{"id":5312,"date":"2008-11-04T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-04T22:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2008-11-04T15:00:31","modified_gmt":"2008-11-04T22:20:19","slug":"moderation-and-safe-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5312","title":{"rendered":"Moderation and "safe spaces""},"content":{"rendered":"

In comment<\/a>s, one of my favorite “Alas” comment-writers, PG, writes:<\/p>\n

Good point about the dangers of proclaimed \u201csafe spaces.\u201d I got some nasty name-calling when Heart linked a post I wrote that was sympathetic to transgender folks<\/a>, and when I tried to respond, she blocked my comments as being an retread of arguments that had already been dealt with on her blog. The idea seemed to be that neither she nor her readers should have to put up with hearing an argument that they had dismissed already. If people want to run blogs or even certain posts as \u201csafe spaces\u201d where they won\u2019t have to hear opposing viewpoints, I think it is good manners not to link those opposing viewpoints and misrepresent them; otherwise, the people whose views have been misrepresented ought, in the interests of fairness, have the opportunity to respond. I notice that in general, when the comment section on a post at Alas is limited or asks readers to be respectful, the post itself is about something personal and is not an attack on another blogger\u2019s post such that the person whose viewpoint is under attack is forbidden from responding in the comments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, I disagree. I don’t have much hesitation about limiting a post’s comments when criticizing another blogger’s views. For instance, if I was disagreeing with Glenn Sacks on the subject of rape or domestic violence (I have such a post in the works), I’d probably make it “feminists only” — not out of fear of Glenn responding inappropriately (Glenn is always polite), but because Glenn’s audience is mostly comprised of misogynistic assholes, and rape and domestic violence isn’t a topic that it’s helpful to have misogynistic assholes flood the comments on. In fact, it actually limits <\/em>discussion, because the presence of misogynistic assholes on a discussion of rape or intimate violence shuts other people up.<\/p>\n

But what about Glenn’s opportunity to respond? Glenn has <\/em>an opportunity to respond — on his own blog. (Even in “feminists only” threads, I don’t delete trackbacks from relatively reasonable MRAs and anti-feminists like Glenn, or from people I’m directly criticizing, because “Alas” readers should have the opportunity to go over to their sites — if that’s what they choose to do).<\/p>\n

I like having (select, smart, polite) people I disagree with — right-wingers, anti-feminists, even possibly those who don’t like comic books — post on “Alas,” because I think knowing that I’ll face comments from people who aren’t inclined to agree with me helps keep me intellectually honest. But that’s just how I prefer to operate. Others might prefer to get their opposing views someplace other <\/em>than their own blog, and that’s fine too.<\/p>\n

All moderation decisions encourage and limit different discussions. If you make your site a safe space for one group or discussion style, you’re simultaneously making the space unwelcome — either implicitly or explicitly — for a different group or style. And if you decide to have no limits at all, that just means that those who feel unable to post without a safe space, will be shut out. There is no such thing as a discussion that is in practice welcome to everyone.<\/p>\n

And that’s something I like about the internet. The internet has effectively infinite space for discussion, each of which can embrace a different group, a different style, a different idea of “safe space.” (There remains a lot of bias about which writers gets linked and read, but that’s a subject for another thread). In the end, an unlimited variety of limited discussions creates more substantive freedom of speech, for more people, than unmoderated spaces can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In comments, one of my favorite “Alas” comment-writers, PG, writes: Good point about the dangers of proclaimed \u201csafe spaces.\u201d I got some nasty name-calling when Heart linked a post I wrote that was sympathetic to transgender folks, and when I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-site-and-admin-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}