|
|
To block or not to block, that is the question... Elizabeth's swan songJan 25 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Books
The Bottom Line This used to be a wonderful site... I hope somehow it survives all of the problems below...
A bit of a swan song for me-- I never intended to write one more thing for this site, due my complete support of a very good friend of mine leaving this site. But, oddly enough, his reasons for leaving have become a reason for me to write one more thing before my hands are washed completely of this site. The issue: censorship and community blockage, a favorite discussion for many, including me, recently. I am hoping that by writing this editorial, maybe a few more people will take a more serious look at the ramifications of blocking someone’s entire range of work upon this site. Blocking a racist or a thief or an outright abuser is one thing, however, some seem to be willing to take this to staggering extremes. An earlier editorial I wrote about a community blocked member, which has since been deleted due to my removal of all of my material from the site, had a bit of conjecture in it, which proved false, but also proved somewhat accurate in the sense that blockages can happen as a result of a power trip, and for extremely stupid reasons. This particular blockage is even more troubling, in that it was not based upon the person’s conduct upon Epinions, but in another place completely, a totally different site, whose only connection to Epinions was that Epinions members frequented it! I know that many of you frequent Yahoo clubs and message boards, and what I’m about to write probably won’t pertain to you in the slightest. I have a great deal of respect for many in the Epinions community, which is why I left my WOT intact when I deleted everything in my account, and many of these people probably do network through Yahoo. BFD. What’s pretty pathetic about this member’s situation, and what should either tick off or strike fear into the hearts of each and every person who writes on Epinions, is that he or she may be community blocked in regard to a post or a comment that he or she made on another site! This may just be me, but I find this to be censorship in its crudest form, and a sneaking, creepy evil... When Epinions censorship occurs due to an action OUTSIDE of Epinions, one must question just what the hell is going on! Are we really that messed up that we need to censor every single thought or every single action or every single word that a person might express? Be honest. Would you really block someone on this site if you found out via a message board that they loved to practice S&M? Would you block them if they left a comment on a board that stated they shoplifted makeup from Target as a teenager? Would you block them if they claimed to molest, say, a goat, on some message board out somewhere in cyberspace? What if despite those character flaws exposed for all on the Internet to see, this person was an incredible writer, who produced top quality reviews on Epinions, and never let any of these proclivities come to light on the site? What sort of a witch hunt would you be on if you did this? Must a person watch every single thing they speak, or write everywhere, at all times, just to make sure that their opinions continue to be heard on this site? Maybe some of the people on this site would love to have the Thought Police hanging out behind every single door, waiting for that one slipup. Would you sleep more easily at night, if you knew that everything you said or did was watched, and the police could break in at any moment to arrest you for this? Maybe I’m strange, but I find the prospect of all of that surveillance all over the internet by some of these people in this community to be a little disconcerting, to say the least. This is why my good friend left the site, and I’ve decided to support him completely once I’ve had my last bit of say here. Of course, the person I’ve been writing about all this time has done none of these things. His greatest sin was that he signed up for one of the read and rate clubs on Yahoo, and rated some opinions signed off to maximize other peoples’ IS, instead of signed in, so that everyone in the click circle thought he didn’t rate them, and he left a comment to that effect. Wow, now there’s a sin worthy of having every single bit of your work censored from public view!!! When will these evil sins end? Please, please, Father, deliver me from these heinous crimes! Situations like this make me shudder for the future of Epinions-- not that I really mind, after I post this, I’m leaving the site permanently, in signed-off mode. Thought for Nirav and Company-- perhaps if your abuse department really did its work, there would be no need for that block button, and quality writers, like the person I’m writing about, would be able to populate the site with wonderful and “very helpful” reviews, instead of much of the garbage that you see drifting through the “Just In.” How many more wonderful people are going to leave this site because of this kind of idiocy? This site has already lost one of the most incredible writers I’ve ever read, my good friend mentioned in my short biography. It’s a tragedy to see many wonderful people go-- I just found out that someone else whose writing I love is leaving as well. How long will Epinions stagger along on its cadre of abusers, demagogues, and trust sluts? I’m guessing it’s probably not that much longer before the remaining wonderful people leave, and the site is left with 100 word reviews that say something along the lines of: I love 101 Dalmations. It is a very good movie. It has a lot of dogs. Glen Close is evil, and I really hate her. Wow, those dogs were really cute! Look at the little puppy-- he’s running, awww! Wow, this was just the best movie ever! I rented it from Blockbuster. You should rent it to-- it is an awesome movie! Rent it! Rent it! Rent it! If you ever liked watching movies, you will really love this movie! The puppies are so cute! Everyone who loves dogs will love this movie! You can get it at Blockbuster. Go rent it now. Maybe you should really think hard about the ramifications of hitting that block button, especially if you are thinking of doing this in response to an e-mail you received from another individual. What are the potential costs to the site if you do click “block?” What, exactly, are you removing from your view, and potentially public view as well? Have you investigated everything thoroughly, and do you feel that you really have proof and justification for your block? These are a few things to really consider before clicking, and possibly depriving a member of his or her voice, especially if this person is a top-flight writer, who lends character and grace to the site. The person who I have written of before and I am writing of now is one of that type and caliber. My own block list, when I was active on the site, was limited to about 8 or 9 people who had either been removed for some form of abuse of another member on the Epinions site, abused me personally, or had been proven to have been a plagiarist, or spewed racist hate. For the most part, despite a recent trust abuse issue I’ve addressed in an editorial, I’ve been pretty content to live and let live, maybe making a comment here or there, but for anything or anyone I’ve talked about in this sentence, I’ve never hit the block key. A couple of these people were on my mental “ignore” list, which meant I would no longer read or rate them, but that’s the worst of it. I never hit the “block” button lightly, and I would hope that most people would realize the potential dangers, and do the same. It’s hard for me to deprive someone of their very voice-- to me it reeks of censorship, and knowing how I would hate to have that done to me, I hesitate to do the same to others. In closing, let me express my thanks to those of you who were so wonderful and supportive of me, when I was dealing with my own blockage, as it was your friendship that kept me here. I was just glad to be able to leave in defense and support of friendship as well. Consider this last bit here to be a bit of friendship and loyalty to this particular blocked member. And to all who would block someone for trivial reasons, such as petty revenge, divergent political beliefs, site counters, or something of the nature of the above without even bothering to communicate, shame on you! You sully an otherwise wonderful site with your sorry selves! ____________________________________________________________ Well, this was going to be the end of the above editorial, however, I have found out by sheer fluke a couple of other things that have seriously ticked this girl off! One of them is the “community blockage” of my friend villagesage’s profile page, on which he stated that he was no longer writing for this site, and that the petty censors who block for the reasons above were the reason why. He has no reviews left on the site, so why was this action taken? All that remains is a blank profile page with a message, and WOT information. I often liked to pull up the page now and again, to remind me of the sacrifice he tried to make for me, and the loyalty and friendship that it represented-- something that made me smile in the middle of a crappy workday. Now that I’m pretty much staying “signed off,” I have been deprived of that small pleasure. Thank you very much, you blockers! What’s truly pathetic about this is that I only found out by also trying to track the progress that the person I was writing about has made toward being visible again. To do this, I hit my old profile page link on writtenbyme.com, and also noticed a couple of disturbing things (the fact that my trustors are dropping off like flies is fine-- I’m not exactly a participating member anymore), like my WOT was shrinking. Why? I wondered, since I left everyone I trusted intact. Turns out, in addition to villagesage, someone else has been community blocked as well! This person has written a number of very nice reviews on a number of different topics. Her crime? Well, from what I can gather, it was defending her feelings which had been hurt in by an extremely abusive comment left by an editor on a writeoff submission. Either that, or maybe it was the striking similarity between her username, and a username of a joke account probably used to make fun of both her, and a former Epinions member at the same time. This person was on a cruise when all of this happened, most likely... When is this idiocy, and when are these witch hunts going to stop? Is any of this making this site any more pleasant, or any more “helpful” to the consumer? The sheer dearth of “very helpful” opinions on this site was what was leading me to read less and less and spend more time in Bluehawq’s Nest, which brings me to the next thing that’s ticking me off. Unfortunately, an Epinions addiction like mine used to be, is a very tough habit to break cold-turkey, so I’d been following a couple of the sagas in the forum which I’d been following before I deleted all of my reviews. One of them was one I’d referred to in a prior editorial of mine, which is now deleted, and remains only on my hard drive. Unfortunately, though, what has happened is that these sagas have now grown into full-fledged obsessions which are leading this wonderful online community into some serious bashing! The Nest is not a hangout for the “Blocking Gestapo,” as it is being painted recently. The abuser (and this is how I alone think of her, not necessarily how everyone in the Nest thinks of her) who I talked about in a previous editorial, was e-mailed the thread you’ve begun to see posted around the site frequently by yours truly a day or two after I wrote my editorial (January 10th is the date on the copy of the e-mail I sent to my home e-mail box). So the knowledge of the thread was provided to this individual. She has also been invited by many in the Nest to join us. Many, in fact, would love to hear what she has to say, and maybe understand what’s been going on from her perspective. I’d been debating with adding this person to my WOD, but, again, the basic issue of censorship reared its head with me, and I ultimately rejected it due to my overall objection to the “block” function. This person could have easily continued to monitor the thread and discuss it, but chose not to. Now, all of a sudden, it’s become a witch hunt, and Nest members are a bunch of “jackbooted thugs.” Well, let this be my swan song-- the petty politics of this site have begun to eclipse truth and reality. Let my anger finally sever all ties with this site. I’m not happy at all-- too many casualties have occurred among people I have begun to really care about, and while I can easily stand and fight for me, I can’t stand and fight for everyone. The rage is just too much. I wish all that I care about and respect (my WOT, and those I never got the chance to add to my WOT due to my quick departure), who have chosen to remain with this site, all of the very best. You have my heartfelt thanks for everything that you’ve done to make most of this a wonderful time for me. I wish you all the best of luck and love with this site, and my hope is that my predictions above don’t come true... --Puff the Evil Dragon  |
| Read all comments (35)|Write your own comment |
