Rules & Suggestions for Comments
This is Jane. She is a generous and tolerant soul, but she doesn’t suffer a lot of nonsense. She hates internet flamethrowers, and will blast the head off of comments that are designed purely to provoke a lot of anonymous bullshit and bravado from behind a keyboard.
Jane loves to hear a good discussion, even a sharp one, as long as it doesn’t get personal. She’s a stick to the subject kind of person. She’s also not willing to listen to xenophobic, racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs. Engage in any of that, and your life expectancy in the Comments Column will be pretty brief.
Jane, as you know, is a woman. She has visited other lists and blogs, and she’d like you to know – especially the guys – that a lot of these discussions are not very welcoming spaces for women because of the way men behave on them. She suggests that men edit themselves for the following:
(1) Macho debating styles that attempt to crush opponents
(2) Grandiose cyber-Personnae
(3) Unexamined language embedded with sexist notions
(4) Suggestions about your sexual prowess (no one believes it or cares)
(5) Tendencies to simply pronounce approval or disapproval (like an appointed judge) instead of addressing the content of an argument
(6) Tough-guy talk (Jane is tougher than you are, and unimpressed.)
Jane wants more women’s voices in these discussions, so help us out with this, you guys.
This is Jane’s house, and while she is tolerant, she does not recognize anyone’s unconditional ‘right’ to run around the house doing the first thing that comes into his head. She is a very hospitable person, but that doesn’t mean anything goes.
Some people think ‘anything goes’ is somehow ‘democratic.’ Not Jane. Jane says that when there are no rules, then the loudest, most obnoxious bully dominates the room. Jane believes that democratic discussions need rules… not decrees, but rules that define mutual respect, human decency, and good will.
Jane thanks you.
Neil Cafferky:
What no male posturing? No random provocation? No braggadocio? Ok then here goes… er… hmmm… back in a minute.
17 February 2005, 10:05 amWm Joseph Robertson:
I just viewed ‘The Tillman Story’ which might be more appropriately titled ‘Nightmare’; however, that said, I was very impressed with the commentary by Mr Goff and so sought him out via search engine(s) and _ _ _ _ pedia; and immediately thereafter, his books. I looked at his books and sought these out at some shabby, grandiose online book outlet; however, I was stymied by the difficulty in obtaining a copy of ‘Sex & War.’ Therefore, as I see no immediate way to contact the author or anyone else on this site (navigability issue), I am leaving a comment here – having bookmarked the site – so that perhaps I will be contacted and directed accordingly.
I look forward to reading both current posts and the archives of the feral scholar…as for Netiquette: I have had some direct ‘conversations’ (i.e. face-to-face) very quietly with flamers and CAPS lovers, in point of fact I brought that to the attention of a room full of people at a meeting covering the entire northern region of some state, much to the chagrin and confusion of the offender…I cannot agree more with the need to remind people of the need for civility in electronic communication. Bravo.
Ciao
19 April 2012, 7:04 pmStan:
Hey William, here’s a pdf of Sex & War.
http://insurgentamerican.net/download/StanGoff/Sex-n-War.pdf
free (: The book itself is available through Lulu Press
http://www.lulu.com/shop/stan-goff/sex-war/paperback/product-323263.html;jsessionid=C6B1AB9CA05530755CA8F6048EB66791
The site is moderated, but not 24-7.
thanks, and be well
20 April 2012, 7:06 amWilliam Joseph Robertson:
Hey Stan:
Thanks for the quick response, and both the .pdf file, as well as the link to lulu.com; I prefer so-called “hard-copy” (books) and will purchase accordingly at the appropriate juncture, but I do read and accumulate a fairly vast amount of files and e-books as well. I was not sure – and remain so – as to where to write any comment or contact, which is why I chose the rules and regulations page. I would, if you might contact me directly, like to contact you directly.
I was rather shocked to see Andrea Dworkin quoted on your main page, and wondered about some of the other feminist authors you have explored. However, for now, I will see your bibliography in Sex and War.
Man, I am glad to know that the site is not monitored 24/7, and although I responded to the topic of the page after briefly scanning the rules about flamers and nasty behavior, I thought to choose a vignette from my own experience in part because it is always fun to be able to confront a flamer in the real world and remain true to the topic subject.
Although I am eclectic in training, experience, and background, I am schooled in computers by obtaining an ‘advanced’ degree in Library and Information Science (the notorious Kent State) so I have had to work double-time learning both computers and librarianship through the period of 2003-2005 – this was intended to be one of those last “career” moves relatively late in life, and I then worked as an editor and researcher in Information Science for 3 and 1/2 years post-grad ( which is neither here nor there since it has actually ended up hamstringing any hopes of being a librarian).
Well, your humor came through in what was an otherwise abominable chronicle outlined in “The Tillman Story.” I could not help but think while watching of the creation of a hero by the protagonist of ’1984,’ Winston Smith: a dead soldier by the name of Sgt. Oglivie [spelling?] (this is also alluded to in the movie ‘Wag the Dog’ with the Woody Harrelson character, ‘Shoe’). The use of tragedy or reinvention for propaganda is an old staple of all governing bodies, and it is regrettably one of the lowest forms of cynicism.
Oh yes, We are near to contemporary in age – and at this point in time I certainly have friends your age or older (as well as many friends who are veterans from the 1945-1975 Thirty Year War of the United States with Southeast Asia, or more aptly: the Pacific Rim), as I was born in 1957; thus I will turn 55 at the end of the month (Walpurgisnacht – the “Devil’s [or Witches'] Ball” in early Christian or late Pagan mythology of the whole of Europe) and although this disappointed my father who wished for me a May 1 emergence into the world of Chicago, I always told him I was impatient to get out; the same remains true today…he was “invited” to a HUAC Committee hearing in Atlanta in 1958; however, far more damning at the time was what the COINTELPRO infiltrating rat-witness of the prosecution had to say about my Mother who at that time worked in North Carolina, who was likened to Junius Scales, and was called a collaborator. It is a hearing that is obtainable through the government documents world of libraries
Again, and for the moment, ciao…and I hope this leads to a real exchange of thought, ideas, and experience. Remember the old online adage, however, remain careful and vigilant regarding any contacts and what one writes…that is a reminder as much to myself as to you.
Caio, and be well…
Oh Yes: “Mary Daly?”
20 April 2012, 11:32 am