Do you know why America is awesome? We have the time and privilege and resources to argue <div>over replacing a "Y" with a "J".</div><div><br></div><div>I can't wait for the next comet.</div><div><br>
<div>On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Yardena Cohen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:yardenack@gmail.com" target="_blank">yardenack@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">>> Apparently the Sudo folk with admin privileges to the #sudoroom IRC channel are jealously resistant to sharing control,<br>
<br>
> This is not the case. Jordana and Tunabananas have operator privileges and can perform any sort of moderation they desire. If you have an issue with the content of #sudoroom, creating a new channel will not solve that problem.<br>
<br>
</div>I avoided replying to this right away, because I was too angry and<br>
creeped out over being called "Jordana." He did this once before in<br>
the IRC while at the same time talking about me with male pronouns<br>
(he/his) - he knows better, so I took this as targeted harassment, or<br>
at the very least disingenuous passive aggressive participation in the<br>
trolling games that have been going on lately. He's apologized to me<br>
in private since then but I just want to register that joking about<br>
hackerspace wars can be fun, but actually gaslighting each other is<br>
NOT fun. It can be scary, intimidating, and seriously compromise the<br>
accessibility and diversity of our community.<br>
<br>
As to the substance, he's absolutely right that we have op privileges,<br>
but this obscures a few things. For technical background, I encourage<br>
people to read about the difference between +F and +o. Your best guide<br>
will be logging onto freenode and typing: "/msg chanserv help flags"<br>
but more general guides are online:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC#Modes" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC#Modes</a><br>
<a href="https://freenode.net/using_the_network.shtml" target="_blank">https://freenode.net/using_the_network.shtml</a><br>
<br>
There've been conflicts over how to run the channel. Namely:<br>
<br>
1) The person with +F has used his privileges to override the<br>
decisions of those with only +o, at several times unquieting people<br>
we've quieted. The contexts for these were admittedly controversial<br>
and fall on ideological fault lines over how to run an IRC channel in<br>
general, so I agree 100% with Andrew that a clear IRC policy is the<br>
way to go. For the record, this has been mostly about using oppressive<br>
slurs, and my position has been not to tolerate them very much. We<br>
happen to have in our community a person who makes it his life's work<br>
to push peoples' buttons with slurs, and happened to be doing that IN<br>
the IRC channel. He'd also made a habit of typing anatomical words at<br>
random times. Form your own opinions. Again, the solution to this may<br>
be more about having a clear policy, than who enforces it.<br>
<br>
2) The person with +F has acted in bad faith. He flooded the channel<br>
with ascii art of an ejaculating swastika and claimed it was an<br>
"accident", which would be a no-brainer kban in most any channel. When<br>
asked to share +F with other people, his response was to vandalize the<br>
Sudoroom wiki to say he is the "leader" (<br>
<a href="http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Community_Structure" target="_blank">http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Community_Structure</a> ). In the meantime, he<br>
shares +F with a friend of his who hadn't been to Sudoroom since<br>
summer 2012 and didn't even seem to know anybody's name. They'd also<br>
set the +S (successor) flag for a person who is emphatically NOT a<br>
Sudoroom member and has even publically criticized Sudoroom. This sent<br>
a clear message to the rest of us that we were dealing with people who<br>
saw us as a joke; didn't respect our community; and that there was<br>
little we could do about it in the short term. That mistrust has<br>
colored all of the talk over IRC privileges since then, and has only<br>
escalated since these same people came to our 1/16 meeting and made it<br>
significantly longer (by complaining about the meeting being long!),<br>
and also filled our meeting agenda notes with things like "fuck",<br>
"poop" and "this is why you guys never hack anything".<br>
<br>
I'm not bitter or anything, just trying to bring out some of the<br>
subtext here for those not following why things are happening the way<br>
they are.<br>
<br>
I think the best formulation for IRC rules that everyone can agree on<br>
would be something like: we want the IRC channel to accurately reflect<br>
the atmosphere at the physical sudoroom space. To me, that nicely<br>
encompasses all the many behavioral problems and general do's and<br>
don'ts. Honestly the room itself has rarely had the kind of problems<br>
the channel has, because people tend to be a lot more decent to each<br>
other face to face, and because it self-selects for people who care<br>
about the community.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>