Thoughts on exclusion and culture

[Haggridd]

--- In HPFGU-Feedback at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:

> I suspect there was less to my meaning than meets the eye.  I 
didn't 
> mean that issues such as defining the bounds of acceptable 
posting, 
> whether on grounds of tone, topic, format or even length are not 
> matters for the list admins.
> 

> 
> All I meant was that I had introduced a new idea to the 
discussion, 
> that of the pre-conceived and slightly inaccurate RL metaphor.  


 I think it would be deeply unhelpful to 
> declare that one type of metaphor is the correct one for HPFGU.
> 
> I think the use of metaphor shows something about the nature of 
the 
> human mind.  We are very good at finding patterns in our 
experience 
> that match new situations, and then using our knowledge of what 
> worked in those patterns to guide our behaviour in the new 
> situation.  We are not very good at reasoning our way from first 
> principles to the best behaviour in a situation for which no 
pattern 
> is known to be right. 

 
> I hope I haven't thereby lost Haggridd's hearty 'amen'.

> 
> David


Correct me if I'm wrong, but was it not you who introduced the 
metphors of the party and the seminar to "explain" the behavior 
appropriate for listees?  I find it disconcerting at best to accept 
these as a framework for analysis and discussion, only to have their 
initial proponent now say "oh, I hink another metaphor is the real 
deal-- it's a newspaper," or "this is something new under the sun, 
analogies need not apply."  There is an Americanism you may not be 
aware of, "You keep moving the goalposts," which has some 
appplicability here.

I took your comment on this being a matter for the members to mean 
that the consensus of the members would drive the development of the 
list no matter what any current group of mods desired.  How did TBAY 
become a feature of the main list in the first place?  I wasn't 
there, but I seriously doubt some admin type proclaimed "Let there 
be TBAY!" and TBAY sprang forth fully formed from his/her brow (How 
is that for a mixed metaphor?).  I think the future evolution of 
list practice will be similarly consensus driven, not imposed from 
on high.  Is that still a "me too"?

Haggridd