[BNU] Re: Admin's letter (please read): current state of the list and possible resignation

  • From: Carlos Lopez <carlos.lopez.1209@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pianogirlforlife7@xxxxxxxxx, joseph.lee22590@xxxxxxxxx, braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 03:15:28 -0800

Hi all,

These are my thoughts exactly. I too appreciate the efforts Alex and Joseph have put into running this list. I too would hate to see either of them go.

I joined the old BrailleNote list in 2011 and this one after the old list was closed. I do love this list because I know it's a good place to ask questions about the BrailleNote or to get help. In fact, whenever I have problems of any kind with the BrailleNote, the first thing that comes to mind is this list. The same goes for whenever I just have questions.

Carlos

Sent from my BrailleNote Apex BT 32 running KeySoft 9.4 build 1226 from the HumanWare BrailleNote family

----- Original Message -----
From: marissa <pianogirlforlife7@xxxxxxxxx
To: joseph.lee22590@xxxxxxxxx, braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date sent: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 17:21:32 -0800
Subject: [BNU] Re: Admin's letter (please read): current state of the list and possible resignation


Joseph, Alex,

I am sure I am not alone when saying this.

You two have been very big help to this list, keeping it running
and functional.  Though it will be very sad to see either one of
you go, it is for the best after all.

Personally, I think that if you were to resign, I would not be
the only one sad about it.

You took time to read all of the emails and to respond as felt
necessary.  That takes dedication and time that you could be
doing other things.

But  instead of doing those things, you sat down and helped out
the list.

I, along with others, appreciate all the hard work and effort you
put in to this list, no mater if you were crashed on your
machines by spams, upset by posts, or just generally annoyed at
times, you still did your duty as list moderator and we
appreciate it very much.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Lee" <joseph.lee22590@xxxxxxxxx
To: <braillenote@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date sent: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 17:00:12 -0800
Subject: [BNU] Admin's letter (please read): current state of the
list and possible resignation

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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-------------------------------
BNU: BrailleNote Users - a forum for users of BrailleNote family of products 
from Humanware.
Website: www.braillenoteusers.info

IMPORTANT: By default, replies will be sent to individuals. If you feel that your reply 
would be useful for others, please use "reply to all" feature in your email 
client.

If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send an email with the subject line of 
"unsubscribe" to braillenote-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.

You can also visit our list page at:
www.freelists.org/list/braillenote
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list archives.

If you have any comments or questions for list moderators, please send an email 
to braillenote-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Thanks.

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