It seems like it's a problem of language then - if tasks are "suggested" or "available" rather than "assigned", then I feel it would perhaps be more acceptable. I think of it more like a targeted volunteers mailing list than a slave driver.
-t Philip Potter wrote: > 2009/9/30 Seb Bacon <[email protected]>: > >> Yes, I've already had that feedback from friends. The whole point of >> the site is exactly that, though; if you want to help out on >> unspecified, democracy-related tasks, you can do so here. >> >> So, not sure how we'd fix that. Perhaps add a sentence on the front >> page to the effect that you can opt out at any time? Explain that >> you're not committing yourself to doing anything, just opting into a >> list of people who might want to do something? Change the model so >> you're signing up to a particular task? >> > > I could get behind this; while I'm happy to receive alerts about > things that need doing locally, I only promise to do the ones that I > explicitly sign up to. Some sort of assignment tool would also to help > divvy up tasks and avoid duplication of effort. > > I don't like the "opt-out" idea; it suggests that, until you opt out, > you're expected to get involved with everything advertised. This is > not realistic and I imagine it would turn people off from signing up. > > I think many of the objections would disappear once the site has got > going and people can scan it for lists of recent tasks people have > done -- such a live list of examples would demonstrate what is > actually involved and what you are signing up to. But clearly we don't > currently know ourselves exactly what is going to be involved. Perhaps > it would be good to actually start doing some tasks in some of the > hip, laptop-wielding constituencies as a demonstration to others of > what is involved? > > Phil > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
