Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Email for cohousing

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

Email like any media has advantages and disadvantages relative to other
modes.  It works better for some sorts of communications than others.
One advantage is the ability to keep a record of communication for later
reference.  People should be urged to use care in composing messages and
cool off before responding to emotional issues or take them up in other
contexts.  People get emotional in meetings on occasion (witness a
discussion here not long ago).  Banning meetings was not considered.

It seems to me that banning discussion of community issues via email is
overkill. Resolving to be more civil via email seems more appropriate.

Clearly decision making for a community as a whole via email is
inappropriate given the difficulty of insuring everyone can / does
participate.  Giving everyone some possibility of access to the discussion
(possibly after the fact) seems reasonable and doable.
How many communities have a computer - even an old one - in the
commonhouse where files of old messages etc could be read by anyone?



Mailing list discussion moderation that Sharon raised

It would be desireable to edit some messages but it would a big
never-ending and potentially sticky task.  I have no intention of
moderating cohousing-L.  I do occasionally admonish specific posters and
subscribers in general but in general my policy is to trust posters to use
good judgement and trust readers to pick and choose what is of interest to
them.  And over the years (we are approaching the 7th anniversary of the
start of cohousing-L) this had proved to be a most congenial and civil
discussion - no doubt related to the topic.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411  
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L  See http://www.cohousing.org and Nbhd-tc --  Twin 
Cities Neighborhood issues list.  See http://freenet.msp.mn.us