Speaking up, Previously-Discussed Topics, FAQs and more

Fri Apr 20 15:51:25 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 17229

Hi everyone --

First off, I think Doreen's message to the lurkers and newbies was
wonderful (thanks Doreen!).  The Moderators have formed a group of old
and relatively new members to serve as "List Elves," who will be doing
lots of great things to make newbies feel welcome and comfortable.  The
List Elves are working out some logistical details amongst themselves,
but expect an ADMIN announcement on this topic very soon!

> Somebody please jump right in and correct me if I am wrong, but is
> this NOT a discussion group? Does that not mean to talk with others,
> to express our opinions, to hear the other person's views, to agree,
> disagree, or not respond at all?

Absolutely!!  I've made that point several times.  As far as I'm
concerned, any topic (as long as not Off-Topic) is fair game (even if
discussed to death in the past).  I'm on the record a number of times as
confirming this, although I usually make myself most known when someone
has tried to stifle discussion about something because they're sick to
death of it.  My response has always been that everyone is free to skip
over messages that contain conversation they're bored with or have no
interest in.  But, it's definitely not fair for one member (or small
minority of members) to try & dictate what can & can't be discussed to
the other members.  This is a large, diverse group -- one of the reasons
I love it so much is that there are people who can challenge me to think
about things from a perspective I hadn't considered before.  But, it's
clear with such a large group that we won't all be interested in reading
*everything* on all the possible topics.

Now, we do have OT rules, because otherwise the message volume would
start spiralling out of control.  I think most everyone who participates
over on OT-Chatter is happy with that system.

We also have Netiquette rules that ask people to avoid one-liners
(especially the LOL type responses) and to try & combine short responses
to several topics into one message.  This is also intended to keep
message volume manageable.  It is not intended to be unfriendly.  :--)

We do encourage everyone to read the VFAQs.  This is intended to be
helpful so that list space isn't taken up with providing the answers to
simple, one-line answer questions over & over.  I have taken to
referring people to the VFAQ rather than answering their question
directly, because I see that as a means of highlighting the existence of
the VFAQ one more time (perhaps for someone who will think, "Oh, I
missed that in the Welcome Message; I'd like to go check that VFAQ thing
out").  My intent in handling it this way has not been to be rude --
although being in the latter stages of pregnancy has possibly made me
more curt in replies than I would normally be.  I will personally make
an effort to be more friendly when answering these types of questions
(although I won't be doing much of that for a few months anyway ... when
& if baby ever decides to arrive).

We do encourage (and will do so more actively through the List Elves)
everyone to speak up!  As Doreen notes, who knows when a new perspective
or angle may be raised that none of us has thought of before?  I (like
Catherine) hear or see something new everytime I re-listen to the CDs or
re-read the books.  Little details I hadn't noticed before will suddenly
leap out at me, and I love that I can bring them up here and discuss
possible new meanings.  [Of course, this all ties in with my strong
belief that this discussion group does influence our perceptions and
interpretations of the "canon" -- it may be a different medium than
fanfic, but it undeniably does result in most people re-thinking their
positions or interpretations from time to time].

FAQs -- We are preparing essays that address the major characters, large
themes (such as Spells & Charms, Wizarding World Economy, Potential
Romance Pairings, Fanfic, Hogwarts, etc.).  These essays are intended to
address the interpretations & discussions that we've already had.  Our
hope was (and is still) that these essays will help people in deciding
whether their burning questions have been discussed before or whether
they've got a potential new angle.  They are not intended to squelch
discussion on topics that have been discussed before.  Rather, they are
intended to stimulate new theories, new angles on old theories, etc.  We
hope they'll give everyone something new to talk about!

These have been "in production" since September of last year, and so
lots of our older members are probably yawning right about now.  When we
initially undertook the task, there were 7000 Yahoo Club Messages.  Now,
there are those 7000 messages plus over 17000 messages in this group.
Slightly more than half the FAQs have been written at this point, and it
is my fervent hope that the techie types in the FAQ group will get the
completed FAQs uploaded to a website sometime in the next few weeks.  We
will just leave inactive links for those FAQs that aren't written or
completed yet.

I think these will be a great resource for all our members, but again,
they are not intended to squelch discussions!  :--)

> Is there a limit as to how many times a specific question *may* be
> asked or answered? It is not as though we are limited by space, is
> it? We are not compiling material for a research paper or something
> similar, are we?

No, there are no space limitations.  I think some of the older members
(myself included) do become irritated when a question that is clearly
answered in the VFAQ (and requires no real discussion) is asked.
Example: what is a shipper?  The answer is in the VFAQ and it doesn't
require any real elaboration -- it's just a definition of sorts.  If the
member wants to come back with that knowledge in mind and ask something
that requires more than a one sentence answer, then that's wonderful and
definitely encouraged.  See above though -- I will personally try & be
sure that referring someone to the VFAQ is done in a more friendly
manner!

As I said above, substantive topics that have been discussed in the past
are still always open for further discussion.  I encourage anyone who
really doesn't want to ponder the intricacies of the Marauders' Map any
further to just skip those messages.  There's no need to try &
discourage others (especially newbies who weren't around for the first 3
rounds) to cease & desist.  <g>

Of course, skipping messages is infinitely easier when everyone labels
their subject headings appropriately!!

> When I first came to this group, I tried very hard to *conform* to
> the standards. If I had a question or an idea, I first went to the
> FAQ to see if it was there. If not, I would try to search the
> thousands of letters to find it. Do you veterans realize what a job
> that is? At the moment, there are 17189 letters in this group's
> files. (not iincluding those IN the archives)

Um .... YES ... yes, I most assuredly do know what a job that is!!
Writing the FAQs has required those of us on the FAQs committee to use
that search feature to find the messages relating to our FAQ topic.  Ask
Simon (who's doing the Harry FAQ) about that search engine sometime (he
says he went through 9000+ messages to find the ones that were
relevant).

Again, this is another reason to have the FAQs in our mind.  These
essays will give everyone a resource to go check out what's been said
about Neville in the past.  You won't have to mess with that lousy
Yahoogroups search feature; we'll have done that work for you!  We're
including message #s too, so people who really want to delve deeply into
what exactly has been said on a particular topic can do so.

> Doreen, who likes hashing & rehashing and finds it a curious thing
> that the same people who dislike hashing & rehashing, are the same
> people who have read Harry Potter dozens of times.

I love hashing & rehashing -- ask anyone involved in the shipping
debates!  <g>  I don't necessarily enjoy re-hashing *all* HP-related
topics, but I just skip those that are not of interest to me.  There are
definitely people who don't like to hash & rehash, but like Doreen, I do
believe they should just delete or ignore messages not of interest to
them.  I also agree whole-heartedly with Doreen that we're not going to
have much to discuss for the next year if we don't cover some old ground
from time to time.

I hope this long ramble has been useful .... to anyone who's still tuned
in.  :--)  I purposefully left off the ADMIN in the subject line ...
because I didn't want it to be off-putting to anyone who's routinely
skipping my ADMIN rants.

I also apologize if I've been cranky or curt in any of my messages the
last month or so.  I'm now 5 days overdue ... so there is a reason (and
hopefully an ending) for my cranky, grumpy attitude at times.  In any
case, I certainly hope that I haven't offended anyone on a personal
level.

Penny

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