Sometimes the moderator has their own axe to grind.
This has happened with Dan Bernstein on namedroppers to the extent where
his address was posted for unauthorized unsubscriptions, his messages were
blocked, and handled in ways that were inappropriately unique. Others have
also experienced this. Randy Bush is a frequent abuser.
I have just seen this on DNSOP, where Rob Austein asked for a discussion
topic to stop, and then asked for the polar opposite to be re-introduced
"from oblivion". He refused to chastise several blatant ad hominems
containing foul language, and instead publicly chastised me without cause,
only because I was on the opposite side. Randy Bush was an abuser in this
case as well. In fact, Bush only contributed ad hominems to the
discussion.
See my message to DNSOP dated Tue, 1 Apr 2003 18:55:49 -0500 (EST)
Quoting myself:
"Instead of using your authority to bias discussion around proposals you
personally support, you should chastise those making ad hominem attacks,
or otherwise unprofessional posts, to keep discussion on a professional
level, and work to clarify arguments and objections, so that rational
decisions can be made."
There is much discouragement when faced with such obvious bias toward
leader's personal pet projects, and the failure to police the abuse of
"chums" in the leadership.
--Dean
On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Carsten Bormann wrote:
One more point: An argument does not become stronger by being repeated
more often.
Of the 175 senders to this list last month, 20 of us contributed more
than half the list traffic. If we have made our position clear, the
argument is, I think, stronger if it is not repeated - and silence
allows other voices to be heard.
Harald,
while I strongly agree with this entire message, there is also a danger
of a "silent majority" in a mailing list.
I believe the approach cited works best with a moderator that
periodically attempts summaries of the results of the discussion.
In WG mailing lists, this can be done by the working group chair.
It's not clear who is playing this role in this list.
(And I'm not trying to imply you should.)
Gruesse, Carsten