RE: Autom8it nolonger free? - an explanation

["Kenneth Watt" <kwatt@xxxxxxx>]

Excuse the late reply but between my ISP and our friends at BT I've had no
net access at all today and for the benefit of the audience I will explain
why it was requested that the thread was closed since I've gotten a few
mails on the subject.

> What?
> One of the few pure HA related topics an it gets closed because two
> people get into a he said/she said argument!!

No, it was more than two people that were involved, I can name three off
the
bat without even looking.

Yes, it did become a he said/she said thing as you rightly point out
Michael
but how long do you let it run for? When do you actually put a stop to it?
Or do you publicly dress someone down for a post that isn't appropriate or
is it right to dress down one person, but not another that contributed to
that thread or argument at some point? Is it not, in the interests of
fairness, more correct just to close the thread and let people cool off for
a bit?

You see, moderation is not as easy as it appears on the surface, it's not
some position of power, its trying to judge what should or should not be
allowed and stopping any indiscretions as cleanly as possible. Since I
don't
wish to inflame any argument, nor does any other mod, the simple answer is
to close that thread when/if it degenerates and *self-moderation* is not
working. So rather than have a go at individuals you are left with the, as
far as I can see, option of closing the thread. And, IMHO, to be as
impartial as you possibly can be a mod (and that was and always is my
intent) rather than attack one person or persons, I'd rather the whole
argument was just shut down and that's the end of it. If you don't agree
then fine, you don't agree and I respect that but we're only doing the best
can and not picking on anyone.

I am a great believer and proponent of self-moderation I truly believe it
works and works very well on this list, but on occasion things get a little
too heated and someone has to speak up and say stop! Now I know a lot of
people involved in a lot of these things when they happen as does Mark and
many of the other mods as well, they are all nice people without exception
and I do not particularly want to see them at each others throats either on
or off list, another reason to publicly say to stop. It's just occasionally
that the thing gets inflamed by some daft comment or a set of opposing
viewpoints and sometimes the advocates of the argument just won't back
down.

Now, as I see Graham did, if you want to discuss the software and its uses
I
personally don't have a problem with that at all, but I do have a problem
with a long running thread that reads like a slagging match. I would have a
problem if the same argument continued under a different subject line as
well, nor do I particularly care who's arguing what, so long as it remains
civilised, restrained and constructive its fine by me.

> This IS an important thread for newbies so you close it.

Not in the way it had spiralled into a war of words and attitudes towards
whether or not certain software should be free or not, I'm sorry but that
has no relevance to HA whatsoever. Whilst the argument may well be
interesting and involve HA related software I didn't feel that this was the
place to argue the case *on either side*! Nor did I think that many of the
posts were constructive in any way whatsoever.

The more important thread is the one that is constructively discussing the
aspects of the various software options for not only anyone new to the list
but to those of us that have been here for a long time as well.

I do hope that this has not tainted the views of any of the newer members
and I assure them that this debacle is by no means an indication of what
this list is like normally, in fact, its way out of the ordinary. I would
also point out that the people involved are nice friendly folks, as are we
all, who simply got their hackles up late at night and carried on a thread
that should have been laid to rest. As Graham advised earlier, please read
your post before hitting "send" and think about it, which is the
self
moderation to which I referred.

Although I didn't need to clarify all this I thought it best to put my
point
of view across and the reason why I did what I did and I still believe that
I was as fair and as impartial as I could be. Hopefully the action will be
better understood by doing this.

K.