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.
