Hiding Posts

[Whiskeytide]

16. Excellent post and point.....

.... I am a "hidden post" junkie. I usually find them fascinating - especially the genuine meltdowns, and the obvious trolls. And the comments are usually funny as hell. That probably says a lot about me, I suppose!!

But because I can't resist the blue view post, I have seen more than a few absolutely ridiculous hides, and many that were obviously based on a personal vendetta with the accused. Also, quite a few "we should not have to see that on a democratic board".... WTF? Are our positions so delicate that we cannot defend them from criticism? Put on your big boy/girl underwear, folks, pick up a keyboard, and take up a post on the bandwidth.

But we do need a juror honor code -

Oh man, I HATE this poster - If you allow your personal feelings for the accused influence your adjudication of a post, you should be ashamed of yourself. Period. If you have previously had any back and forth with the accused that might have caused you to form an opinion of him/her, you should decline the jury assignment. You would never serve on a real jury if you knew and had fought with the accused, right? Or if you were their best friend? This should be no different.

Well, that doesn't sound very progressive - "I'm voting to hide because I don't agree with that post" is conclusive evidence that the juror desires to change the name of this place to the "Authoritarian Underground"!!

Do I really have to explain myself? - Yes. You do. The "comments/explanation" on your decision should not be "optional". If you can't explain your decision, you should not have made it. If you're too busy to write a one sentence comment explaining your decision, you should have been too busy to thoughtfully adjudicate a post in the first instance.

I wanna be a troll hunter, baby - People sometimes seem to abandoned "innocent until proven guilty" on this progressive discussion board, which stuns me. Here, that would be what you said - leave it unless it is a clear violation of rules. It is very clear from some hides that jurors were intentionally reading the worst into a post. I've seen jurors spend their rent money to extrapolate evil intent from something that was, at best, vague and ambiguous. Beyond a reasonable doubt really does mean something.

Hiding someone's words and opinions is always a big freakin' deal - even on an internet board. Please do it thoughtfully and with sound, democratic principles, or decline to do it. You owe that to your DU community.