Post in 15. Moderating or facilitation discussions

2005 Dec 08 15:50 UTC

At 1:24 PM +0000 12/8/05, MJ Ray wrote:
>One essential point that participants should accept is that
>sometimes forums will split or merge because of differences
>or similarities. The world hasn't found a way for fascists and
>anti-facists to coexist without causing divisions, so why should
>we expect online to be so far ahead of it?
>
>Splits and merges don't seem to be addressed in the IF guide yet.
>>Should they happen or not?

Steve Clift addressed this question already, but I'd like to add a
few thoughts.

E-Democracy.Org would discourage "splits" in an Issues Forum along
ideological lines. We believe, that the Greens, the Liberals, the
Conservatives, and even the fascists all have their own on-line
forums already. The entire purpose of an Issues Forum, is to create a
single place on-line where an individual can 'speak to' and 'hear
from' a real cross section of the community.

Extremists are members of the community and are given their space in
an Issues Forum, as long as they abide by the forum rules, which
would prevent them from using the forum for any illegal "hate speech"
as defined in each local community (or country). Also, the forums are
structure in a way, to make it difficult for any 1 or 2 individuals
to "take over" or "hijack" the forum.

If fascists and anti-fascists both show up a regular council hearing,
we don't generally split the hearing (or committee meeting) into two
different meetings - so that the two groups don't have to be
together. We use the rules of the meeting to keep order and try to
facilitate things such that we can keep as many people as involved as
possible while still getting business accomplished.

An Issues Forum should be that kind of place, where the rules and
culture of the space make it possible for a broad and diverse a group
of folks as possible can co-exist. AGAIN - when very divisive and
polarized situations arise, there is no automatic on-line feature
that will solve this problem. Issues Forums rely on the skill and
leadership of their forum manager and steering committee to navigate
them through these troubled times. E-Democracy.Org stands ready as an
resource to provide input and advice, if things become difficult in a
local Issues Forum.

Is this helpful?

Tim Erickson
E-Democracy.Org