roundtable: re: provocateurs

roundtable: re: provocateurs

re: provocateurs

Joseph Ransdell (ransdell@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu)
Mon, 6 Mar 1995 18:54:28 -0600 (CST) 

Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 18:54:28 -0600 (CST)
From: Joseph Ransdell <ransdell@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: re: provocateurs
Message-Id: <Pine.SV4.3.91.950306172933.11184A-100000@unicorn>


It is not possible to solve the provocateur problem simply by resorting 
to the delete key or by cultivating civility or by trying to answer 
them reasonably or by challenging their sincerity as members or by 
anything else the members of the list might do.  The provocateurs can, 
if they wish, flood the list with violent posts seemingly from different 
regular members but actually from only a few or even a single provocateur 
with multiple list identities.  (I don't know how they do this but 
apparently it is not particularly difficult to forge an identity in that 
way and seem to be posting from someplace else.) So regardless of how 
astute the authentic members are, the list will be poisoned if they wish 
to poison it.  This is why it is essential that the list managers handle 
it, and the regular list members should simply let them do so and not 
keep responding to the provocations. 

If the list managers are not competent to the task then that is the end 
of the list if the provocateurs want it that way.  This should be 
impressed on anybody who wants to start a new list of the sort that the 
provocateurs might want to poison. 

To avoid a possible misunderstanding: I am talking about *management* 
of the list, not *moderation* of the discussion.  To fall back on the 
moderated list is to capitulate to the provocateurs.  They are 
interested in shutting down public forums, and a public forum is not 
the same as a moderated discussion group. I see no good reason why they 
should be allowed to close these fora down.  All that is required to 
neutralize these attempts is a grasp of the fact that it is *primarily* 
a list management problem, and of course a readiness on the manager's 
part to act appropriately when necessary.  As I stressed in my previous 
post, though, it is not exclusively that; for if the legitimate list 
members do not understand the problem, too, some of them will 
inevitably though unwittingly cooperate with the provocateurs by 
trying to handle it themselves and thus simply replicate the 
provocateur through their own actions, and the list manager may be 
unable to get control of the situation in that case. 

Joseph Ransdell
<ransdell@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu>

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