TBAY : an open door to diversity

[Doriane]

In a post yesterday, Naama pretty much told me to piss off if I 
didn't like TBAY. She (you're a female, Naama, right ? If not, I'm 
deeply sorry) told me in no uncertain terms that if I have a problem 
with TBAY, well it's *my* problem and nobody else's. She hurt me at 
the time, but now I have to thank her, because she got me thinking 
hard, and I understand my problem regarding TBAY at bit better.

( There's a bit of personal history first. For those who want to skip 
it, go directly to the ***** )

When I first joined HPFGU, in the summer of 2000, I'm not sure 
exactly how many people there were, but it was A LOT less than now. 
It was a much smaller group, and as a consequence a much tighter 
group. It was almost a group of friends. We were all different, but 
because there were not that many of us, we had to do our best to 
write in a consensual manner (but not necessarily of consensual 
matters ;-). At the time, nobody would have dreamt of telling me to 
piss off, because they would have known that at least a dozen people 
would have come down on them.

Then all my energy got used persuading a poor innocent young man to 
marry me <eg>, and I fell away from the list for about 2 1/2 years.

When I got back here, I still had the feeling of "frienship" in mind. 
I noticed that the membership had grown to unfathomable numbers, and 
that there was a whole Admin Team working on managing all that 
people, but somehow it didn't occur to me that the group dynamics had 
vastly changed too.

That's why FILKS and TBAY made me uneasy. I just couldn't figure out 
why anyone would want to write in formats not necessarily liked by 
everyone else. I was puzzled, but since it seemed to be acceptable, I 
didn't say anything.

Then Admin, on this Feedback list, asked us about TBAY, and I was 
astounded to see that, not only were many people just as puzzled 
about it as I was, but some people even downright hated it.

Then others came in, defending not only TBAY in itself, but even its 
theoretical right to exist, since some people on the list like it. 
Intellectually, it made sense to me, but some warning bell kept 
ringing in the back of my mind. And I've finally understood what it 
is.

****

We have several thousand people on the main list. It makes sense that 
sub-groups of likely-minded people would form and start talking among 
themselves in their own jargon. So far, we've seen 2 of those groups 
be born : the FILKers, and the TBAYers. Since many of us happen to 
think in democratic ways, we find it natural to defend the right of 
those "minorities", including their right to use their own format for 
posting.

But that gets me thinking about the future of the list.

We have to realize that those 2 groups probably aren't the only ones 
ever likely to form. With that many people on the list, and those 
long new-book-free months (maybe even years) to come, it could very 
well be that the phenomenon which gave birth to TBAY will repeat 
itself and give birth to other kinds of groups, each with their own 
format for posting, some maybe even stranger than the BAY. Are we 
ready to welcome those groups too ? If we do, then we must consider 
that someday we might have a half-dozen or more different types of 
format for posting, all perfectly acceptable, even if sometimes very 
obscure for whoever doesn't think the way members of those groups do. 
That will make for a very lively cacophony indeed.

Personally, I'm perfectly okay with that. But Admin would have a 
tough job preventing that cacophony from turning into full-formed 
anarchy. It's doable, but the Rules have to be clear and stricly 
enforced (I'm not saying that's not the case now, mind you !)

So that's what's at stake here : either we want to keep some kind of 
unity in the group, and we have to do away with sub-groups. Or we 
welcome diversity with open arms, with all the strangeness and 
weirdness it might bring.

Del