[WikiEN-l] Not a lynch mob

Mon Jun 7 15:20:40 UTC 2004

Charles, sorry if I was too hasty to be clear. Let me try again.

A lynch mob (a) kills someone (b) without giving them a trial.

A. This mailing list is not killing anyone, so the reference to
"lynching" is an exaggeration. 

B. No one is calling for action OF ANY SORT to be taken without
following the proper procedure. Rather, we trying to come to some sort
of an agreement RATHER THAN taking an "adverse action". If somebody
simply blocked user:172 WITHOUT going through the committee system, this
would be "extra-judicial", that is, BY-PASSING the offical system to
take unoffical action.

It seems to me we are bending over backwards to be the precise OPPOSITE
of the sort of vigilantes who lynched an innocent man in the classic
Western "Incident at Red Rock", so I wish Abe wouldn't characterize us
this way. Nonetheless, he enjoys free speech here so if it FEELS like a
lynch mob he's free to say so. But those who are stolidly REFUSING to
take unilateral action against him have the right to register their
objection to such a characterization.

Clear now?

Ed Poor