What do we mean by "All topics of interest to the LGBT community"? [View all]

[Ms. Toad]

Last edited Sun Dec 11, 2011, 09:29 PM - Edit history (1)

My last thread in this group was locked as being "off topic." The topic of discussion was expressly about the new jury system and the treatment of the LGBT community within DU.

The thread garnered:
the participation of 18 different individuals in the discussion
the recommendation of 5 individuals (and I was not one of them)
55 contributions to the conversation (not counting the locking post)
The closest "competing" thread had 46 contributions - and most others had fewer than a dozen. A quasi-random check of the other threads showed only a handful of participants in each - and an average of a little more than 2 recs.

I also have since received communication from another member of this group expressing disbelief that anyone could consider off topic in a group which welcomes "all topics of interest to the LGBT community" a discussion about the possibility that members of DU juries might not understand the importance of some issues to the LGBT community.

I was told by the locking host that the thread was alerted on by "more than one individual" - so obviously more than one person thought the topic was not of interest to the LGBT community.

So - the context is a discussion expressly about LGBT community's engagement in and with DU when the objective stats indicate there is a lot of interest within the DU LGBT community in the topic - BUT there are competing alerts by members of the DU LGBT group that the topic is not of interest to the LGBT community. Within that context, what standards do we want the host to apply (and perhaps what "reality check" would we want the host to engage in) in making the decision as to whether the topic is of interest to the LGBT community? (The question is not, as I understand it, whether or not the thread should be locked. Locking is merely a consequence which follows the decision that the discussion is off topic - it is not, at least as I understand it, an independent tool for the hosts to use to shut down threads for any other reason.

This is not, by the way, an appeal to garner support to open the locked thread. What concerns me is that labeling a discussion about how the LGBT community is treated within DU as "off topic" looks to me like a train wreck in the works (as well as seriously burnt out hosts who are constantly going to be called on to defend their decisions against a pretty fuzzy standard). My behind the scenes discussions with HillWilliam leaves me with respect for the integrity with which he tried to apply the standards in this new world as the first guinea pig host (including taking steps he had no formal obligation to take). The explanations of why the thread was locked, however, leave me with some apprehension that the decision was based not on whether the thread topic was inconsistent with the group purpose - but on whether the thread should be locked for other reasons (the reasons I was given were that the issue is broader than the DU LGBT group can resolve, the question is speculative at this point, and the opinion of the hosts consulted is that it would be better to wait and see how the new jury system plays out).

So this is a suggestion that perhaps we ought to talk about the question of how a host in the LGBT group determines a discussion is not one which is of interest to the LGBT community while there is a relatively neutral but concrete example to think about.