Let me be clear that I am going to be vague

In another thread I wrote this - which i now think is worthy of its own thread

... the way we decide what is good or what is not good .... or what is not for the open forums ...   is wonky.  After all, the english language makes it so there are lots of edge cases.  And the all volunteer staff is untrained, so they make the best of it.  And some people seem to be trying to fuck with us - so the staff tend to be a bit more strict.  And some people are openly trying to stumble through life, and the staff seem less strict.  

And, of course, it is about a thousand times more complicated than that. While at the same time being simpler than that: staff bee-bop through the forums and if they see something that they think stinks, they remove it.  

And once in a long while somebody says "hey, my golden poetry disappeared! what the fuck! put it back!"  And stuff happens.  And sometimes I am asked to take a look.   Normally I just want to support the untrained, unpaid staff - but once in a while I might deviate from that path.


So, people say "Hey, you gotta be clearer about this!" and my response is "Let me be clear that I am going to be vague."  I think a lot of forums are destroyed by their own rules.  We have the one rule which is very vague.  And then we have a lot of very vague guidelines.  And then we sloppily make it all up as we go.  And, mysteriously, a few hundred thousand people seem to understand perfectly and everything is fine.  And a few dozen (hundred?) people do NOT understand - and they either figure it out in time, or they leave.  

And all is well.

I hope this helps.

As I learn about and trial Landrace gardening, I begin to see the value of that "way" of managing yet un-managing all aspects of life, including online forums - It all seems promising in the long view for those willing to broaden thier scope of perspective.

In my opinion, this forum is resembling of the Dao...it just simply "is"...don't question it too much just embrace the beauty and live by it ;)

I used to be in a friend group who played Dungeons & Dragons, I do not like that game. However, I did play every once in awhile.

First rule: Never argue with the person running the game
Second rule: The person running the game can change rules if it makes the game more fun

There were many people that played with us who would forget these two rules, and would spend hours bickering over what we were "allowed" to do in our shared creative space. Those people made the game not fun, and less creative.

Kudos to you, Paul, for keeping this space creative and fun as we all play together. You are running the game, and you can change the rules if it makes it more fun for all of us. Thank you.

Cole Tyler wrote:...I begin to see the value of that "way" of managing yet un-managing all aspects of life
...don't question it too much just embrace the beauty and live by it

When I was studying for my BA (bookbinding), our teachers encouraged demanded us to keep Working Journals, and to date the entries.

The habit stuck, and over the years I've noticed that an idea can sprout with great force of birthing and then grow eeeverrr sooo slowlyyy...and then one ordinary Tuesday it suddenly, spectacularly blooms.

Dreams manifest just after you've let go of chasing/pushing them.

A plant I've tried to establish will not thrive, only to pop up with an (imaginary?) glee in an unexpected corner.

Life is full of magical chaos, and it's up to us to "ride the dragon" or surf the waves.

I think that sites that have hard rules are destroyed, in time, by their own rules - hostile people justifying their hostility by the set of hard rules.

Here, we have a teeny tiny site that was created to talk about the stuff I wanna talk about the way I wanna talk about it.  And there is just a lot of stuff I don't wanna talk about any more.  And there is stuff that I think is hostile or stupid that I don't want.  So what is published is based entirely on what seems okay to me.  Which is vague. Which is perfect.

Having lots of rules would make it difficult for the volunteer staff to keep on top of.
one rule - be nice, seems to work pretty well....

Bump