[Reader-list] what is to be done?

[Parvinder Singh]

Dear all,

Moderation, not necessarily as a means of  control but as a facilitator, is
surely needed for this list. In the past few months one has seen several
mails and exchanges that are reflective of discussion being taken over by a
single issue and mostly from a very narrowed down perspective as it gets
restricted to a few protagonists.

The issue is not about filtering wrong or right, but mostly about
facilitation.

Maybe through an announcement of a debate question for the members, which is
time bound, and then moving on to another or even staying with same till
such time as the members can sustain interest.

This is not to say that an issue can ever get exhausted but to stress that
after a stage polemics belongs to research rooms and archives and not the
list serve of the kind we have been using here.

Warm regards
Parvinder

On Jan 24, 2008 9:01 AM, Ravi Agarwal <ravig64 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Aarti
>
> Many thanks for your mail. I think that we need to talk about many
> other things which people like me on the reader list are interested
> in. I am sure the discussion about the communal nature of our nation
> state is a very important one, but this is as important as are other
> key issues confronting us today, like issues of poverty, environment,
> changing urban landscapes, the discussions on the arts,  and impacts
> of new globalisations etc, from my perspective for example, and there
> could be many others.
>
> I feel that if one discussion becomes very dominant, then others feel
> cowed down and do not post. Maybe the moderator can do this, trigger
> of discussions other than this as well. What do you think?
>
> Or I may be wrong and then most on the reader list are only interested
> in one topic, in which case I rest my case, since it is based on past
> experience with the list and the variety of topics it held.
>
> best and good luck
> ravi agarwal
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 22, 2008, at 12:54 PM, Aarti Sethi wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> It is becoming more and more difficult to read the writing on the
> reader-list. From misogyny, the likes of which I do not recall ever
> seeing
> before, to threats of physical violence against women's bodies, to
> right-wing Hindu vitriol, what is going on? It is actually now painful
> to
> have to see 37 responses on a thread which deserves not even one,
> because
> people are valiantly trying to talk rationally, reason with, respond to
> people who should just be told to shut up. I know its very hard to keep
> quite and let things go, especially when we have exemplars like
> chanchal and
> vedavati on this list. But we are all just getting fatigued now with
> this
> relentless barrage of invective and hate that the list is constantly
> subjected to.
>
> So now I am asking for solutions. What is to be done?, as Lenin asked
> many
> years ago. What is to be done to save the reader-list? Can we have a
> discussion on this? Clearly responding to them in any rational fashion
> is
> not a solution. And I frankly have no interest or hope that anything
> any of
> us can say will make any difference. This is not about me refusing to
> have a
> conversation, because the fact is, they do not want to have a
> conversation
> at all. And i think that is quite clear from the writing on the list
> in the
> past two weeks.
>
> This is a request to to please stop engaging with them. Lets ignore
> them,
> lets not respond to them, lets please just mark all their mails so
> they go
> into our collective trash folders, lets talk about other things,
> anything.
> They can then keep talking to each other about the wonderful Hindu
> nation
> they will build ad nauseum. But we dont have to listen to this. And of
> course they will claim this as a victory etc etc. How we cant respond to
> them, how we have nothing to say to their brilliant argumentation. I can
> already predict the responses to this mail. But I have no trouble saying
> that they are right. I am limited by my own linguistic incapacity to
> respond
> to writing which is so poisonous.
>
> And a final qualification about my use of "us" and "them" and any
> questions
> regarding othering, insularity, assumption of moral superiority etc
> etc. I
> can unabashedly say that I have absolutely no problems creating this
> binary
> divide. I have no issues saying that these are people I want to have
> nothing
> to do with, as far as I am concerned they are unethical and violent
> and I
> dont see why they should have any purchase on my time at all. There
> are far
> more interesting things being said and there are interesting people
> saying
> them who I would much rather read, than the reams and reams of boring
> hateful drivel that constantly issue from the likes of chanchal..
>
> If anyone else has any other ideas please lets hear them. And if
> anyone has
> forgotten how to make filters so you can trash the trash, here is a
> link to
> Vivek's very instructive mail on the matter:
> http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011005.html
>
> best
> Aarti
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>



-- 
Parvinder Singh
"The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your
being will immediately orient itself toward your success."

Daisaku Ikeda