[BNU] Admin's letter (please read): current state of the list and possible resignation
- From: "Joseph Lee" <joseph.lee22590@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 17:00:12 -0800
Dear BrailleNote users, HumanWare staff and other supporters around the
world:
The below letter may come as a shock and a surprise (in a way, it is meant
to be that way), but please read it till the end:
When I first received my BrailleNote in 2004, I considered this computer a
potential for blindness community in many areas, including connectivity,
braille support and others. With this belief, I spent countless hours
exploring the heart of KeySoft, changing system sounds, upgrading and
downgrading KeySoft and what not. Back then, I hoped I would find a
brailleNote users list where I can learn and share my experience using a
BrailleNote, and I found one in October 2005 (the old version of this list,
which was managed by HumanWare then). Fast forward nine years, and I stand
before you as a list administrator and a webmaster, a job which I was
entrusted to by many of you for the benefit of this community. But now, it
appears that I'm slowly fading away from view, and am standing on this
podium (alongside Alex Hall, the other administrator of this list) with the
words I thought I would not say but may have to say it shortly: there is a
possibility that I'll pass on my baton to someone i.e. I might resign from
this post of administrator given recent events and other interests.
First of all, it appears we the moderators will need to discuss the current
state of the list with you. If we're to give an honest grade on the list
quality, we'd say C- (C minus, or border-line). In our honest opinion, we
would give D or F to the list quality, but since we have excellent
contributors and since this list is one of the well-known channels of
information on BrailleNote, we'll give a border-line grade. For the past few
months, the quality of the posts coming through this list has (if I may say)
declined - not just spam we've seen, but we've seen certain content that may
not reflect the overall theme of the list. Because of this, I believe it's
time that we think carefully about what we post on the list and see if what
we're posting does really reflect what the list is for.
Second, I'd like to say thanks to those who've helped us and criticized us
on our conduct as admins. There were times when we went too far, and times
we asked for your help in running this list and other events. In times of
good and bad on this list, what helped us was your continued support.
Third, this might be a bit hard to swallow but we (personally, I) feel you
need to be informed: we have a report that a former list member will report
I and Alex to Freelists staff over our conduct of the list. Furthermore,
this report and its evidence suggests that the aim of our friend (won't say
who) is to make us unsubscribe from this list in the hopes of ". helping us
understand what this friend is going through .". Those who're involved with
the thread in question knows that I and Alex did what we told that person:
this person was banned to set an example to others, and the person asked
about coming back here after several days. Then I advised this person to not
come back due to the quality of the list. At the same time, I told this
person that I forgive this person, but given the list rules, we have to
remove this person (as said above). Our hope is for this problem to be
resolved quietly. But in the event that we do need to step aside, we will
(possibly, but it's becoming clearer that we need to soon).
Lastly, speaking of resignation, it's becoming clearer that our time as
moderators is numbered. As some of you know, I and Alex are moving onto
other things, and in my case, I need time to study for my college courses.
Thus, in the event that we do announce our resignation, we believe that
there will be people who'll step up to take on the role of moderator and
organize events such as chat for years to come. We should add that our
decision wasn't light - we do understand what our decision (if final) means
to the rest of the BrailleNote user community, HumanWare staff and potential
users out there who're reading our email posts and archives, thus, like you,
we feel uneasy about our decision. But please understand this decision as a
way for both of us saying, "thank you and we love you for supporting two of
your friends manage this list for the past few years."
Thank you.
In prayers,
Joseph Lee
University of California, Riverside
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