On at least two occasions in the past few months, I have asked the docents to step in quickly when I experienced what I considered to be gratuitous personal attacks here on Olyblog and nothing happened on both occasions.  In the absence of prompt docent moderation, I bbelieve conflict will escalate.

I do wish that when any of us ask for the docents to step in and ask another poster to refrain from personal attacks that prompt action by the docents would follow.

Absent quick action to squelch the baiting and taunting, the gratuitous personal attacks, this site will continue to be a hostile environment on a regular basis.

Re: blog post http://olyblog.net/discomfort-re-violent-confrontations

At 6:16pm Rob Richards, in his docent role, closed the thread to any further comments. See the comment below:
“Ok, I think we've squeezed every last bit of usefulness

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 6:16pm.

out of this thread,

Nothing to see here, folks, move along.”

Then at 6:32pm, after comments have been closed, “bert” makes another comment on this thread. His comment was NOT in the role of a docent. His comment was a personal comment. See the comment below:
“specific points

Submitted by bert on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 6:32pm.

What I have done here is made a strong case for why Brigham's report deserves to be viewed with skepticism. He has been a staunch detractor of PMR… “ (The comment continues but for the sake of brevity, I have truncated it.)

I am a docent at OlyBlog, which is dedicated to hyperlocal news and discussion of topics related to life in and around Olympia, Washington. OlyBlog's mission is to promote citizen journalism and to provide a resource for sharing knowledge and discussion about Olympia (and immediately surrounding areas.)

OlyBlog is awesome and fun. However, throughout much of the history of OlyBlog (over 2 and 1/2 years now) there have been users of the site who participate in a way that is disruptive and discourages participation by a broader audience. Personally it has been aggravating and frustrating to deal with some of these individuals, there are about 10 or so of them, who bring an attitude of prejudice, of combativeness, of aggression and intolerance for any ideas but their own. Some users' behavior is downright nasty, hostile, provocative, antagonistic, hostile and dishonest. (sorry, yes I realize this isn't a thesaurus.)

Recently a docent posted this in the comments of a thread.

get to work Norm
Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 12:56pm.
Before you buy another gun or iPod I hope you consider how those purchases are a huge waste and how that money could be spent on a monthly bus pass for a single mom to get to work everyday, a nice outfit for somebody to wear to a job interview, school supplies for a child from a poor home.

You can find the post here.

Is this what the behavior of a docent should be? I have called for Mr. Richards to step down as a docent and let someone who can be fair, civil and helpful fill the spot. What do you think? C.

Edit. I found this today as well.

Kind of a post what we want comment as we see fit or find "your own damn blog".

"People look at coming here to argue as an entertainment source. If Olyblog really is going to be a place for citizen journalism then I think it needs editors. I think we have to set stricter content guidelines to focus on local stories only."

Amen brother. Or folks can start their own damn blogs.

When can we get together?

Emmett

On Feb 13, 2008 11:22 AM, Rob Richards wrote: