FWIW, here are my meta-thoughts about LSW: 1) There aren't any behavior police. There are people who have differing, strong opinions about behavior who share them strongly and differently. This can make one feel all sorts of different things including aggravation or anxiety, but it isn't coercive, and I don't see any one "camp" ever "winning."
Jenny Levine,
Back to just Joe,
RudĩϐЯaЯïan,
Marianne,
John Dupuis,
Katy S,
♫Maurice the Dolphin♫,
Kirsten loves you,
and
maʀtha
liked this
2. I am amazed at how people who disagree stick with the conversations, over multiple threads if need be, and generally walk themselves back to a place of respectfulness.
- Mark Kille
*hugs mark*
- maʀtha
3. I don't personally see conversational "safety" as a goal in any public forum. I think everyone has a responsibility to be mindful of how they choose to speak and what the likely consequences will be. But snark, anger, impatience, etc. are all part of the world. If someone determines they need to express themselves to me in that way, I don't enjoy it, but it's okay. I can choose whether to continue talking with them about it or not. (See #1 and #2.)
- Mark Kille
As usual, Mark, you are thoughtful and measured. My personal challenge is that point of choice you close with in #3 -- do I value the overall conversations enough to choose to take the time to shield myself from the unpleasantness of discourse in any given environment? Or is it in my best interests to walk away? Or is it a personal moral imperative to say "I don't think this is right" when I feel that the discourse is sliding to a place that's damaging to the community? They're never easy choices.
- Jenica
4. It sucks when people we like and respect say or do something that makes us go, "Wait, what, really?" I personally think this is one of the greatest professional challenges in Libraryland and directly related to the question of why librarians find it hard to express disagreement constructively. I unfortunately don't have anything more coherent to say about that relatedness.
- Mark Kille
Jenica, no, they are not easy choices.
- Mark Kille
Thank you Mark and Jenica for helping me think through this. I've had to be away from FF a lot the last few days, but I've been mulling things over and trying to articulate for myself what I see going on. I'm a little concerned that more than one person has reported feeling jumped on. I'd really like us to be able to have these passionate debates without that happening.
- lris
Possibly because I've been somewhat under the weather, I seem to have missed the whole foofaraw ('sok, don't point me to it), but Mark's commentary here is, I think pretty much on the money. (And I know now that some conversations are best avoided...)
- walt crawford