I agree with Ed.
Thanks to whoever removed the 'poledance' plugin (REALLY? that existed?
if it makes you feel any better, I don't think anyone who hangs out in
#code4lib even knew it existed, and it never got used).
It's certainly possible that there are or will be other individual
features that are, well, just plain rude and offensive, and should be
removed.
But in general, I think it would be a HUGE mistake to think that all
personality, frivolity, or 'subcultural' elements should be removed from
all things #code4lib in the name of 'accessiblity'. Whatever it is
about code4lib that has made it 'succesful' -- is in large part due to
the fact that it IS a social community with cultural features. If you
try to remove all those, you are removing what makes code4lib what it
is, you are removing whatever you liked about it in the first place.
If you want online or offline venues that are all-business-all-the-time
with no social subcultural aspects, there are plenty of others already,
you don't need to make code4lib into one. If you find those "plenty of
others" not as useful or rewarding as code4lib -- well, I suggest the
reason for that has a lot to do with the social community aspects of
code4lib. YES, the social subcultural aspects WILL turn some people off,
it's true, but by trying to remove them, you wind up with something that
doesn't rub people the wrong way and doens't rub anyone the right way
either.
On 1/22/2013 1:25 PM, Edward M. Corrado wrote:
On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Kyle Banerjee <kyle.baner...@gmail.com> wrote:
In every "noisy" forum that I participate in (BTW, none of them are tech or
even work related), there are always people who dislike the noise. The
concerns are analogous to the ones expressed here -- irritation factor, it
keeps people away, it's all about the "in" crowd, etc. Likewise, the
proposed solutions are similar to ones that have been floated here like
directing the noisemaking from the main group elsewhere or silencing it.
For things to work, everyone needs a reason to be there. People with less
experience need access to those who have been around the block. But a diet
of repetitive shop talk isn't very interesting for people who have a decent
handle on what they're doing. They need something else to keep them there,
and in the final analysis, many come for entertainment -- this normally
manifests itself in the form of high noise levels. But even if people spend
the vast bulk of the time playing around, nuggets of wisdom are shared. And
if something's truly serious, it gets attention.
It's far better to help people learn to tune out what they don't like, and
this is much easier to do in c4l than in communities where interaction is
primarily physical. All communities have their own character and
communication norms. It's important for people to be mindful of the
environment they're helping create, but reducing communication to help
avoid exposing people to annoyances screws things up.
In all honesty, I think the silliness on the sidelines is far more
important than the formal stuff. I know I learn a lot more while goofing
off than in formal channels for pretty much everything I do.
kyle
+1
I'm all for removing specific offended responses and commands as some
others have suggested, but I agree trying to remove some of the
lighter stuff will in the long term, be more likely to be detrimental
then a positive.
