22 Sep 2004

Eve Guardian

 

Greetings Miss Tegral,

 

I was reading this reader's letter to you with great interest. It has quitea few misinterpretation of facts by this anonymous writer. Let me correctthem.

 

The CRC is playing a vital role, that much is true. They are the soleenforcers of arbitrary rules on the GalNet forums, which their employer happens to OWN. Which means that - unfortunately, but quite understandably -they can interpret the rules as they see fit - bending them in some cases,breaking in others.

 

They do all this even when faced with such hostility anddisrespect from the community, a commendable performance indeed.

 

The false accusation of CRC "playing the role of big-brother, controlling what everyone can see with smoke and mirrors." is not as true as the writer of the letter would like you believe. They only control what we can see on GalNet: removing a link to a website with inappropriate content does not remove your access to that website, it is still publicly available.

 

And "remove Jade from the forums without proper investigation into the charges laid out and the sentence examined"?

 

Excuse me?

 

The GalNet channels are not run by a duly elected democratic government, it is privately owned. Nothing prevents anyone from setting up another GalNet forum and say whatever they want about anything.

 

I also disagree with the opinion that "the public has a right to know everyone's views, no matter if they are harsh, friendly, objective, subjective, or even downright rude." There are rules for decency on those GalNet channels and I am sure a lot of the members would be outraged if rampant cursing and other indecent activities were the norm.

 

I see no harm done by removing a notorious verbal criminal who might have been cheered by a few but hated by many.

 

Kind regards,

 

Let's Be Real

Dear Real:

 

We also agree with a majority of the actions. And find that the occasional errors in implementation not be considered a standard from which to condemn the CRC.

 

However in our opinion there are times when a good hard look may be required. Nothing, and no one, is perfect. Only honest review and audit can help to keep from having variances sway far too outside of the expected norm.

 

We see no reason to lynch the CRC or any particular member. We don't see the need for the complete suppression of discussion over the general policies and actions that have taken place as well.