Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Relational aspects of online interaction within the community

[Chris Roth - Communities Editor (editor]

Hi Frances,

Here's what the Community Living Agreements at Lost Valley Educational 
Center/Meadowsong Ecovillage (in nearby Dexter) say:

Email Etiquette or “Netiquette”:
1.  I will use Lost Valley email primarily to communicate functional 
information, and to confirm agreements that are made verbally.
2.  If I have doubts as to whether or not my email is appropriate I will 
refer to a friend, staff, or community council member about its content 
or style BEFORE sending.  If I still have any doubts after several hours 
I will schedule a face to face meeting with the recipient(s) or arrange 
a mediated meeting from a community council member.
3.  I will talk to people in person regarding topics where either or 
both parties are feeling heightened emotions.  If I believe that it is 
essential to communicate negative feelings by email I will use 
non-violent communication strategies.
4.  I will respect the confidentiality of information by sending emails 
to relevant parties only.  Campus is not an appropriate target for 
sensitive topics.
5.  If someone sends me something I think is inappropriate, or addresses 
a larger audience than I think needs to be involved I will schedule a 
time to talk to the person about this concern.  If that conversation 
doesn’t solve my concern I will ask the Community Council for help. I 
will not use email to argue back.
6.  I will write using normal capitalization, in order to assume a calm 
textual “voice.”  I will use the words URGENT and IMPORTANT cautiously.
7.  I will not make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating 
comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke.  I will not 
forward emails that contain any of this content unless it is to report a 
violation of agreement(s).

(See https://www.lostvalley.org/community-living-agreements -- everyone 
who lives in the community must sign these as part of their residency 
agreement.)

Some Lost Valley residents also use Slack, but that platform was 
actually adopted without formal agreement, and therefore while the above 
guidelines would broadly apply to it, there may be others that would be 
appropriate too, and that may be developed once the topic of Slack is 
revisited next at a community meetup.

Hope this is helpful,

Chris

On 10/13/2022 6:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:25:25 -0700
> From: Frances Spector<kaukafran [at] gmail.com>
> To:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Relational aspects of online interaction within the
>         community
> Message-ID:
>         <CAGkqo6aeJh+m_2OBr6xzaeRUDksVrS888JX+y6VRTcCtkQqbPQ [at] 
> mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Hello all, I am part of River Song in Eugene. We are less than a month away
> from move in, and we currently use Slack for communicating with each other
> rather than email. I expect we will still use it or some other platform
> after move in and am wondering if any other communities have grappled with
> the the relational problems that online platforms can pose.
> If anyone has created guidelines or agreements that have been helpful, or
> helpful advice and can share, I appreciate it.
--
Chris Roth
Editor, Communities
81868 Lost Valley Lane
Dexter, OR 97431
editor [at] gen-us.net
541-937-5221
gen-us.net/communities