ADMIN: Troublemakers, capitalization, etc.
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: ADMIN: Troublemakers, capitalization, etc.
- From: T* T* L* <t*@rt66.com>
- Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 09:42:17 -0600 (MDT)
Mark Cook writes
: I would suggest that any of you who are being attacked and insulted
:report the incidents to Tom Tadfor Little, who is the owner of the Iris
:List. You may wish to send him a copy of the offending message so he can
:see what is going on.
Mark is right. If you feel you are being harassed or insulted by a list
member, the matter should be referred to me.
If anyone has any _evidence_ that some particular person has been
consistently harassing new members, I need to know about it. At this point,
that notion seems to be unwarranted speculation. All I know is that over
the course of a year, four or five people have gotten off-list messages
that upset them. I have not seen copies of those messages, so I don't even
know how rude they actually are. Considering that the total list traffic
over that period is probably something like 10,000 to 20,000 messages, and
that human beings do not always behave well, and that email seems conducive
to misunderstanding and overreaction, I do not consider this evidence of a
pattern. As I said, if anyone has any real information about this, I need
to have it.
In the meantime, let's practice some tolerance--it runs both ways. People
who are new to the internet will make goofs. An honest mistake should not
provoke discourtesy from any of us. On the other hand, newbies need to
learn from their mistakes. If you make a goof and someone points it out to
you, you can trust that many others noticed it too, probably with
annoyance. So try to learn from the incident instead of reacting
defensively and feeding the flames. That's easier said than done, of
course. But it's worth the extra effort.
Typing email in ALL CAPS is indeed considered very bad manners. It is
interpreted as shouting. Obviously, there is no way to know about this
little rule of "netiquette" until someone tells you. Ideally, everyone
would receive their first lessons in netiquette in a very polite and
respectful way. In my experience, though, this is the exception not the
rule. Try posting to a typical usenet news group in ALL CAPS--you'll
quickly collect dozens of scathing flames, including all manner of insults,
printable and otherwise. Of course, I don't mean we should emulate this,
but the point is...
We all need to be gentle in handing out criticism and tough-skinned in
receiving it.
Peace,
Tom.
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Tom Tadfor Little telp@Rt66.com
Iris-L list owner * USDA zone 5/6 * AIS region 23
Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)
Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iris-L Web Site http://www.rt66.com/~telp/garden.htm
