So why hang out here? For many reasons. Because it amuses me to diss people's little backwards-thinking ideas. Because I'm outraged that people waste others' time with their stupid and provincial ideas. Because I am furious that smug jerks exist who rationalize and excuse technically and socially obsolete ideas. Because I think people who spend all their time in vague pronouncements and useless navel grazing deserve to be verbally punished for it. And I'm not adverse to administering the punishment. -- RK

Richard, you are banned from interacting with both myself and Meatball. If you violate this ban, I will press charges for criminal harassment. -- SunirShah

(Incredibly old stuff)

Moved from RaisingSocialCosts cuz it isn't really on-topic.

Richard, you can't just reject ideas out of hand and just move on with SoapBoxing. And you certainly can't reject them so viciously with low-ball rhetoric. If you seriously think that people are Dictionary:deranged, how can you justify talking to them? Moreover, why would they respond to you?

Really, please watch the manner in which you conduct yourself. This isn't the best place for you to so forcefully platform your ideas about the social contract either because it isn't a political discussion forum. (Recording them is another issue. Contrast "SocialCapitalism", which is remarkably less "in your face" than your writing.) I definitely don't appreciate the insulting tone you default to. Do you notice anyone else here talking like that? Lurk before you leap, if you please.

But it certainly is (for example) a place to discuss how the social contract is constructed. What events take place to build one, and how they shape the spaces in which we live and work. The social contract isn't decided by those in power, but it is affected by them. (cf. CollectiveIntelligence) Perhaps you disagree that the social contract in Canada is more populist than corporatist, but that's really just case history here.

Certainly I'm an elite because I have traction here as the Editor. This is the referent power I earn by managing this space and doing a good enough job that people are following the general groove that I set out last year. I attempt to be less of a GodKing than you imply. I think I do a good job at that. But to reduce my elitishness, note that I have consciously not acquired the administer password for the site. This challenge is what makes MeatballWiki fun for me in particular. How do I keep this place on track with just my hands, heart, and mind alone? (By the way, have you ever managed before?)

The answer includes such things as constructive engagement. For instance, I'm sitting here listening to you aren't I? And so is Alex, if you had noticed between cutting into him so harshly. Play nice. Get into the BarnRaising feeling here. It's fun. (Why don't you try some constructive engagement yourself?)

By the way, we don't live all that far away from each other, y'know. -- SunirShah

I honestly don't see what the subjects of RaisingSocialCosts and PropertyDamage have to do with Wiki. (I also don't see how they could fail to be political.) Nor do I see any resemblance (or even a semblance of resemblance) between your position as editor of MeatballWiki and, say, the position of Prime Minister Of Canada. Nor between you and JeanChretien? or ConradBlack?. If there were such a connection then I do see that my discussing the legitimacy of different ways to attack the current political system would be deeply offensive to you, but I don't see any connection. If you're fishing for reassurance that Meatball incorporates a high degree of egalitarianism and freedom, and that attacking or trashing it is low-ball and unacceptable then I'm more than willing to say it. Consider it said! :-)

On the SocialContract as it relates to BarnRaising. SocialContract theory is obsolete because it has been superceded by human rights theory. The theory that practical social contracts are just and moral has been replaced with the theory that ideal social contracts are just and moral. Again, I do not see how such a question has anything to do with Wiki or Meatball. It does have a lot to do with politics because many people justify current economic, social and political arrangements by an appeal to social contract theory instead of human rights.

Again, I do not believe I am soapboxing, or if I am that what I am doing is out of bounds for this page. From the title of this page and its initial content, I received the distinct impression the subject was political and moral/social. I also agree I shouldn't have been as harsh on the subject as I have been. If you believed that I was attacking Wikis, or Meatball or you personally then I admire your restraint. -- RichardKulisz

I'm basically just asking you to chill out. But compliments are fun too. ;)

These topics are important to wikis and other online spaces because they occur on wikis and other online spaces. Certainly PropertyDamage has occured to send a message. Consider the highly politicized "reduction" of Wiki:RichardDrake in April 2000 to demonstrate how ludicrously annoying his little Wiki:WikiReductionist movement had become. Similarly, I've seen a wiki overrun by its membership in some bizarre RaisingSocialCosts failure.

Also, in some vague large picture scheme in my head, I see how they connect. I'll guess you'll have to trust me on that. I suppose it's because part of MeatballWiki is a very off-the-cuff, practical online civics HOWTO. -- SunirShah

P.S. I moved some valuable comments off the page because they're kind of hopelessly entangled in the text above; please feel free to restate them.

[CategoryHomePage]