Re: <nettime> morlock elloi

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

When we turned off moderation a couple of months ago, we did so because
we perceived that nettime was limiting itself by too many implicit rules
that had accumulated over time. So we decided to break one, abolish our
position as moderators, as an invitation others to break a few more in
the hope to make room for some new voices/ideas/styles etc. Kinda worked...

For me, the value of the list has always been that it creates a
collective space for reflection. That's a delicate thing. If it becomes
too cozy, it turns into an self-reflective in-group, if it become to
confrontational, then there is little change of actually thinking
together, rather everyone digs in their heels.

I still like the non-moderated flow, but I dislike the sucking noise of
real-time. It turns out, at least for me, one of the best things that
moderation did was to induce semi-random delays, simply because we never
worked on a fixed schedule when to do the manual work of moderation.
Sometimes a few hours would pass, sometimes more a full day before the
message got approved.

We were thinking about ways to introduce that delay again, without
reverting back to moderation. Of course, it could be done, but we didn't
do it. So, lets see where this goes. We can break a few more rules if it
helps to push forward our collective attempt to understand and do
something in the present -- whatever that is for each the 4500 people on
the list.

Felix





On 2018-04-08 21:18, tbyfield wrote:
> Hmmm.
> 
> morlock's style has struck me as problematic at times, but other
> problems concern me much more: the obstinate gender bias, the prevalence
> of a few voices, the lack of experimentation, and sedentary/habitual
> tendencies in subject, style, regional focus. I get that his/her/their
> mail might be a frequent low-level irritant for some people, the kind of
> thing that sparks eruptions. But for me the nature of that eruption
> matters more than the cause: ad-homimen attacks, people ordering each
> other around, and people who've never tired of letting the world
> remember that they 'founded' nettime decades ago leaping to the
> barricades in private mail to un-propose a "permanent ban." If we're
> going to take any drastic action, it'll be to permanently ban anyone who
> proposes permanently banning someone else.
> 
> Felix and I have spent twenty years tending to this list, so our views
> are, at the very least, well informed. Felix can speak for himself if he
> wants, but I think the tendencies above are a more serious threat than
> the pace or tone of any contributor. If it's true that one person "is
> killing the list," then this list is dead already. If it's not true,
> then it says a lot that such a claim would go unquestioned. Not about
> the person who said it (more boring ad-hominem stuff, bleh) but about
> deeper shifts — for example, in whether people trust that an environment
> like this can change organically or instead needs draconian
> 'leadership.' If it does, it's dead.
> 
> A year or two or three ago, I thought the list was pretty much dead. But
> it has a funny habit of rising from the grave and wobbling around for a
> while, and there's been a trickle of people de-lurking or first-posting.
> Nettime needs much more of that, and a much wider range of perspectives,
> styles, and tolerances. But that kind of pious plea that 'we can do
> better' smells like something Zuckerberg would say, doesn't it? So let
> me moderate that: we also need to do worse — much worse. Doing worse has
> always been a sign of life on this list. Some of you will remember Paul
> Garrin, integer/antiorp/nn, and jodi — entities that, in different ways,
> embodied and exploited the list's most extreme possibilities. There was
> a time when infuriating provocations were seen as good.
> 
> As usual, Jaromil squeezed five interesting ideas into two sentences:
> 
>> maybe he passed on his account. The sort of replying-myself thing he
>> is doing shows that some sort of twitter ab-user has taken place and
>> the quantity of activity indicates there may be more people behind the
>> account now.
> 
> I like the idea that morlock is a sort of anti-antiorp. I don't think
> it's true, but it doesn't matter: nettime has always actively supported
> a false-names policy. But the idea that morlock is an improper name, a
> nym for a twitterish performance of a cynical old white techie, is much
> more interesting than bourgie pearl-clutching about how this is nettime
> and we...we have standards!
> 
> I know this is sort of old-school, but if you don't like something,
> maybe try (a) contacting the person privately with a suggestion and/or
> (b) filtering your mail.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ted
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