Re: Use of email | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Diana Carroll (dianaecarrollgmail.com) | |
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2014 10:10:08 -0800 (PST) |
Mosaic Commons uses email a LOT. 95% of the email is pretty light stuff -- notices of events, people looking to borrow or give away something, etc. But we DO also use it to discuss ISSUES, and yes, sometimes it can get pretty heated. Only very occasionally does it spiral into overt flaming or hostility, but even civil discussions can leave people with hurt or angry feelings. But then, that's true of in-person meetings as well. I've left plenty of in-person meetings feeling unheard, misunderstood, resentful, etc. Our list moderators do nothing other than handle administrative functions (adding and removing people, changing email address, dealing with spam and so forth.) There's absolutely no official moderation of content. We DO self-moderate as a community. Often individuals will say "Hey, I think this is off-topic" or "You guys aren't being civil, please calm down". Sometimes when a discussion becomes very volatile, our Community Support/Conflict Resolution team will step in and ask that a conversation be stopped until feelings have settled down, folks have had a chance to discuss in person, etc. We have some etiquette guidelines to help keep the list useful. For example, use accurate, descriptive subjects; if you've made a request and are now all set, follow up with "All set" in the subject line; mail containing very important content that everyone in the community must read should be tagged "IMPORTANT". We also have "ground rules" for meetings that also unofficially apply to email. I can't remember all our ground rules, but they include things like "Emotions are okay, attacks are not", "Don't speak for others", "Listen for understanding" and so on. But there is no one whose official job it is to enforce the rules. Other than sheer volume (which is its own issue), our biggest email difficulty is that some people (like me) prefer writing as a way of communicating about challenging subjects, and others prefer face to face...and email of course naturally favors the former. Periodically the face-to-face preferers will say "I don't want to discuss this in email, this is not a good discussion, let's do it in person"...and email preferers will feel shut down. We've never really found the best way to work around the fundamental difference in philosophy. Diana On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 3:04 AM, Malcolm Eva <malcolm [at] malcolmeva.plus.com>wrote: > > Hello all > > I'm interested in how US coho groups control use of email as an internal > communications channel. Do you find that you need to enforce an email > etiquette? Does it sometimes spill over into an emotional blame and shame > storm, or is it always courteous? How do you control a situation where > some people will not use email, while others converse almost always by > email? > > Do group moderators need to be very hands-on, or is that felt to be too > intrusive and heavy-handed in a community? We're heading for a single > issue residents' meeting on this topic soon, and I'd be interested in > knowing your experiences and solutions first. > > Thanks > > Malcolm( UK) > > Sent from my iPad > If reply needed, please address to malcolm [at] m-eva.co.uk > _________________________________________________________________ > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ > > >
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Use of email Malcolm Eva, February 8 2014
- Re: Use of email Laura Fitch, February 8 2014
- Re: Use of email Diana Carroll, February 8 2014
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Re: Use of email Caity McCardell, February 10 2014
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Re: Use of email Philip Dowds, February 10 2014
- Re: Use of email Ann Zabaldo, February 11 2014
- Re: Use of email R Philip Dowds, February 11 2014
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Re: Use of email Philip Dowds, February 10 2014
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