[HP4GU-FAQ] Scrubbing (was Requesting membership)

[Susannah Myers]

--- davewitley <dfrankiswork at netscape.net> wrote:
> Cindy wrote:
> 
> > See, the
> > current vote is Sheryll, Heidi and Amanda with
> reservations about
> > scrubbing and only Cindy in favor of scrubbing. 
> Everyone else has
> > been silent so far.  
> 

Hmm.

Well, I've been thinking about this matter, and I'm
kind of conflicted.

See, when I came onto this group I didn't know that
there *was* any tension, and it was very distressing
to think that everything was going along fine and then
suddenly have these weird eruptions of not-fine-ness
and then finally have to be filled in by someone
off-list. And, before being filled in, not have a clue
about what had gone on, who would look at me weirdly
if I was friends with whom, whether or not people were
lying to me, etc. It was extremely upsetting to me to
be left in the dark. And I tend to think that it would
be upsetting to other people to find things out the
same way that I did.

To those who may say that no one need ever find out
about the recent unpleasantnesses: Come off it. Sure
they will. As Cindy said, it happened; it's
regrettable that it did, of course, but as it has,
it's foolish to pretend it didn't and expect it will
somehow never affect anything again. So the new
FAQ-er's most probably *will* find out, one way or
another, and I think that, if it was me, I'd rather
find out up-front.

So, for that reason, I'm inclined against scrubbing.

On the other hand.

Cindy raises an excellent point about the possibilty
that new members may have been discussed on this list
in the past. That would have embarrassed the [bleep]
out of me. [1] 

So that makes me wonder if maybe we might want to
scrub the archives after all. 

(If we do, btw, I'm guessing that this post would be a
favorite.)

Bottom line: I don't really know. If we're just doing
it to protect newbies from the knowledge of the
group's inner politics, I would advise against
scrubbing, because everyone's just going to find out
anyway, and I *really* do think that it would be
better for them to find out up front. But if we're
doing it to prevent them from reading frank
assessments of themselves. . . yeah. That could really
be pretty humiliating. It would make them
self-conscious, if nothing else.

Obviously, I've never been on this side of the
newbie-invite thing before, so I don't really know
squat, and everyone can just disregard all of this if
they want to -- but I just thought I should throw a
few thoughts out there.




Derannimer, who apologizes to Maria for this email,
which must be rather cryptic, if not down-right
*sinister,* and would just like to tell her that if
she wants an explanation she can contact. . . drat,
I'm talking about myself in the third person, aren't
I? Pronoun Conflicts! Well, scratch that particular
device. Look, if you're baffled, drop me a line, and
I'll give you the Cliff Notes version. It's not as bad
as it probably sounds.

-----

[1] As a side note: It, er, never occured to me that
we relative newbies might have been discussed here,
although it makes sense, of course. I now find myself
wondering what, well, um, not to sound too conceited
or anything -- what *did* people say about me? 

"No! Not Derannimer! She's the most self-indulgent
TBAY-er I've ever seen! And she puts too many
qualifiers in her writing! 'Really' must account for
17% of her word count!"

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