12-30-2008, 07:22 AM
Short version-
Three suggestions/requests and a thank you:
1) Please post rather than quitting Punaweb or pulling back and lurking silently; your contributions shape this forum.
2) Please give me feedback about your perception if I am being a pain in butt or otherwise inappropriate here (AlaskaSteven@yahoo.com).
3) Please make the title of the thread a very clear indicator of what that thread is about.
4) Thanks for the opportunity to consciously articulate our thoughts about Punaweb group norms here in this thread's discussion.
Long version-
Establishing and maintaining norms for that which is accepted as appropriate and constructive behavior is indeed significant for any group to be ongoingly cohesive rather than disintegrate.
For example, I appreciate that within the norms for our Punaweb lot there is not an incessant barrage of sexual innuendo and outright lewd vulgarity. In some groups this is more the rule than the exception.
Civility, too, is a virtue which seems widely valued within the norms of Punaweb's community. The rub seems more often to be differing interpretations of what constitutes free discussion and where a style of expression gives offense versus an outright intentional lack of civility (though this, too, has admittedly flared up). Certainly while a healthy and vigorous discussion of matters large and small alike can involve a tension over differences of perspective & opinion, in a constructive discussion it seems to me like the participants all view themselves as members of the same team versus as enemies on opposing sides.
Lin W's comment, more than any other, provokes concern for me:
I'll probably say too much, I usually do. My big mouth has gotten me into trouble my whole life, why change now? I don’t post very often but I did enjoy reading daily, until the past couple of months when it seems the posts have turned to an anti-government, print your own currency, stockpile food, attack dogs, barbed wire and locked gates, arm yourself and shoot anything that moves mentality that I find pathetic and offensive, so I have pretty much quit reading. I scan the topic titles and it’s the same ol’ stuff, day after day. I used to love the newsy posts about local goings on as well as the homesteading and sustainability type threads but now it seems even they rapidly degenerate into the militant survivalist stuff mentioned above. I was particularly heartsick at the brutal post started on Christmas Eve and still running near the top of the forum today. Not the world I want to live in and nothing I would willingly subject myself to via this forum. I had about decided to give it up completely when this thread popped up – hope Rob takes it to heart and makes the changes necessary. Meanwhile, implementing that IGNORE feature might be a very good idea. Aloha.
Reflecting on some of my posts, I feel concern about this observation in large part because I do not want to be part of a problem and perceived as polluting Punaweb, if indeed such is the case. Newbies do tend to stick their foot in the cowpies and track it around behind themselves all unawares, and I am certainly a relative newbie here. Being part of spoiling a good forum for others is not anything I would want to do, intentionally. This thread raises a good opportunity to openly explore the group norms people want to see in Punaweb, within the framework Rob has so kindly provided.
While we know and love the similarities, Puna is not in all ways Shangri-La or Big Rock Candy Mountain. There are issues of crime, potential for a total furball if lava runs across 130, lack of services relative to size and population of the district, jobs and youth opportunity issues, and so on as in many communities (and then some). Newsy posts about local goings on as well as the homesteading and sustainability type threads are great and I enjoy them, too. Seeing more newsy posts about local goings on as well as homesteading & sustainability threads would be wonderful and would serve to emphasize, appropriately, the good and positive aspects of Puna which we all love. This is why I hope those who have indicated they are stepping back and lurking, only, not posting, will start posting frequently again. Rather than ceding the ground to topics and styles of discussion which as not experienced as blessings, please do provide the positive. This will shape the norms here.
For my part, I welcome direct feedback on whether I am being part of the solution or part of the pollution; private messages can reach me at AlaskaSteven@yahoo.com ...Thanks in advance to anyone sending such feedback, whether slings and arrows or hearts and roses -if I hear from my neighbors in Puna they would appreciate it if I just stuck to talking about mosquitoes, or even shut up entirely, then such feedback would be instructive and useful for me to know. In my opinion a good newbie is a humble newbie, responsive to group norms of the community of which he or she aspires to become a constructive part.
A last suggestion I would offer for the possible good of the order is to request folks who are creating a new thread please make the title of the thread a very clear indicator of what that thread is about. It strikes me as being either lazy or a bit of a tease to title a thread so ambiguously everyone has to take the time to click in there just in order to discover what the topic actually is, ...plus which the value of the thread as a source of potentially useful information is reduced when it does not pop up on title keyword searches on a topic. If one's intention is not to fool or bait others into looking in a thread which they would avoid if only they knew what it was actually about, then right up front in the name of the thread please make it as clear as possible what the thread is about. Thanks, to those who title their threads clearly!
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman
"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."
NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Three suggestions/requests and a thank you:
1) Please post rather than quitting Punaweb or pulling back and lurking silently; your contributions shape this forum.
2) Please give me feedback about your perception if I am being a pain in butt or otherwise inappropriate here (AlaskaSteven@yahoo.com).
3) Please make the title of the thread a very clear indicator of what that thread is about.
4) Thanks for the opportunity to consciously articulate our thoughts about Punaweb group norms here in this thread's discussion.
Long version-
Establishing and maintaining norms for that which is accepted as appropriate and constructive behavior is indeed significant for any group to be ongoingly cohesive rather than disintegrate.
For example, I appreciate that within the norms for our Punaweb lot there is not an incessant barrage of sexual innuendo and outright lewd vulgarity. In some groups this is more the rule than the exception.
Civility, too, is a virtue which seems widely valued within the norms of Punaweb's community. The rub seems more often to be differing interpretations of what constitutes free discussion and where a style of expression gives offense versus an outright intentional lack of civility (though this, too, has admittedly flared up). Certainly while a healthy and vigorous discussion of matters large and small alike can involve a tension over differences of perspective & opinion, in a constructive discussion it seems to me like the participants all view themselves as members of the same team versus as enemies on opposing sides.
Lin W's comment, more than any other, provokes concern for me:
I'll probably say too much, I usually do. My big mouth has gotten me into trouble my whole life, why change now? I don’t post very often but I did enjoy reading daily, until the past couple of months when it seems the posts have turned to an anti-government, print your own currency, stockpile food, attack dogs, barbed wire and locked gates, arm yourself and shoot anything that moves mentality that I find pathetic and offensive, so I have pretty much quit reading. I scan the topic titles and it’s the same ol’ stuff, day after day. I used to love the newsy posts about local goings on as well as the homesteading and sustainability type threads but now it seems even they rapidly degenerate into the militant survivalist stuff mentioned above. I was particularly heartsick at the brutal post started on Christmas Eve and still running near the top of the forum today. Not the world I want to live in and nothing I would willingly subject myself to via this forum. I had about decided to give it up completely when this thread popped up – hope Rob takes it to heart and makes the changes necessary. Meanwhile, implementing that IGNORE feature might be a very good idea. Aloha.
Reflecting on some of my posts, I feel concern about this observation in large part because I do not want to be part of a problem and perceived as polluting Punaweb, if indeed such is the case. Newbies do tend to stick their foot in the cowpies and track it around behind themselves all unawares, and I am certainly a relative newbie here. Being part of spoiling a good forum for others is not anything I would want to do, intentionally. This thread raises a good opportunity to openly explore the group norms people want to see in Punaweb, within the framework Rob has so kindly provided.
While we know and love the similarities, Puna is not in all ways Shangri-La or Big Rock Candy Mountain. There are issues of crime, potential for a total furball if lava runs across 130, lack of services relative to size and population of the district, jobs and youth opportunity issues, and so on as in many communities (and then some). Newsy posts about local goings on as well as the homesteading and sustainability type threads are great and I enjoy them, too. Seeing more newsy posts about local goings on as well as homesteading & sustainability threads would be wonderful and would serve to emphasize, appropriately, the good and positive aspects of Puna which we all love. This is why I hope those who have indicated they are stepping back and lurking, only, not posting, will start posting frequently again. Rather than ceding the ground to topics and styles of discussion which as not experienced as blessings, please do provide the positive. This will shape the norms here.
For my part, I welcome direct feedback on whether I am being part of the solution or part of the pollution; private messages can reach me at AlaskaSteven@yahoo.com ...Thanks in advance to anyone sending such feedback, whether slings and arrows or hearts and roses -if I hear from my neighbors in Puna they would appreciate it if I just stuck to talking about mosquitoes, or even shut up entirely, then such feedback would be instructive and useful for me to know. In my opinion a good newbie is a humble newbie, responsive to group norms of the community of which he or she aspires to become a constructive part.
A last suggestion I would offer for the possible good of the order is to request folks who are creating a new thread please make the title of the thread a very clear indicator of what that thread is about. It strikes me as being either lazy or a bit of a tease to title a thread so ambiguously everyone has to take the time to click in there just in order to discover what the topic actually is, ...plus which the value of the thread as a source of potentially useful information is reduced when it does not pop up on title keyword searches on a topic. If one's intention is not to fool or bait others into looking in a thread which they would avoid if only they knew what it was actually about, then right up front in the name of the thread please make it as clear as possible what the thread is about. Thanks, to those who title their threads clearly!
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman
"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."
NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
] will quote partially or refer to the comments from ignorees [:p] and there I am seeing only part of the conversation and that's as annoying as reading the annoying posts. Besides which, few if any people here are so bad as to be ignored 100%, at least for me. [
]