New member selection suggestions

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Beyond the Sidewalks : One Thread

Since a request has been made to delete the new member thread; I thought I would toss out this idea on a new thread.

How about, when someone nominates a new member, or if someone asks to become a member; that said person is asked to e-mail in an introduction - tell a little bit about themsleves - to be posted on the board? It could be put on a special to-be-deleted thread. That way, we could get a chance to know a bit more about them before we said yea or nay.

Any opinions or other ideas?

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

Answers

That really sounds like a wonderful idea to me.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

I like that idea! We should have some kinda "formalized" method for "recruiting" new members. It'll help to get the post volume back up like it was during the honeymoon. It really does seem kinda like a marriage here in that we got alot of discussing done early on and now we hardly talk to one another.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

Yes, an introduction and application to the forum would be a good idea. We should give the people an idea of what we want to know. For instance, I would like to know what kind of board they think this is (we don't even know!) and why they want to join us! :-)

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002

I was thinking too Joy that when we encounter someone who we think would "fit in" we do our own "due diligence" and search out some of their posts and "report" back to BTS and refer everyone else to their posts. That way we could all be made aware of them, and if everyone is agreeable, extend the invite.

Am I correct in believing that the "nominees" don't necessarily have to be "country minded" but just decent interesting people?

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002


John, I like that marriage analogy! LOL And I also like the idea of existing members looking up material on which we can base our decision. That would certainly take a lot of the burden off of Joy in this area.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


I think that it would be helpful to new people if they were directed to Our introductions, as we all started off that way, then they could understand where we are all coming from. Perhaps it would be good for them to read our intro's before they decide that they want to be a part of us, also they would know what sort of things to say about them selves. ?

meTren

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


My apologies for having opened this can of worms. Had I known it would have mutated in this fashion, I would never had made it. However, I now have serious reservations of not only the membership consideration I made as my first sponsorship here, but also to the feasibility of my inclusion in the BTS community.

The forum asks for new members to add to the activity. Existing members evaluate potential candidates and then bring the profile here for a "vote", however, we all tend to trust each others judgement (at least up until the posting of my request, which was adulterated with an additional request, which set up confusion and drift on the thread I originated, which may have tainted the original request that I made, thereby affecting the evaluation.)

Before I submitted the candidate for consideration, I evaluated her through posts on other forums, posting protocol character, ISP ID tracking through my administrator capabilities within lusenet forum ACS and personal tracking software to verify no alias posting and extensive I.M. communications to put voice and features with the candidate for evaluation of "body language". Only after reaching the conclusion that she would be a good addition to this board and would abide by the "No proselytize, no porn, no spam " policy did I make application on her behalf. Also, I was the one that opened discussion between Susan and myself in regard to BTS after having completed the above described candidate research.

Susan had emailed me an intro as you are describing above asking that I submit it to you also, however, I felt it was unneccesary on the day I made her application. I have never made application on a candidates behalf here before , only used my judgement to accept candidates based on my interactions with the candidate, the opinion of the sponsoring BTS member and the "three No" conditions referenced by Jim when Julie was decided upon for inclusion.

I guess what is giving me a bad feeling is the sudden desire for Republican style regulation and legislation , instead of the good old fashioned Democratic style heel hunkered yea or nay, which worked well here for a year.

I was honored when I was invited as a charter member of this forum at the inception, even though I was not aligned with either group from the CS troubles , however, I found BTS to be a place into which I could meld into better due to the diverse mix of free thinkers congregated at this site. Even while I had participation in CS and FSR, I concentrated my participation here after the split and that makes this next decision a difficult one, but one that I owe to BTS and myself. My time here has been highly pleasurable, however, I also feel effects of this discord and reluctantly have concluded what I must do out of respect for the group that assembles here.

At this time, I will make the following offer to the BTS membership, I will copy the email bio/intro if you so choose or I will rescind my request for consideration on her behalf.

Either way, at this time , due to the discord which I caused, I must also ask that you recall vote my membership in this forum. I cannot in good faith remain a part of this group if my behavior in this matter is construed by a majority as innapropriate and also, if I am allowed to remain a member, I need to know if I am reaffirmed.

If the recall vote results in my banishment, I will voluntarily destroy the copy of the password that I must reference to login and verify upon my professional protocol never to return to BTS or divulge the code to ensure the continued quarantine isolation of this board.

If I am reaffirmed for BTS participation, please email me with notification. Thank You, once again my apologies to you. My time here to date has been both fun and informative.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Good greif guys!!!!! Am I missing the point. We don't just want members who will totally agree with us. We just want nice people who won't harass or just make trouble for the fun of it. I for one like different opinions. I think this board is great because of the cross section we represent. I also think we need new members or we will become stagnant. Jay of course you should stay!! As far as I am concerned we are not choosing new members based on their political, religeous, social, moral or sexual preferences (oh man I just used the s word on the internet). We choose our members because they can discuss "life beyond the sidewalks" (whatever that is) without being judgmental or nasty!

Kim

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Jay dear, please.......I am terribly sorry I "contaminated" your thread. I saw no one unhappy with your nomination. If I had kept myself out of it, it would have gone without a hitch. Why ever would you think you should leave over this is really beyond me. I swear, their must be something really weird in the "stars" right now or something cause I about went bonkers over it to and then looked at it again and though "what the hell was that???" hugs jay..........you are a big part of what I enjoy about our little haven here.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

OH CRAP! Part of this is my fault, but I'll get to that part in a second here - got something more important to take care of first...

Jay - if I could reach you clear down there in Alabama, I'd be thunkin' you upside the head!! (Sit down, dang it - you know I can't reach that high!) What are you thinking? Leave? Indeed NOT!! Get some sleep son; you're reading things in that ain't there. You aren't going anywhere; nobody wants you to go anywhere. DON'T GO!

Now, I hope that was clear enough for everyone to understand. If not, let's try this. I believe that Jay is an interesting and vital part of this forum family and want him to stick around.

And as far as Susan nanaboo is concerned, I don't think anyone came out with an out and out "nay". Any response I saw referring to her directly was positive. She has been in direct e-mail contact with me regarding something else altogether and I mentioned that I saw that Jay had put her up for nomination. From her e-mails and posts on CST (Jay's forum)and CS, she comes across as mature, funny to the point of goof-ball-wackiness, non-judgemental yet doesn't feel like she has to tolerate intolerant behaviors (such as racism) in her own little world. That seems like a lot of us - while very few of us go out and bodily fight for causes; we all hope that our example sets a standard for others to follow. She's in our age range; and she also seems a little bit lonely - like she'd like some good people to talk to; and we're mostly a trustworthy lot when it comes to talking to folks. We all slip up occasionally; but we ususally come back and apologise once we manage to extract our workboot from somewhere behind our left molars....

I forwarded Susan a copy of the into I put on this forum when it first started; and suggested that if she sent something like it to Jay (since he sponsored her, I didn't want to horn in) and asked him to post it; maybe it would help folks to get to know her a bit better and things would go a bit faster. I'd like to see her intro on here.

As for Karen; Diane, I'm glad you put her up for nomination - I think we should all be free to put folks up for nomination. I just don't feel "right" about her yet. How about we try this - let's start the nomination process over again. Let's start a new thread for each nominee and keep that thread strictly for that nominee. Include in the nomination whether you told the person about BTS or if they knew about it from before or just heard about it somewhere else. Include the persons e-mail addy so anyone who wants can do a google check (ask for old e-mail addys too, if you feel comfortable doing so). Also, any posts that the person had made could be linked - or in my hopelessly inept way, pointed out by forum and thread. If the person is comfortable sending in an intro then let's get it in there. Any e- mail communications that you and the nominee feel comfortable sharing would be great too. A brief note stating why they want to come here would be good, as well - always nice to know if we're what they think we are.

I would like to think that we could take each others recommendations just on our word - like you guys did for Cass and Phyllis when I nominated them; or on our word plus a brief intro like I did for Ali. But we're all feeling a little bruised and battered lately by forces outside (and yeah, sigh, inside) our little BTS cave as well - and it's nice to be able to come here and lick our ouchies in private. Most of the time, we're able to discriminate between out there and in here, but sometimes, we pull the world into our forum and make it ouchie in here as well. That's okay - sometimes you need to bring things like that home and talk them out with family (yep, that's us) and sometimes all the family ain't going to agree and it's going to cause some hurt feelings for a while. In the past, we've almost always been able to get beyond it and go on - maybe with a few more reservations about what we talk about; or better yet, the very adult ability to keep our tater-trap shut when opening it would do more harm than good. So anyway, let's work on formalizing the nomination policy on these two and go from there, okay? Call it practice - If we get the basic form down, we can add the bells and whistles later (just as soon as John finds them while he's out dumpster diving and Jay figures out how to hook them up to the computer to get them to play the theme from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest!)

Okay?

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002



Holy Moley Jay! This ain't no can of worms. I'm as guilty as any for the nominee thread drift and I won't do it no more either. And of course you get my enthusiastic two thumbs up!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Jay, O.K. want to repeat after me the magic words I am using............I refuse to be offended, I refuse to take it personally, I refuse to be offended, I refuse to take it personally............ I can guarantee you from personal experience that it works like a charm. Hugs :>)

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Yipes, I thought that Mercury came out of retrograde last week! :)

Jay, of course we want you to stay. I don't know how you got it into your noggin that we'd think otherwise.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Gee Whiz....what's wrong with thread drift? I thought that's what we specialized in? Jay, I dont get why you thought there was some kinda problem with your suggesting this Susan person........I would certainly expect everyone to check out anyone I submitted before admitting them; I couldn't possibly make that judgement for everyone else; somebody here I care about could have issues with em without my knowledge,and I would want those to be respected.

Leave the forum? Dont be silly......you just got started opening your heart to us,and you think you're gonna leave. NOT!!

Love,

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


What on EARTH!? Someone hog-tie Jay so that he can't leave! Okay, just being dramatic . . . . can't hold anyone against their will, of course!

This is all just discussion about the mechanics of letting folks in. Jay, I still think "yea" or "nay" is okay, but I really do like some of the ideas for "introductions", after which we might feel better acquainted with the "proposed member".

I hope no one will feel that they've proposed something "wrong" or "unacceptable". I feel like I've sort of stirred things up myself, and mostly because I don't want to have to work any harder than necessary. :-0 {blush}

I haven't had time to read all this thread, nor any others. I'm supposed to be feeding critters, but something prompted me to do a "quick check" on the forum here! So, PLEASE, no one do anything hasty!!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002



Folks,

I hope you all understand that it was very hard for me to extend the options I did in my preceeding post. I did so because I see detrimental effects to our board and do feel as if I am a contributing factor to that trouble.

I understand that there has been much risidual effects since the CS troubles, but I am also seeing effects of our isolation on our forum.

Consider this. Since the password protect, this zone has been quarantined. Any bashing occurs outside this site. Also the quarantine is causing a type of "blanding" and we need new blood for spirited discussion.

When BTS was open, we got bashed and immiediately locked down and built our password group and cleaned up the site. If we use the personal knowledge and opinion approach we have, it should remain pristine. If we unitentionally error in selection, we can always lock down, mop up and repassword as was done originally.

I do want to at this time, rescind the application that I submitted, not to bar the applicant, but to give us a chance to settle down emotionally and regain the wide perspective focus that makes BTS what it is, a safe haven of free thought without vulgarity and indiscriminate bias.

diane, please don't think you "contaminated " anything, you didn't. As was stated before BTS thrives because of drift and that is the way it should be. What happened IMO was that we tried to address something in a way not like we actually are . We are more of a polite social "mixer", not a parlimentarian organization and that brings on the normally wonderful thread drift. The nomination thread with our natural drift tendancy simply caused adulteration confusion, not contamination. Actually, this is probably the most action this board has seen all week, and at the same time, I both hate and love being here.

Something to think about is that our discord now is occuring from within, not across the firewall and that was what made me question my own position here. So I will remain if that pleases the membership, but I do want to withraw the application I sponsored at this time while BTS introspects and chooses which forward direction it will take. I guess "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to my mind now. Are we just suffering paranoia maybe?

Thanks for all the support, long live BTS.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Did I miss something? More importantly, did I say anything to stir up this pot? I didn't even know a pot was stirred until I saw Diane's Jay Don't Go! thread. Holey smokes!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Getting back to "nominations" it seems we were unanimous in the "Susan" selection??? and still questioning Karen. Is that correct?

I agree about the need for new blood to stir the pot and stimulate some conversation. I don't mean to recind your recission, as if I could, Jay but I was actually kinda hoping we'd do something about Susans nomination.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Boy, I hate to get into discussions like this but for some reason, I just can't seem to keep my mouth shut tonight. My feelings on nominating someone is that I wouldn't be nominating them if I didn't think they would fit in. I have many e-mail friends whom I wouldn't put up for "membership" because I don't think they would fit in. They don't post on other boards so they would have to get in on my "say so only". They're my friends and I've been in their homes but for one reason or another, I don't think they would be suitable for this group. I, also wouldn't be recommending someone from another board, just because they seemed alright if I wasn't in direct contact with them. But, hey, that's just me. My point is, that if I recommended someone and they were turned down, I'm afraid that that would probably tick me off a little.

I think that we're really making this process harder than it needs to be. How many times has the collective "us" turned down a nomination? The onus should be on the person making the nomination, not us. There have been a name or two that have been approved that I don't particularly agree with but it's a personal thing and it's my problem, not theirs. It's not anything they've done or said but just a feeling or maybe I don't like the way they phrase some of their statements. Who knows? Maybe it's their name. But someone who knows them better than I do wanted them on here and they'll probably be a great addition to the board so I vote yes. I vote "yes" to all request. For membership, that is.

If we do end up with someone who just wants to cause trouble, don't respond to them. The trolls on other boards are still there because people just can't keep their fingers off the keyboards. They feel compelled to respond. Feed the trolls!

I, too, don't think an open board would be a good idea. Was that a different thread?

I'm just here to participate, when I get time. I'll do whatever ya'll decide.

Wildman, (E.F. Hutton reject)

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


John, Jay and I talked it over and decided maybe we'd wait a couple of days before posting Susan's intro - give things a bit of time to calm down here and Joy time to delete the new member application threads. After all - we wouldn't want to make a bad impression on the new foks either!

And no, Wildman, I wouldn't put up anyone for nomination unless I thought they would "fit" either. And I'd be willing to take my 20 lashes if I put someone up who turned out to be a jerk! I've got friends that I've given the addy to CS to, that I would never give this one to - they just aren't like us - whatever that may be!

I like us small; but we're dwindling to the point where the gene pool is getting just a might bit shallow.....(big goofy grin!)

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Thanks for the response Polly. Thats fine with me. I was just hoping she wouldn't fall thru the cracks.

Warning! Warning! Thread drift alert!!! I've got a cyber buddy I met on a religious discussion board several years ago. She's not "Country" and I'm not even sure she'd want to join us here but I'm thinking she might. Other than the country deficiency I think she'd fit in real well.

She's an educated, articulate, liberal leaning, passionate person, kinda newly of the neo-pagan persuasion.

The only reason I hesitate in outrightly asking her is because of of her "country deficiency". Is that a problem??

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Anyone who is truly of a Neo-Pagan bent is going to be interested in animals, nature, etc. I don't see it as a problem -- we could probably get her interested in living BTS! ;-)

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

John, could you be a little more specific about what you mean by "country deficient"? Some of my liberal, articulate, well-educated neo-pagan friends think that I've gone totally off the deep end. They're convinced that I'm going to move to Idaho at any moment to start my own Ruby Ridge just because I had Diane show me how to milk a goat. :) I trust your judgement about asking her to join us, I just don't want her to be bored.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Sherri: BY country deficient I mean she lives in the city, Dallas I think, and as far as I remember has never expressed any desire to live in the country.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Well I live in Indianapolis and you all still let me come and play! Just as long as she understands that some folks are very enthusiastic about compost and that their pregnant goat's tail ligaments are starting to loosen up. :)

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

How do you guys feel about asking Vicki McGaugh?

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

I like Vicki.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

Ha! Vicki HAS the password -- at least she DID. I don't know if she ever even reads anything here anymore. Her last posting was in August, on this thread: link and if that doesn't work, try copying and pasting this into your browser: http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0067fg

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

(Blush)...guess I shoulda checked first! Ok, never mind! (by the way, Joy, your link takes us to places we aint sposed to be!)

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

Well, considering we haven't seen anything from her, I'm not surprised you forgot . . . . I think I fixed the link above, but it's hard to tell. This thing is acting weird tonight!

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2002

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