[wplug-board] IRC problem

Bill Moran wmoran at potentialtech.com
Wed Nov 24 14:12:38 EST 2004


Beth Lynn <bethlynn at wplug.org> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> $person appeared on the irc channel. I reminded $person of the ban. within 
> minutes, $person phoned me.
> 
> $person believes that he is popular in the IRC channel and at the meetings
> I told $person that a vote was taken in the IRC channel and that no one 
> really wanted him there. $person insists that his problem is only with 
> Jonathan Billings and Bill Moran. I tried to explain to $person that 
> others have complained about his conduct at meetings and on the IRC 
> channel. The board had considered all of these complaints and came 
> to the decision that $person was not to show up at wplug meetings. $person 
> insists that he has anonymous parties who have contacted him privately to
> say we are being "unfair" and that wplug is a dying group.

The problem with a democracy, is that even the evil, wacko people expect
to be able to have their say.

> $person denies all threats and insists on taking a "vote" at the next 
> meeting as to wether or not he should be allowed on the irc channel and 
> the meetings. I begged $person not to embarrass himself by doing this 
> but he feels the need to confront everyone in person. As far as I can 
> tell, $person will not go away until everyone has told him to do so to his 
> face. I asked $person to not come and that I would call CMU police if 
> $person does show up. $person insists on his "right" to have an in person 
> forum to make it public so that everyone could see the tradgey of 
> $person's removal.

Aside from the immediacy of this particular incident, I expect WPLUG will
need to take time to draft up an official ejection policy for general
members.

>From the IRC standpoint, the website does specify certain rules, if he
is clearly in violation of those rules, we can use them (and the fact
that they're publicly posted) to strengthen WPLUG's position.  James
and Paul are recommending that you have physical evidence (i.e., print
out an IRC log or an email) that you already notified him that he is
not welcome.

My problem is that I didn't see anything that happened in IRC, I just
heard about it after the fact.

> $person has asked the board to consider allowing him to use the next 
> meeting as a forum to tell his side of the story. Unless anyone feels 
> differently, I will call $person before the next meeting and ask $person
> again not to show.

My sense of democracy says, "no, let him have his chance to speak."

My sense of sanity says, "Yeah, just keep turning him away until he gets
the idea."

> The writing is on the wall that December 4th is going to be ugly.
> I will be hosting and Mark will be speaking. If it is possible, please 
> show up with your support.

Well.  I'll be there in any event (as I want to see Mark's docbook talk),
but I just convinced James and Paul to go as well (it won't hurt, they
could use to learn some docbook!).

I never expected this problem to get this bad.  I expected it would always
be uncomfortable if he and I were at a meeting together, but I didn't
expect him to get this out of hand.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com



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