[Noisebridge-discuss] Fwd: Consensus and the "old ways".

Rachel McConnell rachel at xtreme.com
Sat Oct 3 00:11:05 UTC 2009


What is wrong with a long thread?

Also, WTF "this thread is too long, I'm going to add to it".  (Note that
a lot of people do this, not just Christie.)

People are raising issues they feel strongly about.  We are having a
discussion about it.  There's a lot to say.  We've always told people,
if you don't like something, change it.  Let's not give the impression
of suppressing that.

Christie, your points 1 & 2 I completely agree with.  Point 3, well, our
'ways' are not set in stone.  I hope you aren't saying, 'our way or the
highway' to choose a completely inflammatory phrase.

Rachel "My First Troll" McConnell

Christie Dudley wrote:
> (at the start of writing this) This is the 80th message in this thread. 
> I find this pretty astounding.  I've deleted most of them, but started
> wondering why people who's opinions I respect have continued posting. 
> I'm not seeing what I am expecting to see here, so I'll throw in a few
> of my own on this one.
> 
> 1) Bullying happens regardless of the decision making system you have,
> so long as people willing to bully exist.  The only difference with
> consensus system is that the bullies would have to target more people to
> quash dissenting opinions. [1]
> 
> 2) Criticizing people in public is a form of shame.  Public criticism
> becomes humiliation and requires the person to defend against it rather
> than carefully consider it and allow it to effect their behavior and or
> decisions.  [2]
> 
> 3) Dunno if you noticed, but we're not the only hackerspace in the
> area.  For all these new/non members who are throwing about how they
> hate our "anarchist" [3]ways, I recommend you check out Hacker Dojo.  I
> hear they do things differently there. [4]
> 
> And please folks, try to get a better understanding of what you're
> talking about before you start rambling on about things.  It's really
> annoying.
> 
> Christie
> 
> [1] Take the southern black voter movement for an example of some rather
> extreme attempts to bully in a democracy.
> 
> [2] Every leadership training seminar, workshop and guidebook I've ever
> heard of has made a point of emphasizing criticizing in private.  It not
> only injures the group member, but undermines the group to criticize in
> front of everyone.  Assuming you are not already dealing with a hostile
> group, in which case public criticism is the least of your worries.
> 
> [3] It's funny that the word "anarchist" is used to describe a system
> that, although we don't have many rules, is still a system.  I would
> characterize it as an ultimately social organization where the culture
> we establish is the rules.  Although the rules are not hard and fast,
> things are decided by the cultural traditions and practices.
> 
> [4] I am seeing a lot of commentary from people I do not know.  This
> means that they're either non-members (at one point I more or less
> memorized the list of members) or they've become members since I got
> busy.  Regardless, what that means to me is people are throwing around a
> lot of totally irrelevant, imagined, hypothetically possible in some
> other world issues.[5]  Or as Shannon says, "borrowing trouble".  You're
> not endearing yourself to the group.
> 
> [5] It's easy to imagine things that could happen with this group.  It's
> not intuitively obvious what could and could not happen unless you have
> a deep understanding of our group dynamic.  The things they teach you in
> school about civics involve a surprising amount of propoganda supporting
> the status quo system.  The self-correcting mechanisms which are strong
> here are not obvious with a traditional (non-anthropological) approach.
> ---
> Pigs can fly given sufficient thrust.
>     - RFC 1925
> 
> 
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Michael Wright <mike at smallip.com
> <mailto:mike at smallip.com>> wrote:
> 
>     This one's entirely dependent on the relationship between the people
>     involved, the severity of the criticism, and the publicness of the act
>     believed to warrant it.
> 
>     In general I try not to say things in public that would embarrass
>     someone.  "Hey Shannon, your fly is down" for example, might best be
>     said discretely.
> 
>     On the other hand, if I'm not willing to buy someone a beer or dinner,
>     I definitely don't have a relationship such that criticizing them in
>     private is appropriate.  In that case whatever it is had better reach
>     the bar of importance needed for it to be public.
> 
>     mike
> 
> 
>     On Oct 2, 2009, at 3:00 PM, Liz Henry wrote:
> 
>     > It's interesting how those assumptions don't hold true for everyone.
>     >
>     >
>     > I would way rather be criticized in public, otherwise it can
>     > potentially
>     > turn into abuse and cruelty with no witness. Public criticism at least
>     > has a sanity check to it. Potentially.
>     >
>     >
>     > - liz
>     >
>     >
>     > Shannon Lee wrote:
>     >> Generally, the rule is just the opposite:  praise in public,
>     >> criticize in
>     >> private.
>     >> -
>     >> -S
>     >>
>     >> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 1:27 PM, Jason Dusek
>     <jason.dusek at gmail.com <mailto:jason.dusek at gmail.com>>
>     >> wrote:
>     >>
>     >>> 2009/10/02 Al Billings <albill at openbuddha.com
>     <mailto:albill at openbuddha.com>>:
>     >>>> I think this was meant for the list, not me, since this isn't
>     >>>> about me and I'm done with this for now.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Begin forwarded message:
>     >>>>
>     >>>> From: Shannon Lee <shannon at scatter.com
>     <mailto:shannon at scatter.com>>
>     >>>> Date: October 2, 2009 10:54:12 AM PDT
>     >>>> To: Al Billings <albill at openbuddha.com
>     <mailto:albill at openbuddha.com>>
>     >>>> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] Consensus and the "old ways".
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Dude,
>     >>>> Throwing a public tantrum about how your neeeds aren't being
>     >>>> met and then refusing to talk about it is childish.  You have
>     >>>> my attention, but in 24 hours I'll be done with this.
>     >>>  A rule I'd like to see: no private censure.
>     >>>
>     >>> --
>     >>> Jason Dusek
>     >>> _______________________________________________
>     >>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>     >>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>     <mailto:Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
>     >>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>     >>>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     >>
>     >> _______________________________________________
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>     >> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
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>     >> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>     >
>     >
>     > --
>     >
>     > ------------------------
>     > Liz Henry
>     > liz at blogher.com <mailto:liz at blogher.com>
>     > liz at bookmaniac.net <mailto:liz at bookmaniac.net>
>     > http://liz-henry.blogspot.com
>     >
>     > "Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to
>     > evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ
>     > _______________________________________________
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>     > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>     <mailto:Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
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> 
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> 
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