[New-imc] Re: sum thoughts on new imc involvement ...

[boud1 at wp.pl]

hi joanne, flow, new-imc

On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, joanne richardson wrote:

> i will put the separate replies you sent to the imc-romania list in the
> same digest along with my reply to you - to minimize number of mails &
> have everything compacted in one message (some further explanation of this
> below). i hope this is ok with you, i will of course keep the entire text
> of your messages.

Sure, i trust you as list admin :). 
 
> boud, i should perhaps also apologize, since i think my own reply was
> somewhat aggressive. focusing too much on what bothered me about your
> posts detracted from all the things you said which i think are
> constructive and worth discussing on the list as a whole, specifically the
> issue about list guidelines and admin approval. in retrospect our mailing
> list guidelines may have been too strict because of our hastiness to get
> the site up as quickly as possible. after reading some of your mails on
> the new imc list, i personally am starting to think that this was a
> mistake and that is more important to focus on building relationships in
> the group (and getting a larger group) first and through the mailinglist
> before putting up the site. i will bring this up for discussion on our
> list in my reply.  (you can check the imc-romania list archives this
> evening, i will post all the messages in a digest then, and i will reply
> in both romanian and english).

i guess that means you still want some help from me, as long as i'm
a bit more sensitive, less aggressive etc. OK, will do my best.

But i should say that part of the reason why my posts were a bit
aggressive was that i've been trying to quit new-imc for a long
time, since i've been there far too long and want to spend more time
locally, and i probably wrote those posts quickly without taking enough
time to prepare them carefully or check what the romanian bit meant!

But Romania gets close to "local", so i'll check the archives every
now and then. If you specifically want my comments on something, how
about you just send me a short offlist (or onlist) email saying "please
comment on this" or similar.
 
> flow, i think the idea of having a group of people rather than one
> individual involved in each new imc application is a good one - basically
> it’s similar to the requests made by new-imc group that there be a group
> of admins on each local list rather than one to make things more
> democratic. however, and to be honest, i also worry that this will create
> even more ‘external’ traffic on a local list. part of my surprise over
> boud’s posts was that i didn’t expect that there would be posts by new-imc
> members directly on our list, the other part of the surprise was also over
> the quantity - 3 posts in two days is more than people who are subscribed
> to the list send. if several more people from new-imc get involved and we
> get to a situation in which the number of non-romanian posts is exceeding
> our own this would potentially distract from conversations about local
> issues (for instance we are now in the middle of a discussion about the
> lack of anti-war demonstrations in romania).

i think the idea of having more than 1 new-imc person is that they could 
discuss drafts of a message offlist, and then only send it to the local
list once they've agreed that their message is supportive, sensitive,
but at the same time make constructive criticisms that need to be made.
 
> so to all on new imc, i would propose that the specific process whereby
> new imc volunteers get involved in local lists be discussed among
> yourselves - whether this is done thru individual direct posts to the
> local lists (and how many is too many?), through digests, through the list
> contact who can forward things or bring issues up for discussion ...? i’m
> all for an open process of communication, but please take into account
> that if you start sending multiple english language messages per day to
> our list, it might start to cripple other dialogue. especially now when we
> are trying to build the list and get new subscribers, it would really suck
> if the quantity of non-romanian posts might lead someone to have second
> thoughts about joining or staying on the list.

Agreed.

i think everyone would agree that new-imc volunteers should not swamp
discussion on a local list, but i think the locals usually react
against this if it happens. (But as blue pi mentioned in a different
context, there is the danger that people from new groups see a 
new-imc volunteer as having some sort of "authority", rather than 
just as a helper, because they don't realise how limited the power
of any new-imc volunteer is if we try to do anything more than 
communicate between the network and the new group...)

But as for new-imc process, we have enough trouble simply trying to
get at least one new-imc volunteer to contact each new applicant,
though maybe now with the new volunteers we just possibly 
might be OK for a while...

i think you overestimate how well organised we are! ;) 

However, i've added some comments on this to the TWiki:

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImcFaq

joanne, flow, everyone, feel free to edit it directly!

solidarity
boud