Duane -- I'm puzzled by this on several levels. First, I'm not seeing what you're apologizing for; second, I'm not understanding why you think the ensuing exchange was "tempestuous." You advanced a suggestion; we offered our responses to your suggestion, much as we would have responded if you'd offered a thought about a new novel or film or the social implications of some new technological advance. This is what happens in discussions. I'm sorry if you saw that as a "counter-attack." So perhaps we have some conflicts with regard to how we perceive tone in the written word.
For example: "Virulent animosity" is an interesting phrase to use in this context. Not very casual. I'm probably the only one it really even comes close to fitting with regard to Facebook, but even there, it's a real leap, and a rather strong way to express it. Using terms like that to assert the character of someone else's position is a good way to engender a less than congenial tone. I'm sorry that you've been disappointed by the facebook page, which was created in part as a way of linking Facebook to our website<http://r-spec.org/>* -- see the Info tab, as you might with any other Facebook page -- and has since been used sporadically as a means to send out notifications of events to people who are linked to it on Facebook. We haven't really fixed on a technology platform for pushing events -- we're all over the place on technology here. So, yeah, we could do that part better -- but that wouldn't necessarily mean using Facebook to do it, because that would actually narrow our audience, not widen it. Whether you make further suggestions is up to you. We'd be happy to have your suggestions -- but even better would be to engage in discussion, perhaps starting by listening to your views on something, and offering ours in the expectation that you'd listen to them and reciprocate. "Suggestions" does, after all, tend to imply that the people you're making suggestions to have something they ought to be improving upon. -- *... and no doubt in part because somebody could. I don't know for sure; I didn't create it. *I would remind youngsters out there that this was once upon a time a badge of some distinction, back before the short-internet-attention-span burned Compuserve out of most of our collective memories, and broadly speaking I think that person [who shall remain nameless] is pretty technically astute. Like many people, I expect he's just got years of social capital invested in that email address. On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 2:04 PM, Duane Parsons <[email protected]>wrote: > Carry on threads as you wish; it was merely a suggestion. Blogs are > considered ideal for online discussion but it was my assumption the FB page > was intended as a blog of sorts since I know of no other site for this > group. Frankly I'm not sure what the purpose of the FB site actually is and > given the virulent animosity to FB exhibited by these responses I can't > imagine why it's even there. I still find round-robin letter-writing - > online or off - to be tiresome but this is not - to me - the huge,major > issue that it apparently strikes others as being. It is important to > remember that to many people - me,for example - a casual suggestion is just > that and is not intended as an attack requiring counter-attack. I daresay I > neglected to consider the rather tempestuous nature I have learned to > associate with this region. I am fairly casual by disposition myself. People > from the Midwest tend to be that way. Again i must stress that to me this > was just a casual suggestion and I deeply apologize for the seething emotion > I gather I have triggered off. Clearly this is a very highly charged and > emotional matter to others; but not to me. I will make no further > suggestions. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en.
