Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Dan vs Don

"censure" vs. "censor"
Robert — (archived)

My only proper interest, as a moderator, is with behavior. I can "censure" behavior--criticize it, caution against it, even prohibit it. I'd be out of line to "censor" content--prohibit expression of certain ideas, for example.

'Course, here on the Zone, all behavior is necessarily represented by words. I have to interpret writing not only in terms of what it says literally, but try to divine the intent behind it; and sometimes to interpret patterns of expression. When I compared Don to Dan, I was looking at a similar pattern; to censure Don but not Dan would mean letting the different content influence me. Can't do that.

Over on Flame, Fox inspired by SDAITech1 just resurrected the ancient "trench knife" thread, where I kinda went ballistic and judged posting a picture of a wicked knife and the threat to spill blood to be out of bounds. That was an extreme case in which the content (words & picture) were a literal description of behavior. Most of the time it's not so clear, and I keep my head down and wait to see the reaction of the community as a whole.

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