State of SFBAVeg (Long note)

[Guest guest]

Hi folks,

 

First off, I want to welcome all the new members! As you'll soon discover,

this is a chatty group. If August is anything like July, you'll get over

370 messages this month. If that's too much for you, I suggest you try the

daily digest (one message a day) or go to web-mail only (you can send

messages, and read the messages on the website; no list messages are sent

to you.) Please note that it will take 2-3 days for your new selection to

take effect. You can catch up on the community intros here:

http://www.generationv.org/cp.htm Feel free to add your own, intros shared

on the list will eventually make it to that page.

 

I wanted to share my perspective on SFBAVeg. I warn you in advance that

this is a long note but I encourage you to read it. In a very loose

generalization, I see SFBAVeg like a new playground that we built for all

the local veggies to come out and play veggie-catch or AR-ball. I volunteer

my time to keep it safe, clean, and friendly for the veggies of all ages

and abilities. I post the playground rules at the entrance -- no sticks, no

stones, no name calling in the playground. Only veggie-catch and AR-ball

allowed. We welcome both veggies and non-veggies to the playground.

 

I see myself like the volunteer playground supervisor. I welcome the new

folks to the playgrounds, I'll try to tell them where they can find things

or otherwise help them get oriented. I also try to make sure that the

facilities are used for what we designed them for: veggie-catch and

AR-ball. Other activities are discouraged because that's not what this

playground was built for. All the veggies that come here want to play

veggie-catch and AR-ball.

 

I receive many comments from list members about posts being off-topic,

unnecessary, too long, or otherwise outrageous in content. Comments like

these, as well as our own observations, have made us realize there really

are only a few list members who repeatedly post off-topic material to the

list. These folks become moderated so we can insure their messages remain

on-topic per the list charter. And, in rare instances, we will ban people

from the list who repeatedly try to spam the list or are otherwise

unreachable (i.e. they do not respond to emails, just repeatedly send the

same junk post over and over) or are rude/obnoxious in their behavior to

individual list members. Often times, it is people new to the list who spam

us. So we let automatically moderate new members. In reality,

it is only a few people that don't understand what our community is all

about.

 

When it comes to SFBAVeg, the only viewpoint or agenda that I have is

" veggie or AR related " . I don't have any other political ideologies or

religious beliefs underlying my opinions. (People who personally know me

know how true this is.)

 

This list was created explicitly for the veggie and AR community. It's

purpose is to bring us together and help our community grow. It's not a

place for people to talk about terrorism, war, politics, religion, child

abuse, baseball, or stamp collecting. There are other forums for those

interests. This forum is for the veggie and AR community. I think it is

just plainly off-topic (and arrogant) to send posts about flag-burning on

4th of July or send entire messages in a foreign language. These are

typical of the posts that get rejected. My feeling (and what I hear from

other members) is that we want discussion on veggie and AR topics.

 

However, it is up to all of us to help insure that discussions stay on

topic. For example, a recent on-topic post about vegetarians and violence

evolved into an off-topic thread about wars and terrorism and politics and

personal attacks. We have to draw the line somewhere as to when the thread

becomes off-topic. This has repeatedly annoyed one person who clearly

believes I have a hidden political agenda. This person has never met me,

refuses to answer how their post relates to veggie or AR discussion yet

feels entitled to verbally abuse me.

 

And, as we have seen recently, even totally on-topic discussions can easily

become heated (i.e. the recent discussion about people who eat fish and

definitions/usage of the term " vegetarian " ).

 

The group charter clearly states what's on-topic for this list. Those are

the community rules. I always have difficulty understanding why people join

a veggie/AR discussion list to talk about stamp collecting or other

unrelated topics, and then get upset when I tell them that stamp collecting

is not " on topic " . People that join who cannot respect our community

charter are not welcome. Likewise, people that join and repeatedly want to

advertise their commercial products are not welcome.

 

Every month, automatically sends out the charter. At the

bottom of the charter, we actively solicit input about the charter. I

cannot recall ever receiving any notes from anyone with any suggestions

about amending the charter. We all agreed to abide by the charter when we

joined.

 

I realize that this list will not satisfy everyone. I know for a fact that

people join and leave all the time. Sometimes they'll write and give us

feedback why. I do listen to what everyone has to say. When appropriate, we

incorporate that feedback to try and improve this list.

 

This list was designed for San Francisco Bay Area residents, but we do not

screen memberships. For the most part, we are all fairly local (with an

occasional member abroad or in another state). So while some of us do meet

in person/know each other in real life, our primary method of communication

is still online/e-mail. E-mail can be a very challenging medium for

communication. Sometimes email comes across harsher than the writer

intended. Or sometimes it's just a misunderstanding. For example, I

misunderstood what Tim wrote yesterday. I thought he was implying that

people who weren't vegetarians should leave the SFBAVeg community, but

that's not what he was saying at all. (Again, sorry Tim)

 

We are a big community now (over 435 members as of today). As a large

group, we are an attractive target for people with specific agendas that

are outside of our community charter. There's nothing I can really do about

this, as I hope we will continue to grow and become a larger community. But

what *we* can do, as a group, is to be sensitive to other's beliefs, stay

on topic, and play nice.

 

We are also researching other technical solutions aside from

that will allow our community to grow and express itself. But its to

premature at this point to say what the possibilities are.

 

I would really like this to stay a friendly community, and I think it's

great that we have so much energy and enthusiasm to share information and

ideas. Let's just keep it focused on what SFBAVeg is all about -- a forum

where everyone (vegans, pre-vegans, vegetarians, vegetarian-interested

folks), regardless of motivation, can share news, ask questions, or

otherwise find the camaraderie or support for their veg*n lifestyle.

Despite our perhaps different motivations for embracing a veg*n lifestyle,

we all share a dietary preference.

 

Thank you,

Tammy

SFBAVeg List Admin and playground supervisor

 

 

 

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