MENDOCINO, CA — On Tuesday, May 7, the Mendocino List Serv Project (MLP), a private entity of volunteers, took over the administration of the MCN listservs. MCN listserv content has become a contentious issue for the Mendocino Unified School District, which owns the internet service.
At the 2024 February school board meeting, the trustees unanimously removed the school district from the responsibility of operating the listservs on MCN. In the previous months, much public discussion had centered around the increasing misuse of the service by some members.
MCN did not have the resources and employees to monitor postings on the listservs consistently. Also, constitutional restrictions on free speech on social media sites have not been clarified by Congress. As a result, complaints about profanity and threats increased.
Rather than eliminate the listservs, the trustees voted to give management of the MCN’s announcement and discussion lists to a private group composed of six local community members. They are Daney Dawson, John Gallo, Frank, and Linda Hartzell, and two private individuals.
Frank Hartzell commented, “MCN has other things to do. It’s sad because MCN was a true pioneer when it created a working ISP for this community. It’s a significant resource.”
He added, “A lot of people are relying upon us. The school district thought it was wonderful as an asset, but not if it would subvert their main mission of education.”
Since then, MLP has developed Terms of Service, a set of guidelines that subscribers must adhere to to communicate on the listservs. MCN published the guidelines, and by last week, they had triggered a wave of confusion and misunderstanding among some current members.
Members of the listservs will not have to re-subscribe. The listservs are still on the MCN network but are managed outside MCN’s administration. The new administrators have usage guidelines that spell out what users should not be posting.
The consequences of guideline violations are also listed. MLP’s philosophical approach stresses the least restriction of free speech. The guidelines state that MLP will not filter posts, including those that may be comprised of “fake news.”
The Defamation and Libel section of the guidelines attempts to clarify that postings that may result in a lawsuit are not part of the MLP’s free speech philosophy. Slander, threats, and profane posts are not allowed.
Since MLP is private, the group has the legal right to develop extreme limitations on free speech. However, the guidelines clearly state that no filtering will take place.
“We are never going to be censors,” said Hartzell. He added, “We’re never going to say ‘you’re right or you’re wrong,’ but we’ll never tolerate threats.” Members should expect a time gap of about 48 hours between when an apparent violation appears on the list and when one of the MLP members can remove it.
There is a protocol for a member to flag what appears to be a violation of the guidelines. However, members expressed concern online about who would be moderating posts. Since a small, private group now administers the listservs, no employees can monitor posts in real-time.
According to Daney Dawson, another volunteer in the MLP, unidentified moderators have begun viewing the posts. Dawson explained, “We feel it’s important to protect them against reprisal. There have been people on the list who have gotten into harassing other list members.”
She continued, “That’s the whole purpose of MLP taking over the listservs: to get rid of that harassment and make it safe for people to express themselves and their thoughts. We are following the models of social media platforms where moderators remain anonymous.”
Dawson continued, “When you use the service, you agree to its terms that you should have read. That’s the best we can do to make it user-friendly. We firmly believe in free speech, but we also believe that it is impossible if people face harassment for their ideas.”
She explained, “I believe free speech is crucial to a free society, even as that allows for unpopular opinions. Nobody has to agree with them. We must assume we’re all adults who make up our minds, read various opinions, and come to conclusions.”
Dawson noted that since all moderators will be chosen from the listserv membership, any member in good standing may apply. The moderators will serve for about three months and will be another part of the listserv’s community participation forum.
Message Replies is another guideline section that causes confusion. By default, message replies go to the person who sent the email to the list and not to the entire list.
This does not mean that list members cannot see responses to a post. Members can adjust their settings and opt to “reply all” to override the default. In other words, seeing responses will be no different than it was before.
Hartzell noted that MLP’s operation will be a work in progress as the group adjusts to administration realities over time. He said, “There might be some rapids, and we’ll fall out of the boat and have to get back in.”
MLP administrators can be contacted at mlp@mcn.org and at modrequest@proton.me.
