Hello my fellow WebSanDiegans:
This is a little long, and a bit out of character. I usually respond to posts on-list and let them fly. But I feel like I have a bit more to say, so as your host, I’d like to say some things about community and about behavior.
WebSanDiego.org has always distinguished itself as a place of civil, professional conduct. It disappoints me to see name calling and vitriol on a list of what [should be/can be/sometimes is] colleagues, friends, neighbors.
There was some valuable information in the cash thread, and valid points and complaints.
But the rudeness was not cool. I was dismayed.
There are no punishments to be doled out. Noone will be removed. It’s not a moderated list, after all. We all have the power to post as we see fit, when we see fit. Sometimes we’re mad and angry and frustrated. We are only human.
I think of the book “House of God” – about a Doctor-In-Training, here are the rules of the HoG: III. AT A CARDIAC ARREST, THE FIRST PROCEDURE IS TO TAKE YOUR OWN PULSE
What’s it mean? It means that to be any good to a bad situation, you have to be clear about where *your* head is at. If you’re not calm, you’re no good to a patient. To some extent, if you’re angry and frothing at the mouth, you’re no use to a discussion group either.
So I’d like to remind people to take an extra minute and consider their posts. Passion is valuable. Strong feelings can make for great posts. But remember in your anger to include content, and remember that you’re among fellow professionals.
Thanks for listening to me on this. I know your time is valuable.
As always: Comments, questions, complaints, feedback welcome via email at administrators(at)websandiego.org
Joe Crawford
List Founder
http://websandiego.org/
one comments so far...
[…] Running WebSanDiego for several years taught me that what people post might be off-topic, or spammy, or rude, or useless, or might come from someone having a bad day. As list owner and moderator I had tools (initially from ONEList which was eaten by eGroups which was eaten by YahooGroups) to set a user to make their contributions require moderation. But mostly the list was unmoderated. I don’t remember the thread that prompted this message I sent to the list back in March 2003: […]