From: Hermit (virus@hermit.net)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 17:50:05 MDT
Because while I can judge your actions in the light of my understanding of our sins and virtues, I can't judge your motivations or philosophy. So for example, while I condemn what Joe Dees has done to the boards and the community, I cannot judge why he did it. In his mind he may be being rational, or displaying empathy (I can't imagine that even he claims to be embracing vison as I think he acts to limit the audience for his own memes even as he reduces the CoV's ability to propagate itself).
In my opinion he is not adhering to the Virian Virtues and I think that his words on various occassions support this opinion. But words can be spoken for effect, or in anger, and do not neccessarily reflect the internal state of the speaker. And I'm sure that if he were here to reply, that he thinks the same of me. I'm equally sure that we could argue about this till the last proton in the Universe evaporates and neither of us will change our minds about the other. If we do it here the CoV will be left even more of a blasted wasteland than it is already.
So I do not attempt to judge or comment on his motivations or beliefs. And I don't think that any other member can do it for anyone else either, What one person cannot do, no group of people can do. Whih is why this is precluded. It is up to us to build our own systems of ethics and justify our choices to ourselves if we can.
So not being able to draw conclusions about motivation, which is needed to determine culpability? Are our hands tied? Of course not.
The proposed system asserts that we can separate ourselves from members who refuse to conform to the norms of the community, who create situations which cast the community in bad light, that cause dissension in the community and who repeatedly fail to heed calls by the community to correct what the community regards as faults.
Apropos of something, the CoV exists primarily in a virtual space. There is only one currency which establishes the ability of members to speak for the community and that is "respect", which has to be earned and is easily squandered. So this proposal and others to follow, makes this explicit, and will enable those members who are most respected and involved (because respect is in part generated by involvement) to act in such a way as to protect the interests of the CoV. The membership has the ability to change the composition of the proposed "council of the respected" at any time, simply through changes in the degree of "respect" offered to one another.
The Disownment proposal, and related documents to follow, are intended to serve to establish the basis under which the duties and obligations of respected community members will be effected, delineating the remedies which are likely to be effected in the event that action appears necessary.
Regards
Hermit
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