I'm also starting
to think that this electoral mess is not going to get resolved anytime
real soon.  Therefore, it's possible that maybe we should just ban it,
even in OT posts, if it's going to cause dissension & bad feelings.  My
original thought was that it would all be resolved in a day or 2, so
might as well let people comment on it.  If it's really going to go on
for weeks or even months, that's another matter entirely.  We're also
probably boring our friends across the pond, who may have long since
lost interest in our little mess over here.

2.  This is my opinion & just my observation:  I think it's pretty clear
over the last week or so that a majority of our members are moderate to
liberal on the political spectrum.  Or, I should say that of the members
who have made comments or been vocal/out-spoken, those members have been
overwhelmingly liberal.  This doesn't strike me as particularly odd for
whatever reason.

So . . . . if the posts pertaining to politics or the U.S. elections,
etc. are strictly labeled 0T or OFF-TOPIC and if you open those posts
and read them, you should be prepared that more times than not, the view
that you will read in the post may be moderate to liberal in viewpoint.
Similarly, those of us in the liberal camp should be prepared that
members may express conservative viewpoints with which we will
disagree.  In other words, reading the OT posts is done at your own
peril so to speak.  It's not what a constitutional lawyer would call the
"captive audience" problem.  If you don't want to read the OT posts (or
you don't wish to risk reading something that you might disagree with),
don't read them -- you're perfectly free to just ignore them.

3.  My other thought is that my original intention pretty well extended
to include things like Heidi's reports from Miami on the status of
things, the effects of the election on things like book-banning, humor
(such as the Bailicroft commune thread), etc. - not per se Bush-bashing
or Gore-bashing and certainly not engaging in back & forth dialogue with
one another in a contentious manner.  As I'm writing this, I think I'm
starting to believe that the nature of cyberspace debate makes it
unlikely that we can continue the practice of commenting on the news in
OT posts without expecting disagreements to arise.

The purpose of the group is and remains the discussion of HP.  We have
enough disagreements that crop up over HP, without adding politics to
the mix.

I've written all this and not made any real decision about whether I
ought to conclude by saying: "No more OT political posts -- period" or
"Read OT political posts at your own risk and keep personal attacks out
of it."  The latter is perhaps hard to do, so .... I'm leaning toward
the former.  I'm happy to take comments for a short while before I just
outright ban it though.

For example, what about Joywitch's Daily Prophet piece from a few days
ago?  I perceived it to be rather liberal in viewpoint.  Is that
political?  If we ban OT posts, are we banning this type of parody as
well?  It could be hard to draw the line in some cases I suppose.

So . . . .if you have thoughts, feel free to express them.  If you post
to the group, do so with a *clearly-labelled* subject heading.  <g>  You
can also email me privately.  I've already weathered one cyberspace
conflict and am feeling rather thick-skinned today . . . so what the
hey.

Penny