February Midterm Presidential Poll Results

[Izzy]

Sorry I was unable to respond to this discussion earlier. I'll be honest, the comment in question slipped past me, I was very tired when I was compiling everything, so my apologies. Had I noticed it, I would have removed the comment. It would still be accessible in the raw data, of course, if anyone wanted to dig deeper, because I don't want to tamper with that. In general, I like to include as many comments as I can because I feel they add context to the scores given. There's no point in removing this comment now, as it has garnered so much attention, but I'll be more mindful in the future.

Thank you, Calvin. I truly appreciate your clarification that it was just an oversight.

 

[Jahka]

We have a lot to pick from Calvin. Pick HEM's brain about the earlier Euro years. He and I definitely tried to prop up a lot of Presidents to maintain the status quo of outgoing Presidents and push the Old Guard agenda onwards and upwards.

The old guard is real! :O h43r:

 

[Skizzy Grey]

In general, I like to include as many comments as I can because I feel they add context to the scores given.

I'm surprised no one has called out Calvin for publishing the comment calling Brunhilde a "temperamental chihuahua," which is not substantively different than the comment about Rach. Did Calvin miss that one too??

Unmoderated, anonymous Internet commentary almost always descends into nastiness. That's why no sane person reads the comments on news sites. In particular, it is foreseeable that publishing unedited, anonymous comments will result in dissemination of sexist comments -- this is not the first time it has happened, and I have certainly noticed that female targets fare worse in these comments than their male counterparts, even when there are not openly sexist comments.

Hyanygo hits the nail on the head, as usual -- this behavior is bad for our community. We ought to start holding citizens who provide an outlet for this sort of commentary accountable.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

For the record, if anyone leaves anonymous, vulgar, nasty comments about me on these sorts of things, anyone involved should totally keep them in, because I'd rather know that people feel that nastily to me than preserve some sort of arbirtrary standard of higher discourse. Everyone else should be allowed to make the same call if they want.

 

[Skizzy Grey]

For the record, if anyone leaves anonymous, vulgar, nasty comments about me on these sorts of things, anyone involved should totally keep them in, because I'd rather know that people feel that nastily to me than preserve some sort of arbirtrary standard of higher discourse. Everyone else should be allowed to make the same call if they want.

I feel the same way, but we're both older than the median age around here, as well as more thick-skinned than the norm, and of course neither of us has any first-hand perspective on being a woman in NationStates. It's going to be bad for the region if we define what's acceptable discourse by what you and I can tolerate.

But I think we may have a more fundamental disagreement -- in my view, cases where anonymous sniping adds value are the exception, not the rule. The Internet is replete with examples of this.

 

[Lethen]

I wouldn't be opposed to those comments being included if they did offer something of substance but deliberately editing out the vulgar or offensive words/content (and noting it in the post).

Though part of me also wants to leave it in so public pressure could be applied to find out who it was that said it so we could shun address that player or players directly. Not attack them, to clarify, but to hopefully show them why that sort of commentary is unhelpful and wrong.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

For the record, if anyone leaves anonymous, vulgar, nasty comments about me on these sorts of things, anyone involved should totally keep them in, because I'd rather know that people feel that nastily to me than preserve some sort of arbirtrary standard of higher discourse. Everyone else should be allowed to make the same call if they want.

I feel the same way, but we're both older than the median age around here, as well as more thick-skinned than the norm, and of course neither of us has any first-hand perspective on being a woman in NationStates. It's going to be bad for the region if we define what's acceptable discourse by what you and I can tolerate.

But I think we may have a more fundamental disagreement -- in my view, cases where anonymous sniping adds value are the exception, not the rule. The Internet is replete with examples of this.

I think it should be explicitly opt-in. As in, we each choose can let pollsters (via a post in OIM, perhaps?) know we're fine with whatever negative comments, no matter how toxic, are said about Us in particular, being made public.