Dear fellow board members,

In the wake of Aves’s departure I feel our Board Leaders (BL) have justified their actions on the basis of that they did forewarn him of their specific concerns beforehand and that it was discussed between them. Imposing the discipline that is necessary for the best interests of the whole is not an easy or pleasant task and I appreciate our leaders’ efforts.

In a poll I undertook previously there was clear support for BL to take such actions and whilst not everyone will agree with a particular BL decision they do have our mandate, as well as Agoracom’s, to sanction and act independently to maintain this boards reputation as a place where comment can be made without the anarchy we see on other Boards.

But what can we learn from this incident?

1.The finality of a total ban gives no opportunity for a person to reform or amend, temper their ways or apologise.

2.The process of PM discussion about an incident is not transparent to all.

3.The Agoracom process does not allow for temporary banning or sin binning.

A Way forward

May I suggest to our BL that notice that someone is to be banned and the prime reason for that ban is made initially stated on the main board and thereafter all correspondence including inter BL exchanges, appeals or apologies and member comment is kept to the off topic forum alone where it can exist as a transparent record of what happened. This could include warnings for mild infringement.

sulasailor