[-empyre-] Better the Devil You Know?

["Charlotte Frost" <charlotte@digitalcritic.org>]

Melinda,

With reference to your quandary about whether to exhibit schizophrenic list
posting tendencies or whether to let the list go au natural, I have several
thoughts... 

One is that when teachers do this 'devils advocacy' it is seen as good
teaching, rather than inconsistent, and I fail to see why a list shouldn't
follow suit. I can't say on reading your posts that I have ever thought you
were deranged, but rather interested in diverse debate. 

Also I think it is important that topics or angles that haven't been covered
are brought out. With empyre there is only ever a limited amount of time
before the debate moves on, and if people for one reason or another haven't
uncovered a particular area, your job as moderator/facilitator probably
should be to expose it. 

However I can also understand the use of a persona to deal with some of the
opinions you wouldn't want people to think you personally hold. I recently
wrote for my local newspaper and set up an email account for the penname,
and was nearly discovered when the editor asked me for a photo of myself to
run with the article - praise be for free stock images! Anyway, prior to
this, a friend once gave me the email account and password for his pseudonym
so that I could expand the personality, but I never got round to it, but I
wonder if this might be an interesting project. You could set up an email
account and give a number of people access to use it as they see fit: to
play devils advocate or to subscribe to something they wouldn't otherwise?!
You could then watch the results on lists and the group maintenance of the
email account etc would be less pressure for you! 

You never know he/she/it might get invited to speak at conferences, and then
a whole troupe could show up! ;-) And as far as devils advocacy goes,
perhaps its 'better the devil you know', or at least the one you created! 

Charlotte