We had a good fight

Posted on June 23, 2002 in IRC/Chat

We had a good fight on #news_garden, though I think some were terrified while it was happening. I know I’ve been there. It was a good lesson for everyone in what it means to have freedom of speech. One chatter suggested that we ban “whiners”. I pointed to one of his allies in a recent argument, one who was coming after me for a criticism I had made of her, and asked “Is she whining?” He admitted that she was, in fact, whining, and from here I took off: I call what she is doing voicing her opinion. It’s the price I pay for the framework of freedom of speech that PlagueRat has established here. If I say something here — as you pointed out earlier, — someone else may not like it. And that goes for criticisms of our criticisms, too. I won’t enforce a ban on whining. I prefer to stick to a very limited set of rules that we can actually enforce, like “no direct insults”. These enrich the environment.

I think he saw that we were on the same side after that. The conversation moved over to one about whether or not homosexuality was genetically determined or if it was choice. All were civil on all sides, all of a sudden. The fight got something out of everyone’s system it seemed to me tonight. One of those IRC hells that actually led to better times for all.