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October 19, 2010 05:41 PM UTC

What is A Shunning?

  • 12 Comments
  • by: MADCO

And when is appropriate?

As with many words in the English language, the dictionary definition is just the start.

Merriam Webster online

SHUN: to avoid deliberately and especially habitually

The Wikipedia gives a little more context

shunning:  the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from, an individual or group. It is a sanction against association, often associated with religious groups and other tightly knit organizations and communities.

ColoradoPols.com as a site is certainly a community.

And while  ColoradoPols the poster, moderator or community member created and enforces rules  of behavior that sometimes result in editing or banning, and a recent suspension, there appears not to be specific rules about when and if shunning may be appropriate.

There are posters and post types to which  I have avoided responding which is a kind of shunning,  But when it’s just one, the significance is typically trivial.

And while I’d be reluctant to adopt a “shunning policy”, I think as a community we get to choose how we want our community to be.

In schools, kids are taught inclusion. Exclusion, like shunning, can even be considered a form of bullying.

Here on CoPols.com, it would seem almost impossible for avoidance to be anything like bullying.  Sure, anyone can post almost anything.  But no one has to read it or respond.

But a discussion would be useful.

Comments

12 thoughts on “What is A Shunning?

  1. to disregard ignorant arguments that are repeated over and over and over again.

    In short, I wouldn’t pay attention to anyone who came up to me in person and

    – insulted me, or

    – immediately categorized me into some stereotype, or

    – assumed I knew/said/believed something I didn’t, or

    – arrogantly argued their point while ignoring different points of view.

    I, likewise, don’t pay attention to the posters who do the same thing here.

    I wouldn’t call it shunning – I would call it adult education.  

  2. Keep in mind that this isn’t school, and everyone posting here is presumed to be an adult. In this context, that means that the subject of exclusion has the full maturity of emotion to be able to handle it, and also the choice of whether to keep participating here or not. Kids in school have neither option.

    1. MADCO was a belligerent jerk in practically every post. But not so spammy nor directly mean and unnecessarily nasty to get suspended. No bannable offense.

      Sure, you could ignore MADCO. Any individual poster could – as Carr31 points out, it’s a skill we learn as we mature and become adults.

      But that’s not quite the same as the community agreeing or deciding overtly or de facto to collectively encourage everyone’s avoidance of MADCO.   Or discourage the interaction.   That’s different.

      It’s not bullying – its …nothing.

      Is it never not ok?

      If so, when ? And when is it ok?  I’m not speculating idly about the web in general – I’m asking right her eon CoPols.

      1. Maybe if it becomes a defining characteristic of the Pols community. You know, if suddenly we’re all acting like we’re the in crowd and engage in only perfunctory interactions with those who don’t know the secret knock.

        But… if it’s a onetime occurrence and it deals with someone who has shown that s/he is completely obnoxious over a lengthy period (say, five months), that’s not bullying. If anything, allowing such behavior to go unchallenged is the exact opposite – it’s rolling over for someone who is actually much more the bully than the victim him- or herself.

        1. I think as long as we don’t turn what is essentially a site built around inclusive conversation into a bunch of separate cliques, this could be a useful way to send a clear message. Posters who refuse to behave like adults but haven’t reached the point of suspension or banning need to know that we, as a community, expect everyone to carry on adult conversations.

          However, I think this should be used very very sparingly. As much as I become annoyed (ok somtimes enraged) at the lack of fact based arguments or debates from the same few posters I don’t want to stifle true conversation if it can be helped.

  3. I have a bad feeling it’s in one of the rape threads, which I purposely didn’t read for a number of reasons.

    But since someone else (the shunee?) brought it up my curiosity is killing me.  Not 400 comments that are going to make me sad curious though.

    So just if someone has a moment to summarize.

    1. Since I got here, more than one poster has recommended ignoring another poster, or specific post types.  Of course, any one of us can do that to any one of us at any time.  And more than one like recommendation has been made in recent days.

      To my knowledge there has never been an organized community effort to do so.  Sure, CoPols has banned posters for various violations. And recently a poster was suspended.

      But as a community of posters, we’ve yet to get together and encourage each other to avoid a specific poster. Or post type. Should we?  Could it be ok? When and how?  Is t always only appropriate for individuals?  And so on.

      1. Now, if you were talking about organizing conservative posters to march in lockstep on something like that, it might work. But the free-thinking libs would only bristle at such an effort, angering marilou all the more by flaunting their free will.

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