[eDebate] Fwd: hester/edebate moderation (From Alicia Hunt)

[Adam Farra]

Alicia Hunt asked me to post this for her. Don't shoot the messenger.

Begin forwarded message:


> From: "Alicia Hunt" <huntali1 at gmail.com>

> Date: April 3, 2008 1:06:29 AM GMT-04:00

> To: adamhfar at umich.edu

> Subject: re: hester/edebate moderation

>

> Adam, please post for me.

>

>

> Hester:

>

> This thread should not at all be about Kacey.  This thread should  

> be about what remedy the community is willing to come up with for a  

> very real problem with edebate and archiving messages.  I think  

> your paragraph about Kacey's character illustrates the point that a  

> lot of inappropriate things are said on edebate about real people  

> and they have unfortunate consequences beyond the immediate  

> readership.  I'm not even in the college community any more and I  

> was forwarded this message within the hour because it contains such  

> a negative caricature of Kacey, my friend.  If you want to think  

> the things you posted about her in private - more power to you, but  

> you obviously don't know her, so you should probably not share  

> those ideas with a mass audience.  "Insensitive debaters" are  

> sometimes real people who have spent years hearing lies, gossip,  

> and rumors spread about them for no good reason.  The "suffering"  

> you think she took great joy in is probably more aptly  

> characterized as "Kacey was an extremely talented policy debater  

> and enjoyed competing at the highest levels of the activity."   

> Would her humanity be an issue had she been a male participant?   

> Have you seriously ever characterized Jim or Geoff as being  

> insensitive and inflicting "suffering" on their opponents because  

> they like to win debates?  Perhaps it would have been more post- 

> modern or poetic for you had Kacey enjoyed handing her opponents  

> bags of feces in debates, but I think as a highly competitive woman  

> in debate, she realized that it was far more socially acceptable to  

> take shit than to dole it out.

>

> You are not required to "sympathize" with Kacey's personal  

> experiences in order to correct the edebate post/archiving messages  

> problem.  In fact, I don't think Kacey wants your sympathy - all  

> she ever asked for was that the community take responsibility for  

> policing its list messages!  I participated in DCA bios which were  

> very much over the line and I regret that now because it has  

> serious consequences beyond what I ever considered while writing  

> them.  I agree with Kacey that they should come down if people  

> object.  People who DID NOT WRITE MESSAGES are being burned by  

> them.  This a needless practice.  You don't have to like me or  

> think that what I did in debate was humane to agree that this fight  

> is stupid and that it would be really easy just to take the  

> objectionable messages down.

>

> As a totally personal aside, I also think you owe Kacey an  

> apology.  It shouldn't be "the cool thing to do" to crucify people  

> for trying to take actions for the good of the community.  Those  

> turn out to be the people that make the community worth being a  

> part of in the end.  I'm lucky that I met Kacey in debate - I  

> "suffered" through being her opponent (once, it was a preset) and  

> her co-worker at a debate institute.  If you actually talked to  

> her, you would probably enjoy her sense of fashion, her humor, and  

> yes.... her concern for serious issues that affect the debate  

> community.  She has a great sense of perspective; I think you would  

> realize she is pretty good at coming up with solutions for problems  

> that no one else is willing to address.

>

> Alicia Hunt


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