Thank you Nagi and Tagrid for your input. This all sounds reasonable and
appropriate. It very well could be that more moderators could help. I hope
people will want to post to obol again soon.
Good birding all, Linda
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 9:10 AM Nagi Aboulenein <nagi.aboulenein@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Teresa -
I am only now catching up on these Boo threads, as work these days keeps
me very busy.
Speaking just for myself and Taghrid (speaking for the OBOL board is up to
its current president, Sarah), first off, let me say that I very much
appreciate your hard work as the sole volunteer moderator of OBOL. It's a
gargantuan task, and I definitely disagree with Brodie's critical message
of you a couple of days ago, I consider it to be his personal
statement/opinion, and not a board statement.
Could you have stepped in earlier on the OBOL thread that was the origin
of all this - maybe. But on the other hand, this is not your paid full-time
job, where it's your responsibility to keep an eye on OBOL second by second
and email by email. So if it takes you, as the sole moderator, a few hours
to catch up and step in and decide that a certain threshold has been
crossed, and that something needs to be done, that works just fine for me.
How do we move forward? Here are some personal thoughts.
I'd like to suggest some change to the notion of subscribers sending you
concerns and once those exceed a threshold you take action.
In some cases, it's likely immediately clear that something should be
done, regardless of whether reports/complaints have hit a certain threshold
or not. In such cases moderator intervention should happen as soon as the
moderator becomes aware of the situation, whether directly, or by even a
single report from a concerned subscriber. And this would be perfectly
workable with the current OBOL model.
However, for the more general case, I think a more sustainable solution is
to find co-moderators to help you with this huge task (and that would be
going back to the older days when there were at least two moderators, I
believe). In this model, when violations of rules/guidelines occur any
single moderator can immediately put the culprit(s) on moderated-posting,
and the moderator team can then discuss/decide what subsequent actions (if
any) are necessary, ranging from temporary moderation (think 30-day penalty
box), to permanent moderation, to permanent ban from OBOL. If the moderator
team is divided, it could be upleveled to the OBA board for a quick tie
breaker.
A review of the OBOL guidelines and etiquette is top of the agenda of the
upcoming board meeting. In light of all the ruckus that the board statement
last year, and the more recent board statement now, one of the critical
items to address in that review is how/whether/when such OBA board
statements should be posted on OBOL. My personal opinion is that they fall
well within the mission statements of OBA and OBOL, but that’s something
where wider input may be needed.
Thanks and best regards and wishes. Stay well, everyone.
Nagi & Taghrid
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 8:30 AM Beth Quackenbush <
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just want to add kudos to Teresa for offering a unique and fair solution!
I try to give people benefit of doubt when possible. I enjoy obol passively
and don’t get ‘hooked’ by negativity, using info on birds to expand my
opportunities to see new species and learn from you all. I understand the
need for the good discussion and am pleased by solution orientation of
moderator. Bravo!
Beth Quackenbush
Salem
On Feb 27, 2021, at 7:47 AM, Teresa Hertzel <teresa.hertzel@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Yes, if we all participate when someone insults another, then at least
one of us can get to the newbie very quickly and stand up for them.
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 9:46 AM <jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nice work Teresa. What a great way to resolve things and I like your
idea that it is on all of us to speak up if we see a problem. Judy in Bend
Jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx
On 2021-02-27 11:58, Teresa Hertzel wrote:
I have sent a message to the OBA Board, suggesting that they start an
email listserv (or a Whatsapp or whatever format suits them best) for their
own OBA members. They can use it to communicate to their members about
upcoming events, field trips, policies, and anything else they wish to
share with their members. A Board meeting is scheduled for next week and I
hope they will consider this.
Meanwhile, Jeff Gilligan and Linda Fink have been friends for a long
time and have discovered that there was a misinterpretation and
misunderstanding between them, based on Linda's not knowing that Jeff was
the person who was being accused of bullying because she had not been
reading OBOL for awhile. I hope both of them will post here and explain it.
Jeff's knee-jerk reaction to the perceived betrayal by a friend was
inappropriate and I'm sure he will acknowledge that.
Here is an idea I had last night for helping control any future problems
on OBOL (which of course will never happen, right?):
If YOU perceive someone being unwelcoming or condescending to a newbie,
or if you perceive someone bullying someone else, or behaving in a
degrading way to another member, immediately forward that message to me
with your thoughts, even just one sentence about what you see. This should
only take you a few seconds, so it's not labor intensive for you. If at
least 10 (? not sure of the threshhold) people forward such a message to
me, I will immediately put that poster on Moderated Post and send him or
her a private message, and also write to the bullied one. That way, we have
a more democratic process, with everyone getting heard instead of just
unsubscribing in disgust. That way, all members also have more control and
don't have to feel helpless. I believe over time we can make newbies feel
more welcome and control the bullying and misogyny. This is just an idea,
but thought I'd put it out there for comment.
