[Sigia-l] META: This list, love it or leave it... (LONG)

[Chris Chandler]

I'm kidding about the subject line of course, but honestly, the winging that goes on about how this list isn't perfect
often drives me much more crazy than the petty bickering and boorishness of some of the participants....



"Karl Fast" wrote

Important caveat: Karl isn't the only or even the latest with these types of comments, so my response below should not
be taken as directed solely at him.


> The current perception is that if you post to SIGIA someone will
> start snarking. You may get something helpful, but you are just as
> likely to spark some irrelevant skirmish. Or perhaps it is relevant,
> but it's been seen a zillion times on this list and it's tiring.


And on top of that some people will jump in to loudly complain about how badly other people are behaving and how they're
diluting the list experience... ironic, huh?



> However, the *tone* of that discourse has slowly grown more
> antagonistic, defensive, and cynical. That makes being part of this
> community less enjoyable, less fun, less helpful, and tiring.


Welcome to "community." People talk about "community" like it means spending one's days manning the barricades with your
comrades and then all gathering around the campfire to sing kum-ba-ya before retiring to an all night group snuggle.

The only communities I know of where everyone is happy and respectful are headed by charismatic religious leaders. There
is some important truth behind the saying "good fences make good neighbors." Unmoderated lists with any sizable group of
subscribers and a non-trivial subject matter are often messy and sometimes ugly. This is actually a GOOD thing.

Are things different now than "in the beginning?" Yes.

When this list first began, there was a certain amount of euphoria involved, and not just from the bubble. I know I was
amazed and very very happy to discover that there were a LOT of people who did the same kinds of things I did, and faced
the same kinds of issues I did.

But you know what? I don't think I know any IAs without strong convictions about how things should be done, and a
certain stubborness about convincing others who don't see things the same way, which I consider an occupational hazzard.
Inevitably, the differences in what we do and how we do it which were so unimportant in the beginning are much more
prominent now.

We are also joined on this list by several people who are NOT IA's, who like to tell us that what we do (whatever the
heck it is) is ill-defined, done better in other places, doesn't make business/technical/creative sense blah blah blah.
Needless to say, these types of people bug me on the list as much as they bother me on the job, but personally I look at
this list as "practice" for the kind of work I have to do anyway in the organizations I work with. That's just me of
course... your mileage may vary.

Finally, it's important to realize that over the last two years, a lot of the people on this list have lost a job or
three, and many of us struggle with stress levels that were unheard of in the glory days of $200/hour hourly rates and
easy career advancement. Yes, there are people who act like jerks on this list. Some of them are actually jerks, and
some of them are just having a bad day/week/month/quarter. Kindness and human understanding begin at home. The next time
you're tempted to respond to someone's rude comment with a rude comment of your own... don't. Or at least take it
private.



> To an increasing number of people, participation on SIGIA is a
> draining experience, not an enriching or energizing one.


Now, I have a REAL problem with these types of comments -- not that I don't fully support your, Karl, or anyone else's
absolute right to share them!

Why is it that posts in the "complain about SIGIA" genre almost always insinuate that of course the poster isn't just
speaking for themselves but is somehow speaking out for the silent majority? Do you/we have any real (i.e. not
anecdotal) statistics to back this up or it an intuition or worse, a rhetorical device?? I think I heard Dick Hill say
that there are now 2,000+ people on this list -- just how large is the sample size of the posters who make this type of
claim?

Secondly, I have a couple of pieces of advice for those who now feel "drained" and not "enriched" or "energized" by
reading this list.

1. Unsubscribe. Please. Think of the children. If this list isn't doing it for you, by all means go somewhere else.

2. If you feel, as many people have expressed, that there are certain people who post too much and who's posts are
consistently not constructive, simply DON'T READ OR RESPOND TO THOSE PEOPLE.

If you are like me and you can't trust yourself NOT to respond to certain people who just push your buttons then for
god's sake learn to use the filter feature on your email program and never be tempted that way again. My own experience
on this list was improved dramatically by filtering out a single poster.

Yes yes, I know that certain "people that we've learned from" -- as another entry in this genre put it recently -- post
here less than they used to. I'm as sorry about that as the next person, but complaining about the bad people who drove
them out (or much, much worse, removing 'those people' from the list) isn't going to make everything all right. In fact,
IMO as I alluded to above, it only contributes to the problem!

Finally, if you really feel that the contributions of the people who have stuck around don't live up to your
expectations, you can either a) endeavor to contribute more yourself or b) see 1. above.

Thank you all for contributing and reading this post and this list, and please, keep up the good work of making this the
best darn IA list there is.

-cc