I see that Adam has copied
I see that Adam has copied part of my post above (No.17) on SPOPEN . Not being able to respond on SPOPEN might I respond here?
The point that I was trying to make is a simple one: If you allow people like Tet and McDonagh to dominate the WSM forum by simply not responding to them then the forum is going to become an increasingly unattactive place for visitors and members to be. Its a vicious circle. The more you ignore them and pretend they dont exist the WORSE the problem will get. THAT is the lesson of Wicopendebate.
Wicopendebate was a relatively small forum . At its height it had about 60+ members. So it was much easier for such a forum to become completely dominated by disruptive elements. The WSM forum is many times the size of Wicopendebate. There are more than enough members to easily deal with the anarcho-capitalist brigade through the sheer weight of numbers.
You have 2 options as I said. Either you turn the WSM forum into something like the Worldincommon forum – which is restricted to people who belong to the non-market anti-statist sector OR you maintain the WSM forum as a completely open public forum – like Wicopendebate was.
If you opt for the latter course of action then please accept this as a word of friendly advice. Ignoring people whose views you strongly object to is not going to work as a strategy. All that will mean is that they will think they have won the argument and this – I can guararantee from bitter experience – will only inspire them to ram home their message with even greater determination. This is basically why Paul’s suggestion above is misconceinved.
Now there is a halfway house solution which is to deal with the posts of anarcho-capitalist in an oblique or indirect fashion which I touched on earlier. I have started using this approach and I think you will begin to see that it will work in the end. .
With that in mind I urge people here to become active in the WSM forum and, if they have left, to rejoin it and try out what I have suggested