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Yes, I realize that my conception is a platonic ideal and the real-world application of my ideal is bound to be messy and there will be disagreement. In this si
by BitwiseFool 6y ago
Yes, I realize that my conception is a platonic ideal and the real-world application of my ideal is bound to be messy and there will be disagreement. In this situation it would come down to a judgement call.
I would allow the patterns because they are knitting related. I don't want to restrict any user's freedom to upload a pattern - even if it's political. And I don't want to restrict anyone else from downloading those patterns. I suppose my desire to let people share needlework patterns outweighs my desire to exclude politics. I'm more concerned about user behavior around political patterns rather than the political message of the patterns themselves. To this point, I would be weary about any user who starts to agitate and evangelize.
The key is how these users are behaving outside of those particular pattern pages. Are they intentionally trying to inject politics into other knitting discussions? Are they trying to recruit like minded people, or shaming other users who disagree? If so, that's when I would warn the user to stop, and then ban the user if they aren't making a sincere effort to be less contentious.
- flir 6y agoThe irony is that "no politics here" is, in itself, a political stance. There's a spectrum here. I'm sure there are words baked into a knitting pattern you would find acceptable, and words you wouldn't. The place where you draw that line is a political decision. And, lets be honest, we both know what online communities are like. If you draw no line at all you'll attract 100 awful people for every principled free speech activist. And if you draw a line, any kind of a line, a proportion of your userbase will spend their time tiptoeing up to it and rules lawyering it for fun. You can't avoid politics being an ongoing issue in any community.