I am a member of a Yahoo group for alumni of a college service organization. The group is fairly sedate, mostly "Hey we just had a baby" stuff every now and then.

A few months ago, someone with some hard-right viewpoints signed on and immediately began posting group prayers, support-Bush petitions, and to top it off, something from Donald Wildmon-ster. He finally drew some objections from a few people, and is now offended that we would want to censor him in a open forum.

God knows enough threads here get hijacked but isn't this a bit much to anyone else? It's much less of a scrum than Outsports, and yet a few people have come to his defense and said, "ah, just delete his emails if you dont like him." I don't mind doing that, but should others be expected to?

Is it a private group? Is there a moderator who can rule on whether such messages are appropriate?

If it's open and not moderated you have the option of just deleting the e-mails from that person (and others can do the same if they wish) or you can post opposing views (impeach Bush, gay marriage now, religion is a crutch for the weak-minded) and see if others object enough to decide that none of the political stuff is appropriate. Or leave the group, or start a private group and invite others to join it.

I'm in a small private group -- just online friends who have posted to the same newsgroups and such, and because it's private you can't join unless you're invited. Our rule is that if you know someone who you think would be a good addition to the group you e-mail the moderator with his/her info. The moderator posts the request to the group. If anyone has an objection to that person he/she e-mails the moderator in private. If a single member objects the person is not invited to join.

Everyone gets along quite well. Occasionally there are disagreements but they're usually settled and apologies are made if need be.

My neighborhood decided to get all uppity, and established a neighborhood watch with its own yahoo group. It has become the bane of my existence. Every banal, prejudiced, or idiotic thought imaginable now winds up summarized in my daily email from that group. I feel your pain, Tejas boy.

The moderator is MIA.

It's open, but i'm assuming everyone is an alumni. The guy in question definitely is. I mean, why else join?

He and i have wound up having an email discussion over the last few hours. He is very polite, but he is obviously the MIB of the group.

If posting political opinions is even tacitly endorsed, the best answer is to post your own political opinions. Unfortunately, it is too easy to sound shrill and/or confrontational particularly when the other guy got there first. It's necessary to be very careful what you post and how you say it, or it just becomes a shouting match.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I responded publicly urging people not to leave the forum, but to let him know just what they think. He emailed me privately and said he was happy that i "got it." He explained that he wanted to start a "discourse" on the important issues of our time, which as we all know is shorthand for "i want to tell you how i'm right and you're wrong." I got a lecture on how the court system is out of balance; Constitution, Federalist Papers, yadda yadda yadda.

He was at least polite, but kept insisting that he wasn't a right-wing freak. Yeah, okay. I do not think i will run the risk of irritating anybody else any further by replying on the list. I doubt we've heard the last of him, though.

I had a similar situation with a Yahoo group I run for some ex-colleagues who wanted to stay in touch after a company broke up. One of our members started using the list to distribute jokes and morality tales. I pointed out to him (privately, with best wishes) that the list was limited to posts specific to the group's stated purpose. He didn't protest, and the behavior stopped. Of course it helps if you're the moderator...

I feel like deja vu,because I had an uncanningly
similar experience about a month ago.I thought
about starting a thread at the time,but for
whatever reason I never got 'er done.The
group I belong to is made up of people who
worked for United here in Bloominton,prior
to the shutdown in January.It's just a
friendly little group of co-workers,formed
to give us a way to stay in touch.

I know every person,except for one woman who
had moved away before I started working
there.Her posts are always a little out
there-always surreptitiously managing
to somehow interject her Christianity into
her messages.It was annoying but not too
offensive,until she too decided to post
one of the Rev Wildmon's rants on the
"evil judiciary".Talk about a well-
coordinated propaganda campaign... eek!
She included the petition,along with
some cute comment like "I did my duty-
now it's your turn."

I was just so offended that she would
choose to try and turn our friendly
little group into her own private,
political fiefdom.Since I didn't know
her,I figured my best recourse would
be to post a non-threatening reminder
than this was not a political forum.I
suggested that private emails to like-
minded folks would be a more viable
alternative if people wanted to
engage in political activity.

I was perfectly civilized and general.
However,even though I didn't mention any
names, she knew I meant her.She was not
happy,and sent me a couple of disturbing
emails.Nothing threatening-just rambling
and incoherent,the kind of thing that
leaves you shaking your head.She also
tried to say she wasn't a right-wingnut,
even though that's exactly the kind of
drivel she posted.It's sad in a way,
because even though I wasn't trying to
censure her the end result is she has
never posted anything since.