RE: List Minders

Sandy, Did the list minders share their comments with each other? If you
felt like you were operating in a vacuum, perhaps you were. If list minders
are brought in from a broad group of participants, don't you think that we
might be able to get past some of the feeling of arbitrary decisions by one
list minder and get into a collective " let's please stop that type of
exchange on the list?" List minders need direction too, they can get that
from each other if they talk and share ideas. Heck we have a supreme court,
but it doesn't just have one judge or one voice. They talk, listen, speak.

Perhaps, just as we here in the US are required to serve on juries, it is
time top have a rotational system set up for list minders. Once you've done
it, you off the hook for two years or .

Eric Neilsen Photography

4101 Commerce Street

Suite 9

Dallas, TX 75226

http://e.neilsen.home.att.net

http://ericneilsenphotography.com

  _____

From: Sandy King [mailto:sanking@clemson.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 11:57 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Re: List Minders

Katharine,

I absolutely agree with you on this.

Some years ago there was a system whereby each of the list minders had a day
to mind the list. The system worked well for several years, or so it seemed
to me. I don't know how the other list minders did their work but at first I
would warn the person directly on the list. However, that was disruptive so
eventually I started to do it off list. But that too had its problems
because one person in particular felt that I was censoring her and not other
males on the list and she accused me several times of sexist behavior, even
though I was often in fact sending an off-list rebuke to the males. So
eventually I just got fed up with the abuse, especially since it appeared to
me that I was the only one of the list minders doing any work at all. I
could be wrong but it seemed that way to me at the time. Even after that I
continued to be blamed by the person in question for not rebuking those who
she felt were insulting her. I felt that this was terribly unfair because
even when the system was operating fairly well at the beginning I was only
one of five or six list minders, each with a specific day to mind the list,
and I never felt it was my responsibility, or right, to attempt to mind the
list on a day other than the one I had been assigned.

By and large I felt that Gordon gave me good support but ultimately I came
to see the role of list minder as a no-win job because I was damned if I did
and damned if I didn't.

So I don't know how to fix it, but in my opinion you are right in that the
system we have is completely broken.

Sandy

I think it's clear that the listminder system is completely broken. I
don't know what should be done about it, and I don't know if assigning
other listminders would help. As long as listminders will not censure
people for insulting other people, which was supposed to be their job,
and as long as people won't self-censor themselves and refrain from
insulting other people, the problem will continue and the list will not
survive because knowledgeable people will no longer be willing to put
themselves out there to be exposed to gratuitous personal insult.

Katharine Thayer

 
Received on Sun Mar 13 12:34:42 2005