Posted by Solstice on January 10, 2011, at 12:31:54
In reply to it's long past the time to start solving..., posted by twinleaf on January 10, 2011, at 11:55:03
Lotsa timely (and good) points in your post, Twinleaf.
As for what happened to the Community Council proposal - - it's a mystery to me as well. Bob has been quiet for weeks now. I'd suggested that he open up the month of January for solicitations from the community for the five names they would like to see on the Council.
My sense is that it's bogged down in things like this:
1. The issue of whether council is seated by campaigns and votes, or by soliciting nominations and picking the top five folks who are willing to serve
2. A lack of clarity about the role and function of Council
3. Potential council members' fears that they may become targets as a result of their decisions to let a block stand as-is, or not reducing a block as much as others would have wished.There may be other things that have it stuck that I'm overlooking - but that's what I've come up with so far. It sure would be nice to see Bob actively push this thing through.
Solstice
> the problems which have been plaguing Babble. It's heartbreaking to see so many posters, ones who have meant so much, finally deciding that it's better for them to leave. A forum like this, devoted to mental health, should not be causing posters to have a flare-up in their symptoms, like Dinah, or blame themselves excessively, like Maxime..Not only is our community now not providing support, it is apparently causing distress and harm.
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> It appears that there is just too heavy a burden of unsolved problems. For several years, we have had difficulty with issues of degrees of privacy (FB/Twitter) and excessively long blocks. Now,there is the added problem of posters causing distress to other posters via Babblemail. Painful as it is, if it is happening, it needs to be brought out into the open and faced. And it is pretty clear that the present notification system is not solving this problem.
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> Despite this overload, many of us who have been here a long time cherish the memory of Babble as it once was (for me, it was 2003-3007). We will do a lot in the hope of restoring it. I would love to be able to participate openly on Psychology the way I once did. I left a few months ago because it seemed as though I was facing a year's block if I so much as mentioned what I considered to be injustices in how the blocks were applied. Then when it appeared that we might get a community council. I began posting again in support of that. It would help my particular situation tremendously.
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> WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PLANS FOR A COMMUNITY COUNCIL????
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> The Council could have made an excellent start by shortening blocks, and could well have eventually proved useful in handling situations like inappropriate Babblemail communications and perhaps even enabling the community to have a say in how relatively easy or difficult disseminating information from Babble throughout the internet should be. Even if just blocking issues are addressed, it is a move towards a more democratic and mutually respectful relationship with Bob.
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> This seems like the closest we have come to having Babble end in a catastrophe. I thought almost all of the initial plans for the Council had been worked out, and that we were about to start, Is there something I missed?
poster:Solstice
thread:976438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20101201/msgs/976441.html