Julie asked a specific question in regards to personal and anonymous opinions.
She did not ask for a blanket statement about this list to go out TO the list.
(This you can read within her message.)
This is one way to shut someone who happens to have a differing opinion down.
("Gosh, everyone else thinks that things are peachy keen, I really MUST be
stupid.")
Don't let's have a conversation that could easily turn into self-congratulation
in this public space unless the congratulation is legitimately warranted.
I for one have drafted and then deleted several messages to this list out of a
motivation to protect myself.
Christina Salazar
Systems Librarian
John Spoor Broome Library
California State University, Channel Islands
805/437-3198
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
McCanna, Terran
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 9:31 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] reearch project about feeling stupid in professional
communication
I don't see it on this forum, but I have certainly seen it on other
professional forums.
Terran McCanna
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30345
404-235-7138
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cary Gordon" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 12:22:12 PM
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] reearch project about feeling stupid in professional
communication
I might have rose colored glasses, but I don’t see much of that in this forum.
I can’t remember the last flame war. Most folks just answer the questions as
best they can.
I think that you should present your sanitized results here. Perhaps we are
missing something.
Cary
> On Mar 18, 2016, at 5:36 AM, Swierczek, Julie <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> Following earlier discussions about the fear of looking stupid in public,
> I've decided my unofficial research project for the year is to look into ways
> that communication (especially on professional listservs) might provide
> grounds for that fear. I think this might be something especially relevant
> in tech circles.
>
> I would like to ask you if you have any examples of listserv communication
> where you felt that one person was trying to belittle another person,
> particularly about their knowledge of a given subject in their field. Best
> of all would be if you could point me to the conversation in a public
> listserv archive so that I could read more of the thread. However, I am also
> perfectly happy with you quoting the message or even just telling me about
> it. I would also appreciate any explanation you could provide about why you
> see it as a case of someone belittling someone else. (I ask that for two
> reasons: 1) it may not be obvious to me because I am not part of that group
> and I don't know how things normally work in it, such as ongoing flame wars,
> etc., and 2) I'd also be interested in gathering people's feedback and
> interpretations of the bad behavior they have seen.)
>
> An example would be someone saying, "You should know x, y, and z" in response
> to someone who identifies as a newbie and has a very basic question. The
> newbie is asking for help and someone else essentially calls them stupid for
> not knowing about the topic.
>
> I promise to keep all posts confidential, as well as your communications to
> me about them. (If I publicized any of that information, I would myself be
> publicly shaming people for being stupid, and that is the opposite of what I
> am trying to accomplish here.) I intend to anonymize feedback, removing
> information about people, topics, the particular listserv, etc.
>
> To avoid spamming the list with this project, please send your response to
> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Also, if you
> are interested in the project, please communicate with me through that email
> address, since I feel this is off-topic for the list.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Julie
>
> ------
>
> Julie C. Swierczek
> Digital Asset Manager and Archivist
>
> Harvard Art Museums
> 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
> www.harvardartmuseums.org<http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/>
