Posted by Dinah on September 5, 2006, at 9:10:05
In reply to Re: Extraction » gardenergirl, posted by Alexus on September 5, 2006, at 5:57:57
I had thought the difference had been obvious. Estella commented on it in the final paragraph of this post.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060826/msgs/682891.html
I *really* don't want to get into a discussion about this. I don't want to argue about how I perceive the deputy role from changing from the days when there was an escalation requirement for deputy involvement and the role was clearly limited and there was never any talk about consulting deputies.
Surely you can see that the deputies could feel a bit alienated from babblers, and vice versa, by some of the changes? Wasn't there even a hint of that in Estella's last paragraph?
I must say that if I were a nondeputy poster and saw continued references to discussing things with deputies, it would be hard for me to see deputies as primarily posters just like me. I would feel a bit like there was an inner circle. Not quite an oligarchy perhaps. But something.
And perhaps you could pretend to be a poster who's volunteered to be a deputy and see how the references might make you feel a bit uncomfortable. A bit apart. More than a bit embarassed if you're like me, as you might have seen when I tried to get Bob to bring a discussion back to Admin in a thread you might remember with zazenduck. A bit unable to fully participate on Babble as a poster, and a bit like you were expected to be like Bob.
It's true that things deputies posted as posters have always been brought up by those who are responding to us as deputies. My dogs have been included from the beginning, in ways that frankly shock me. It's always been true that I've felt there should be an extra warning box pop up before the submit button for deputies post, warning them not to make their vulnerabilities known. It's true that there are things I just don't post here, that I could post if I weren't a deputy.
But in the past, Dr. Bob has always recognized that we are first and foremost posters. The recent discussion I had with him about civility to deputies and what could be said to deputies would never have happened, because Dr. Bob used to recognize that we weren't him, and that we were posters first and foremost. True, he came to see that, but there was a time I wouldn't have had to remind him.
And yes, of course there's the issue about how often Dr. Bob is gone, and how often we're called upon to deputize. Along with the issue that as new posters come, they don't realize the history of the deputy role and see us as "moderators" rather than deputies, a distinctly different role. Or at least it once was, and I hope (although not terribly robustly in terms of hope) continues to be.
As you can see, I'm a bit emotional about the topic. And I hope you can respect my feelings and perceptions on it even if you disagree with the specifics.
And perhaps you could be sympathetic to gg's point if you remember that Dr. Bob is, in practice, about as communicative with his deputies as he is with anyone else.
poster:Dinah
thread:682937
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060826/msgs/683267.html