therealljidol | Green Room - Week 36

clauderainsrm.livejournal.com posting in

I feel like I’ve stepped into a rabbit hole that doesn’t go down, it just turns into an ouroboros.

A couple hours ago, I was blissfully ignorant that there was anything in existence called a “Readercon”, and Genevieve Valentine and Rene Walling were just two more names that I had never heard mentioned before, on what I assume is probably a long list of “people who do stuff that I had no idea about”. Honestly, I still have very little idea of what they do, other than one makes LJ posts, and the other sexually harass people.

Apparently, it’s a big thing in a small circle of the people who actually know what any of this is about. That circle reached me due to my checking the Idol Friends Page tonight. I’m sure there were mentions about it before, but this was the first time that I’d heard any of the names or the situations.

Which makes me highly qualified to discuss it! ;)

Actually, I’m not going to, other than to say “Wow” to everything about that.. it does bring up some interesting questions (to me) about power structures of groups involved in decision making and the role of rehabilitation versus punishment as it pertains to the big picture, and the more immediate one.

I’ve been fortunate to only have been in a position to put a permanent ban on a handful of individuals. Most of them are fake accounts. So it’s not like a banned an actual person in the process, so even those numbers are deceptive!

In most cases, I’ve found that taking the rehabilitation route to work best: Bringing people around to, if not “my way of thinking”, then at very least to a “place where they can interact with other people in a semi-civilized fashion”!

There have been some people who I didn’t think could be redeemed. Or at least, not anytime soon. Maybe, eventually, they could be... which is why it’s always a good thing that LJ allows you to undo that sort of action.

I’ll freely admit, that some of my “rehab” efforts have gone better than others - and most have ended up pissing off someone else, who saw themselves as a wronged party, and me as “backing” the other person by not just removing them permanently.

So there is always a danger that you could end up losing people you would rather keep around, in an effort to give someone that you might not like as much one more chance at redemption. Not because it’s personal. But because you think that’s the right thing to do.

Part of that has always been the conflict of trying to maintain an actual diverse community. That is going to inherently have some headbutting going on, that a lot of folks aren’t used to in groups.

There seems to be a lot more bending to public opinion, than sticking to what you think is the right call for an individual situation.

(Which isn’t to say that the 30-member committee’s decision to ban the guy wasn’t warranted. I’m sure it was. I’m speaking in general. Or perhaps, in corporal.)

Not really sure what made me think of that, or feel like I need to say it. There’s nothing currently going on within Idol that I’m making a vague allusion about, and, like I said, I didn’t even know there was a thing called Readercon until earlier tonight, much less anything about the controversy that apparently has been going on all last week (or so)!

So really, it’s less about Readercon amd all the things that I don't know about the situation, and more about some of the things that popped into my head as a result of it... don’t get my brain started on figuring out why you have a 30-member committee and a separate 5-member board. I’m sure there are good reasons... I just don’t know them! ;)

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There are a couple things that I DO know about though - and I’ve known about them for a lot longer than 24 hours!

There is a poll going on: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/595911.html

There are also Home Game entries - which is good, because those folks have their own votes to cast! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/592005.html

So make sure to take the time to send some love!