On 15 Dec 99, at 12:06, Wendy L Corfield wrote:
> And while I'm on to it, even though messages are delivered almost
> instantly to hundreds of members on this list, it still seems that there
> are complaints of time-wasting because of the unsolicited material that
> comes with it. Well frankly I think that is the price we all have to pay.
On one hand I agree with you that we need to keep list discussions
in perspective, and I have long since given up taking them too
seriously. Mind you, I guess we could also take communication
with students, or peers, or phone calls less seriously too. That
said, I dislike your statement above, in part because it implies a
fatalism that I hope none of us use in our work educating managers.
We could of course, say the same thing about poor management -
that it is just the price we all have to pay, and I just don't think
that's how we think. I don't see why we should tolerate poor list
behavior while we don't tolerate or sit silent in the face of poor
management behavior or as another example, poor behavior from
someone in a university classroom. Why is it ok here and not ok in
your class?
Quite simply, we believe (don't we) that learning is possible in
management. Do we not believe it is a good thing to encourage
people to become literate considerate citizens of the internet as we
enter the year 2000?
You might say, it's no big deal, this internet behavior stuff, but I
suspect those that believe that haven't experienced what CAN
happen as a result of poor internet or list behavior. Here are some
real examples.
First, if you want a taste of the total uselessness of forums that are
chaotic, check out almost any newsgroup (usenet). There is more
off-topic stuff, flames and insulting behavior than you can imagine if
you haven't checked it out. In almost every unmoderated
newsgroup. Very few people serious about a topic use them
anymore.
Consider, that several times over the last few years lists (just like
this one) have been stopped cold (and the servers crashed) as a
result of the use of misconfigured auto-responders setting up
infinite loops.
Several times in the last few years, I have opened my mailbox to
see that a list has gone berserk, with one person looping
messages in the hundreds to the list. Since some mailbox
systems have size storage limits, that meant some people lost the
use of their mailboxes for some period of time.
That junk crowds out the good people. When the signal to noise
ratio gets bad, the really good people just leave, leaving the list to
the people sending the junk. I know of several lists where this has
occurred ending in NO posts at all.
That's just a few..I could go on and on (already have). The thing
about these kinds of consequences is a) they affect everyone, and
b) they are largely avoidable through polite education and helping
people understand the consequences of their actions on the others
on a list community.
I've been online for 14 years and seen the best, and sadly, a lot of
the worst. I'm not prepared to sit quietly in the face of dumb things
whether they occur on the net, in my classroom or anywhere else.
> We must then depend on our own finely-tuned sense of what is useful to
> convert the information into knowledge. This means applying filters and of
> course trashing. I think it is sad that the instantaneousness and
> spontaneity of email has also brought with it a level of impatience and
> intolerance.
I am no more or less tolerant of people misusing access to me
whether it be on the internet, at my front door or on the telephone. I
don't tolerate marketing phone calls at 3 am. Why should we be
any less tolerant of junk on the internet? Or for that matter, how is
this different than wanting to educate managers? Why should we
NOT educate internet users on the rules of the internet highway, in
the same way people are taught how to have a polite face2face
conversation or a telephone conversation?
Sure there will be times when you end up with seemingly
> useless information.
It isn't the information that isn't of interest but is on topic but the
unnecessary posts of me to, and send me one, where there is no
need for me to even see. The only reason I have to see them is
people don't know or care what they are doing.
I estimate I spend about 20 minutes a day wading through stuff that
just shouldn't be public stuff. That's not insignificant. So because of
people acting with no consideration, or with a lack of knowledge I
(and others) are left with a choice. Stop contributing and leave, live
with it, or try to encourage people to behave according to what
amounts to the universally recognized rules of the road (and yes,
they DO exist).
People may not care what I have to say, but do you really want to
lose the contributions from those posters who just plain can't be
bothered wading through the crap?
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