Cyndi Norman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I've generally put offenders into one of two categories:
>
> 1) Personal conflict. If two people write privately and they start
> exchanging nasty emails (including a post having generated nasty emails
> from the start), I consider it a personal issue and stay out of it. If the
> victim writes me, I offer support as a friend or aquaintaince (as
> appropriate) but I tell them it is their job to resolve it, not mine.
I think this is eminently reasonable, but I'd suspect the results will
depend on the sort of operation we run. There is a wide range, from
large forums with many writers and no shortage of material, to the
smaller more elaborate network neighborhoods where the writing takes
some effort and emotional ballast as well.
Guess which sort I operate.
Here's the way it might work. I'll select a random hypothetical event
out of a close reading of actual history. This is the way it happened. A
new and very exciting prospect edges her nervous way aboard. She is
cutting for sign, every moment, and she is, like most fledglings, very
reluctant to open herself up to a group until she has some reassurance.
So when she finally crosses the Rubicon, she reveals herself as a
successful writer, which most would like to be. Immediately and
predictably, there is resisting resentment thrown up. Not everyone can
write, but everyone can critic, and it's the great leveler among the
unaccomplished. She receives private hit mail from concerned old-timers
who feel threatened.
So we have a potentially insanely great admission to our crew on point
of dropping us suddenly because some useless drag on all of us is
condescending to advise her privately that she isn't making the grade,
that isn't what we do here, better take yer show on the road, sweetie.
If you prefer a list of do-nothing bums to a thriving network,
then by all means remain neutral.
Of course, as I say, if your bunch is huge with say chat commentary on
pop topics like the cold chisel with plenty of action all the time,
then you can afford neutrality during offstage squabbles.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tim Bowden)
"Readers meeting Writers as the Sea the Very Sky"
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