[Sigia-l] Five questions about the future of this community

[George Olsen]

I don’t think being respectful of others = censorship.

David, I’m sorry to hear about your experience, but I think it less to do
with West Coast "politeness" than dysfunctional corporate culture. (In my
experience, most corporate cultures try to bury "bad news.")

I'm not being personal, but New Yorkers _do_ have a reputation for being
in-your-face in ways that most of the rest of the country finds
irritating, possibly even intimidating.

Which is why regardless of where you're from it's always a good idea to
consider whether _how_ you're saying something is preventing people from
listening to what you're saying -- especially if you're trying to convince
them you're right.

Telling someone "go look in the archives" may be well-meant, but it can
also be interpreted as a "go look in the archives, you idiot,"
particularly if I have a history of making remarks others have preceived
as disdainful. With a little extra effort –- like "I don’t have an answer
myself, but it's been discussed in the archives" I can convey the intended
message unambiguously.

My problem with the debate here over the past year or two is that it's
moved beyond Socratic method and into nitpicking and one-up-manship. Maybe
that wasn't what the posters intended, but that's how it came off.

Admittedly, people are going to have different perceptions about what's
"civil" but to me the difference is pretty simple –- it's the difference
between criticizing the idea and criticizing the person. Yeah people can
lose their temper – I did so myself – but when it's a pattern of behavior,
I don’t think that's healthy for the community.

I’m not asking for group hugs or group think, just for people think a
little before they post:  Am I really adding to the conversation? Am I
trying to be constructively critical? Am I critiquing the idea not the
person?

God knows few people will call me timid, but over the past year or two
I've found myself less and less inclined to post to this community because
it results in intellectual masturbation/sniping rather than intellectual
debate. The death of communities is less about people being intimidated
from posting than from those who decide it's just not worth doing so
anymore.

Yes, Usenet is a more rough and tumble place than here. So friggin' what.

I expect SIG-IA to be better than Usenet or other forums. As others have
said, the IA Summit conferences have provided some of my best profession
experiences due to its free and frank exchange of ideas combined with
mutual personal respect. But the Summit is only two days a year. I'd like
to see SIG-IA provide the same quality of experience the other 363 days.

Look, we all think we've got brilliant ideas, and we want people to listen
to us. So if for no other reason than self-interest, doesn't make sense
for each of us to speak in a way that doesn't cause others to set-up mail
filters to nuke anything we have to say. It's hard to convince others of
your brilliance if they're actively tuning you out.

George