![\"Investigator](\"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_556562164.pdf-300x300.jpg\")
On the basis of a self-described \u2018investigative report\u2019 (which fails to meet any of the eight criteria required of such a report), DisCon III has removed the successful female publisher of Baen Books (Ms Toni Weisskopf) as DisCon\u2019s Guest of Honour.<\/p>\n
Or to put it another way, DisCon III is refusing to celebrate the success of the female<\/strong> publisher of Baen Books (Toni Weisskopf) because of the poorly argued hatchet-job undertaken by Jason Sanford concerning the adequacy of the moderating process on some<\/strong> of Baen\u2019s forums. DisCon acted despite Ms Weisskopf immediately<\/strong> suspending all the forums while the company investigated. Indeed they removed Ms Weisskopf as a Guest of Honour four days after<\/strong> she had suspended the forum. The removal is the first time that such an action has been taken in the 80 years of WorldCons. (Note: the Macquarie Dictionary defines \u2018hatchet job\u2019 for Australian users as: \u2018a verbal or written attack on a person, designed to destroy their credibility or ability to function\u2019).<\/p>\n Firstly a couple points regarding my own background before I explain my concerns regarding the action, particularly given the many and significant failures of Mr Sanford\u2019s report.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a timeline with links to the main documents relevant to understanding the background to DisCon\u2019s actions:<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s been brought to my attention by some helpful folks that speech not everyone agrees with, and that may have become unlawful speech, has occurred on Baen\u2019s Bar. In order to fully investigate those serious allegations, and any violations of the Bar \u201cno hitting\u201d rule, we will be taking a break from the Bar as of noon February 16th, and encourage all our readers to enjoy their lawful conversations elsewhere for the time being.\u2014Toni Weisskopf, Publisher\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n Now to my concerns.<\/p>\n Firstly, Mr Sanford described his post as \u2018an investigative report\u2019. Unfortunately, while it may have been intended as such, it failed to meet most, and perhaps all of the eight principals of Excellent Investigations set out in Gareth Jones \u2018Conducting Administrative Oversight & Ombudsman Investigations\u2019 (Canada Law Book: 2009). These being:<\/p>\n Some may argue that, despite Mr Sandford\u2019s claim to the contrary, the report was not an \u2018investigative report\u2019 but simply a setting out of some concerns that warranted further investigation. I would normally agree with this argument except<\/strong> it was on the basis of the report that DisCon III took action to remove Ms Weisskopf as a Guest of Honor.<\/p>\n My concern is that despite Mr Sandford\u2019s article not being fit for the purpose of serving as an \u2018investigative report\u2019 (see following), it served as the basis for DisCon III decision to cancel Ms Weisskopf\u2019s attendance as a GOH (no other reason having been provided). Perhaps because she was a female, and the DisCon Committee fell into the familiar trap of holding females to a higher standard than their male counterparts. There is certainly an argument that can be made that the decision by DisCon to disinvite Ms Weisskopf may be the result of a fear of the \u2018cancel culture\u2019. A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post by Matt Bai https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/03\/12\/are-we-all-being-canceled-no-cultural-revolution-is-real\/<\/a> makes it clear how dangerous this can be.<\/p>\n In conclusion I also note that DisCon\u2019s action has robbed Mr Sanford of the opportunity he was hoping for to have a number of questions put to Ms Weisskopf at the convention.<\/p>\n The following addresses my concerns regarding Mr Sandford\u2019s document as an \u2018investigative-report’. Addressing each of the eight requirements for such reports in turn:<\/p>\n While Mr Sandford appears on the face of the matter to be independent of the matters he is raising, this is not a matter that can be ascertained from his report. It would have been helpful if he had set out what relationship, if any, he had had with Baen\u2019s Bar. However, given the warning in the opening paragraph, \u2018Warning: This report includes discussions of possible political violence along with quoted comments containing racism, white supremacy, and more\u2019, it would appear that he sought to write the report with the intention of making the report as contentious as possible to incite interest. I must stress, that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach unless you are seeking to portray the article as unbiased and suitable for others to make decisions on \u2013 which people have.<\/p>\n According to Mr Sandford\u2019s twitter profile he is an \u201cArchaeologist turned author with a science fictional take on life.\u201d His short story, The Eight-Thousanders<\/em> is a finalist for the 2021 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. While all admirable, none of this means he is either trained or experienced in conducting an administrative investigation.<\/p>\n One major issue I have with the report, as has Mr Flint, is that the report tars all of the SubForums with the same brush of containing \u201cdiscussions of possible political violence along with \u2026 racism, white supremacy, and more\u201d. For example he writes that \u201cthe Baen\u2019s Bar forum definitely has a conservative tilt. This can be easily seen in many of the Bar\u2019s most contentious subforums, such as those dealing with politics and other controversial issues.\u201d This is a ridiculous statement which denigrates over a quarter of American adults and is playing towards his perceived audience. In Feb 2021 Gallup polling found that 32% of Americans identified as Democrats, 26% identified as Republican, and 41% as Independent.[\u201cGallup Historical Trends: Party Affiliation”. Gallup News. Retrieved 2021-01-16.\u201d].<\/p>\n One person, working remotely, regardless of the number of people who \u201cgave me [Mr Sandford] feedback on this report prior to publication\u201d<\/em> does not a team make, particularly where the people involved were presumably simply checking the grammar rather than addressing the quality of the underlying investigation. The resourcing was, however, adequate to prepare an initial paper that could then be used by Baen Books to serve as the starting point for their own investigation, which it has done.<\/p>\n Not relevant in this case \u2013 but see the next point.<\/p>\n In my view this is Mr Sandford\u2019s biggest failure. In seeking to assess the validity of Mr Sandford\u2019s accusations I sought to access the original documentation \u2013 unfortunately this is impossible because the forums have been taken down, and the few screen dumps Mr Sandford took fails to show the complete thread of any discussion I sought to access. Unfortunately, given my experience I am only too aware of how selective people can be when preparing an argument.<\/p>\n In the one case where he does provide partial evidence from a thread last year titled \u2018Soft Civil War & Trump\u2019s Army,\u2019 https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/z6x4w7ikewlkipq\/BaenBarFeb2020_Captrandy_c.jpg?dl=0<\/a> which he believes demonstrates \u2018racist comments and innuendos\u2019 he quotes user Captrandy as stating \u2018that political conflicts in the USA could be solved if \u201call the angry and non angry white males should stop going to work for a month or so.\u201d\u2019. I note that this was in response to an article in the New York Times referring to \u2018white males\u2019 and the quoted text is simply advocating a withholding of labour – which can by no stretch of the imagination be described as either racism, innuendo, or a call to violence.<\/p>\n In a further example, in Note 5 of Mr Sandford\u2019s report he writes \u201cthat Bob Nelson has described being banned from the forum \u2018for not agreeing with Mr Ringo\u2019s vision of the universe.\u2019 Nelson later wrote a more detailed post on what happened, describing how he argued against the sad puppies and other issues on the forum prior to being banned.\u201d Have read Mr Nelson\u2019s self-congratulatory blog posts I have to say that I most certainly would not accept Mr Nelson\u2019s claims without checking the original Baen posts. Unfortunately they are presently not available.<\/p>\n Here Mr Sandford has simply ignored the need to check with relevant witnesses which has resulted in significant errors. For example Mr Sanford writes:<\/p>\n For example, a Baen\u2019s Bar user from India was nicknamed \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d on the forum by author Tom Kratman<\/a>. People on the forum thought that was the height of clever humor.<\/p>\n As Mr Flint points out in his response<\/p>\n He provides one\u2014and only one\u2014example to substantiate his charge that Baen\u2019s Bar has also become well-known in the genre community as a place where racism, sexism, homophobia and general fascism continually pop up. He is outraged that the racist nickname \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d was inflicted on a poor downtrodden fellow from India by the wicked Colonel Kratman.<\/p>\n I happen to know the truth about this incident, which is that \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d himself, whose actual name is Arun Pradhu, thinks it\u2019s funny\u2014and he developed the nickname with Tom Kratman. He did so because someone he got in an argument with assumed he was Caucasian and accused him of being a racist. He is also, by the way, hopping mad at Jason Sanford for lying about him.<\/p>\n If Mr Sandford had interviewed witnesses instead of relying on hearsay he might have uncovered the truth instead of leaving himself open to claims of sloppy work.<\/p>\n Mr Sandford\u2019s report is not an investigative report, it is a partisan and polemic argument. As such it fails the test of objectivity. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with such articles, except when they pretend a level of objectivity they simply don\u2019t possess.<\/p>\n As a partisan and polemic post Mr Sandford does successfully appear to make the case that some parts of the forum may demonstrate a failure of moderators to ensure posters adhere to the forum\u2019s \u2018no-hitting\u2019 rule, and the politeness that one might expect on a public forum. See Cat Rambo\u2019s intelligently written article on moderation http:\/\/www.kittywumpus.net\/blog\/2021\/02\/18\/opinion-on-baen-books-moderating-discussion-boards-political-expression\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the basis of a self-described \u2018investigative report\u2019 (which fails to meet any of the eight criteria required of such a report), DisCon III has removed the successful female publisher of Baen Books (Ms Toni Weisskopf) as DisCon\u2019s Guest of Honour. Or to put it another way, DisCon III is refusing to celebrate the success … Continue reading DisCon III appears to holds successful females to a higher standard than their male counterparts.<\/span> \n
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![https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/z6x4w7ikewlkipq\/BaenBarFeb2020_Captrandy_c.jpg?dl=0<\/a> which he believes demonstrates \u2018racist comments and innuendos\u2019 he quotes user Captrandy as stating \u2018that political conflicts in the USA could be solved if \u201call the angry and non angry white males should stop going to work for a month or so.\u201d\u2019. I note that this was in response to an article in the New York Times referring to \u2018white males\u2019 and the quoted text is simply advocating a withholding of labour – which can by no stretch of the imagination be described as either racism, innuendo, or a call to violence.<\/p>\nIn a further example, in Note 5 of Mr Sandford\u2019s report he writes \u201cthat Bob Nelson has described being banned from the forum \u2018for not agreeing with Mr Ringo\u2019s vision of the universe.\u2019 Nelson later wrote a more detailed post on what happened, describing how he argued against the sad puppies and other issues on the forum prior to being banned.\u201d Have read Mr Nelson\u2019s self-congratulatory blog posts I have to say that I most certainly would not accept Mr Nelson\u2019s claims without checking the original Baen posts. Unfortunately they are presently not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAll relevant witnesses must be identified, segregated where practical and thoroughly interviewed on all the issues under investigation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nHere Mr Sandford has simply ignored the need to check with relevant witnesses which has resulted in significant errors. For example Mr Sanford writes:<\/p>\nFor example, a Baen\u2019s Bar user from India was nicknamed \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d on the forum by author Tom Kratman<\/a>. People on the forum thought that was the height of clever humor.<\/p>\nAs Mr Flint points out in his response<\/p>\nHe provides one\u2014and only one\u2014example to substantiate his charge that Baen\u2019s Bar has also become well-known in the genre community as a place where racism, sexism, homophobia and general fascism continually pop up. He is outraged that the racist nickname \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d was inflicted on a poor downtrodden fellow from India by the wicked Colonel Kratman.<\/p>\nI happen to know the truth about this incident, which is that \u201cThe Swarthy Menace\u201d himself, whose actual name is Arun Pradhu, thinks it\u2019s funny\u2014and he developed the nickname with Tom Kratman. He did so because someone he got in an argument with assumed he was Caucasian and accused him of being a racist. He is also, by the way, hopping mad at Jason Sanford for lying about him.<\/p>\nIf Mr Sandford had interviewed witnesses instead of relying on hearsay he might have uncovered the truth instead of leaving himself open to claims of sloppy work.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe analysis of all the material gathered in the investigations should be objective and based solely on the facts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nMr Sandford\u2019s report is not an investigative report, it is a partisan and polemic argument. As such it fails the test of objectivity. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with such articles, except when they pretend a level of objectivity they simply don\u2019t possess.<\/p>\nAs a partisan and polemic post Mr Sandford does successfully appear to make the case that some parts of the forum may demonstrate a failure of moderators to ensure posters adhere to the forum\u2019s \u2018no-hitting\u2019 rule, and the politeness that one might expect on a public forum. See Cat Rambo\u2019s intelligently written article on moderation http:\/\/www.kittywumpus.net\/blog\/2021\/02\/18\/opinion-on-baen-books-moderating-discussion-boards-political-expression\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the basis of a self-described \u2018investigative report\u2019 (which fails to meet any of the eight criteria required of such a report), DisCon III has removed the successful female publisher of Baen Books (Ms Toni Weisskopf) as DisCon\u2019s Guest of Honour. Or to put it another way, DisCon III is refusing to celebrate the success … Continue reading DisCon III appears to holds successful females to a higher standard than their male counterparts.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[14,15,16,17],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-misc","category-uncategorized","tag-cat-rambo","tag-discon","tag-eric-flint","tag-jason-sanford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewjharvey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/z6x4w7ikewlkipq\/BaenBarFeb2020_Captrandy_c.jpg?dl=0\"){kind=link}