[HPFGU-OTChatter] Request for Policy Explanation (WAS: That's It For Me, I Guess)

[Kathryn Cawte]

Nox
>
> Cindy has been open with her concerns, and it appeared to me, genuinely
> concerned with the direction the main list is taking. It seemed to me she
> was looking for discussion, and ways to overcome these concerns.
Especially
> since, as Cindy herself says, she has tried the 'private correspondence'
> option and been unsatisfied with the result, or lack thereof. Instead, she
> has been subject to "if you don't like the way we do things, then leave,"
> which I'm afraid is counterproductive. Now I'm not the sharpest tool in
the
> shed, so to speak, but stifling one opinon which opposes the "ruling
class"?
> I would have thought that OTChatter *was* the place to discuss the running
> of the lists.
>

Me (K)

It seems to me that Cindy was polite and genuinely concerned about the list
throughout her post and yet she still got told off for it. If discussing
list policy in any way is against the rules then a whole swathe of us should
surely have received messages asking us to cease and desist a few months ago
when we were discussing how to deal with the influx of new posters. If the
elves want to enforce the policy that list members aren't allowed to discuss
the running of the list politely and intelligently then surely they should
at least be consistent about it - or am I missing something here? (This is a
genuine question that I would like an answer to from the elves, what is the
difference in the two cases because I don't understand and if I don't
understand the rules I can't very well stick to them)

I too have noticed some changes on the main list which I am not ecstatic
about. I don't know whether it is due to less effective 'elfing' or a
complete lack thereof but whereas I once felt it was a forum where I could
discuss anything canon related there are now certain topics which provoke
responses of 'this isn't appropriate and anyway no one should care about
this topic' responses from several poster (yes I am talking about the
sexuality thread that has come up a couple of times recently) which
completely smothers any intelligent debate. There are other subjects where I
feel that the debate ends up highly personal and I haven't seen them calmed
down by elves as swiftly (or at all) as they have been in the past (and I
realise that unless I was the offender I wouldn't see a message from the
elves but if they had stepped in to calm things down I would expect things
to, well, calm down). My point is however that if I wanted to contact an elf
about anything like this I would have to go and look them up because I
currently have no clue who they are, so invisible have they been recently.
Maybe if there was a method of electing them we would be more aware of who
they are, I don't know, but surely it is an issue worth at least discussing,
after all if none of the members are interested in it then no one will
respond to this topic and we will know that the majority of members are
perfectly happy with the status quo. Now I don't mean to cause any offence
to any of the elves and mods (whoever you are) who I am sure work very hard,
but the list has grown so rapidly recently that maybe it is time to change
things a little to respond to that and make the 'enforcers' more
accountable.


K