In defense of the HP4GU Mod-Team (was: ADMIN: Discussions vs. Inflammations)

[mdartagnan at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20077

Hi all and especially Joe, 

First of all, I think this whole thing is turning into a pointless 
discussion even if it began as a joke (please don´t tell me I was the 
only one who considered it a joke).

Joe, I'm a moderator on another list, so I might appreciate a bit 
better the job the HP4GU Mod-Team is doing. The problem, IMO, wasn't 
that you protested against the joke, but that your original post could 
become, with an ease you wouldn't imagine, into a debate about the 
morality of homosexuality. Maybe you didn't notice, but the "threat" 
was there (BTW, excuse my grammar, I'm not a native English speaker).

When I read it, I felt offended. A lot. I believe that nobody has the 
right to judge others based on race, religion and/or sexual preference. 
And yet, I prefered to remain silent since my reply could begin a flame 
war —and the only lesson to be learned of flame wars is that nobody 
changes their mind but many persons get hurt. As a moderator myself, I 
thought the Mod-Team would ask for the discussion to be continued 
off-list. And you see, that's how it happenned.

Moderation is a labor of discretion, and the guys (all of them, 
including John and Penny, YES, PENNY) are experts in it, believe me. I 
don't know for how long you've been here, but since I joined, this 
would be the fourth or fifth time a flame war has threatened to appear 
—and yet, thanks esp. to them, it hasn't. 

You said that you got a message off-list. Who says you were the only 
one? As a moderator myself, I wouldn't say that I've sent an off-list 
message UNLESS I wanted to stop a wave of hate mail against that 
person, esp. on list. That's exactly what they did. And yet, I'm 
certain your message wasn't the only one sent.

Anyway, you might feel that you've been the only victim in this 
problem, but by assuming the attitude you've been showing on your last 
messages, you're becoming in the opposite. Please, this is not a 
quarrel that someone 	HAS to win. I'm sure I'm speaking for many 
listmembers by saying that I support the actions the Moderation Team 
has taken and by asking you to read your posts twice before you send 
them. Believe me, when you're angry you say things the wrong way, and 
it seems to me that's what's happening to you right now. Please, calm 
down. 

And to bring this post back to topic, I personally think it wasn't such 
an "offensive" joke. OK, there's no evidence in canon that shows that 
Remus and Sirius belong together... but strictly speaking, there's no 
evidence to the contrary. This is J.K's world, I'm just a reader and 
fan. If she decides to include this kind of themes, I'll applaude her 
for being brave and show the world just as it is. If she doesn't want 
to include them, I won't criticize her. If Remus and Sirius, or anybody 
else, end as a couple, I'll admire her showing of a real prejudice in a 
book whose main message is "prejudices are wrong". If they suddenly had 
girlfriends or spouses, I'd like to know about them just the same. Hey, 
after all, nobody protests about Ron/Hermione (except the Harry/
Hermione shippers, but that's a topic for another day ^_^)


Take care,
Marijose