moderation – Brown Pundits

🧵Quick Moderation Note

June 11, 2025June 11, 2025X.T.MBlog, Open Thread, PoliticsBlog, Brown Pundits comments, Comment Policy, Community guidelines, Discourse norms, free speech, India-Pakistan, moderation, Moderation policy, Online discussion, Open Thread, Open threads, Podcast, Politics, Thread managementLeave a comment

Just a heads-up for everyone:

India–Pakistan threads are totally fine when the post is about India–Pakistan, or if it’s an Open Thread. Let the sparks fly there.
But on other posts—please avoid steering every conversation back to India–Pakistan. It’s not always relevant and derails useful discussion.

I won’t be actively moderating every thread. If something is genuinely offensive or disruptive, feel free to flag it—I’ll step in only if needed. Continue reading 🧵Quick Moderation Note

On Moderation, Minoritization, and the Elite

June 9, 2025X.T.MCulture, India, Pakistan, Politics, Race, X.T.MBahá’í, British institutions, Brown Pundits, Brown Pundits Meta, class hierarchy, digital discourse, elite theory, global elite, Hindustani Music, Identity & Belonging, Indo-Pak, Kabir, meaning-making, minoritization, moderation, Moderation & Civility, nuance vs noise, online communities, Persian aesthetics, Power & Elites, South Asia, South Asian identity21 Comments

Pulse: The Threads We Weave —

Lately I’ve wondered whether I over-curated the threads. Things feel quieter. Maybe too quiet. But perhaps that’s the cost of raising the bar—of asking for dialogue instead of dopamine. Still, this lull has me reflecting not just on moderation but on why some arguments no longer move me.

Take the Indo-Pak conflict: once electric, now strangely inert. That shift reflects my own evolution over two decades. I no longer inhabit that binary. I carry a layered identity—a South Asian Bahá’í sensibility shaped by Persian aesthetics, grounded in British institutions, and fluently navigated through English. That complexity is my compass. It’s why I care less about flags and more about forces.

And the real force that shapes our lives? The elite. Not as a pejorative, but as a structural reality. I see it as nested tiers: Continue reading On Moderation, Minoritization, and the Elite

Request for Calm and Civility

June 6, 2025June 7, 2025X.T.MIndia, Open Thread, Pakistan, X.T.Mcivility, commentariat, community norms, discourse culture, free speech, Indo-Pak discourse, moderation, platform standards18 Comments

Dear Punditeers,

A gentle reminder to take a breath and step back. Kabir is entitled to his views—there’s no obligation to counter every provocation point-by-point.

What’s troubling isn’t disagreement—it’s the sheer volume of rage replies. This doesn’t reflect the standard we aspire to. It’s neither civil nor intellectual. The only reason I’m stepping in is because, while I generally prefer light-touch moderation, the tone of these threads now reflects poorly on the broader community. It lowers the quality of both the commentariat and the platform.

We’ve seen this play out before—Sepia Mutiny is a cautionary tale. Let’s not replicate it.

So please: engage with ideas, not just identities. Let’s not derail into yet another endless Indo-Pak back-and-forth. We’re capable of better.

Warmly,

X.T.M

✉️ [Addendum]

On Nivedita’s query, I’ve finally re-created the Brown Pundits email account. It’s hosted on Gmail, but I’ve deliberately avoided posting the full address here to prevent spam harvesters. If you’d like to get in touch privately or share something offline, feel free to reach out via:

📧 brownpundits19 [@g]

Flame Thread Protocols: Honey Kabir

June 1, 2025June 1, 2025X.T.MBlog, Culture, Open Thread, Politics, X.T.MBrown Pundits moderation, comment culture, community norms, digital etiquette, editorial policy, flame thread, Honey vs Kabir, moderation, online discourse, public space online, tone policing80 Comments

A Note from the Editor

Flame thread warning: Honey vs. Kabir.

Last night’s open thread surged past 50 comments—most of it orbiting the now-familiar friction between the two.

Let me be clear: I’m inclined toward Kabir. He’s often overwrought, sometimes hyperbolic, but he’s a known quantity. He’s been part of this space for nearly a decade. He is a “real person.” We know how he argues, where he lands, and the limits of his provocations.

Honey is harder to read. Multiple handles. No clear background. No track record. And a rhetorical posture that feels less like engagement, more like carpet bombing—especially when it comes to Pakistan. There’s a difference between critique and hatred, and it’s usually in the tone. “Pakistanis under-endowed”—LOL, happy to disprove that.

Moderation is evolving. I no longer think of it as refereeing an online debate. I think of it like hosting a discussion in my living room. That means: Continue reading Flame Thread Protocols: Honey Kabir