• Official Moderator Ruling

    From Lee Lofaso@2:203/2 to All on Wed Oct 7 22:58:27 2015
    Hello Everybody,

    The following was originally posted in the DEBATE
    echo on March 17, 2013. But everything in the original
    post applies to this echo, and remains the same, with
    the exception being it is addressed to ALL rather than
    to a single individual.

    -=begin quote=-

    Hello Matt,

    | I think we can help sell bbsing if we can say it offers
    | more freedom than facebook.

    I hate to bust your bubble, but facebook has exactly
    the same policy as fidonet, their Terms requiring all
    to use their full, real, legal name. And you have
    only sysops to blame for starting it.

    I find it a sin and a shame that sysops reserve for
    themselves the right to keep their own real names protected
    by the use of a handle/alias while denying that very same
    protection for others.

    A "real names only" policy is an *ABUSE_OF_POWER* that is
    harmful to all, and especially to the most marginalized people
    in society. Such policies are not empowering. Just the opposite.
    The only purpose of such rules is as an authoritatrian assertion
    of power over vulnerable people. And who are those "vulnerable
    people"? Certainly not sysops or fidonet administrators. who
    would rather look upon themselves as being gods.

    What is at stake is the right of all individuals to protect
    themselves. Not just sysops and fidonet administrators.

    As an example of how fucked up fidonet is today, the self-
    proclaimed zone 1 coordinator says it is okay for sysops and
    moderators to use a handle/alias - in every echo. I have an
    email from her addressed to me to prove it. In response to
    that email, I am issuing the following rule for the CONSPRCY
    echo -

    I AM THE OFFICIAL MODERATOR OF THIS ECHO. ALL OTHER PARTICIPANTS
    ARE CO-MODERATORS. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THE HANDLE/ALIAS OF YOUR
    CHOICE. IN THIS ECHO, AND ELSEWHERE.

    My rule is not limited to sysops. And please note that my rule
    is in full accordance with the zone 1 coordinator's ruling -
    all sysops and moderators are allowed to use a handle/alias,
    regardless of echo.

    You want to test it? Feel free to post messages under
    the handle/alias DING DONG. Or any other handle/alias
    of your choice. I won't stop you. Nor will I try.
    In fact, I encourage you to do so. As well as others.

    Of course, Bob Klahn might have a little someting to say
    about that if you show up here as a DING DONG ...

    --Lee

    -=end quote=-

    Lee Lofaso, Moderator, 2:203/2, CONSPRCY echo
    Tim Richardson, Co-Moderator, 1:275/93, CONSPRCY echo
    All Others, Co-Moderators, x:xxx/xx, CONSPRCY echo

    --- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)