[SML] WAY, WAY, WAY O.T. : Death and Politics

[Dougherty, Jim]

Part of the problem with political discussion here comes down to the
structure of this list; it¹s somewhat anachronistic and you either get all
the individual messages or a digest with them all lumped together.  Either
way, you see it all.  The good part of that is when someone posts
something you might not otherwise read and learn something new (Lighting
design? I¹m a TD! Whaddo I care about...wait, you can do THAT with
Vectorworks? Cool!). Downside is if it breaks down into these other
discussions, it can kind of poison the well.

There are other formats available, but we¹ve been down that road and the
best we¹ve come up with is the FB parallel universe.  To be clear, I¹m
very much OK with that and like both formats.  But what we can¹t do is
have a topic-divided forum with a section specifically for people who
respect each other to go at it hammer and tongs about politics, etc. with
mods on hand to ban those who go too far.  If you want an example of that,
look at www.advrider.com.  It¹s a motorcycle forum for people who
occasionally get their bikes dirty.  On that forum, the forums are
moderated and there¹s a section called The Basement where discussions that
won¹t fly here can take place.  For example, one forum in the basement is
called CSM, for Church State Money.  It lets the site stay solid while
having a place for discussions that would otherwise drive everyone away.

Nobody here needs to get out of SML because of political views.  I know
there are people who read the list on both sides of pretty much any issue,
and I¹m happy to talk to any of you.  More importantly, I need to be able
to hear any of you.  Being able to have a conversation where both parties
may have different, even conflicting views, is critical.  Now more¹n ever,
but it¹s always been so.

- Jim Dougherty
ATD Middlebury College Theatre Dept.