Re: Goodbye TECHWR-L (fwd)

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

>I don't know what eric thinks about this? But hey
>eric...seriously...what is your list becomin....
>some sort of a platform to sort out differences.....
>Do give it a thought.....maybe it's time to lay
>down some kind of a code.....Im sure this is
>not what you had in mind whern you started this
>list Some  Tech Writers i know of just lashback
>and say....TECHWR_L...god you must be crazy to join
>those nerdy people there. People lets make this a useful
>list for TEch writers to solve their queries and prolems.
>We are just wasting time and trying to delete those mails
>from our iNboxes.

[This was going to be a personal response, but I decided to
post it to the list.]

What do I think? You know, I'm really not sure what I can
add to the comments that Mike Starr, Justin Ressler, and
others have made.  I would observe that, with one notable
exception, those who have most vocally objected to Andrew's
continued presence on TECHWR-L have also not really
contributed substantially to the TECHWR-L community in any
way.

Yes, it's time for something, but you know, I can't actually
control anyone's behavior, and influencing behavior is
pretty dicey at best. Applying the TECHWR-L rules is pretty
easy when it comes to black and white rules like posting
ads, but there's quite an challenging gray area around
personal behavior, and no good answers. Obviously, the ideal
situation would be that people would responsibly police
their own behavior for the greater good of the community,
but that does not happen often enough. Take, for example,
the message from Thom Randolph on this topic that read, in
its entirety:
  One word: hooray.
  Only my opinion; yours may vary.
Was that a personal attack? Arguably. Inappropriate?
Arguably. Simply expressing a dissenting opinion to contrast
with others previously posted? Arguably. In poor taste and
judgment?  Probably. Contributing to the overall value of
the community? Clearly not.  However, I really don't think
it's appropriate for me, as listowner, to pass judgment on
the "appropriateness" of messages at that level of analysis,
for three main reasons:
 * I do not have time to do it consistently.
 * I do not think that I, or anyone, could do it objectively
   all the time.
 * I do not want my opinions and prejudices to constrain,
   even accidentally, the breadth and value of this list.

Philosophically, I find it most disturbing when people
attempt to silence or stifle voices they do not like. I
think that reflects a number of qualities that do not
contribute to a good team or a good community. I personally
prefer to work with people and be with people with a wide
range of differing opinions, including those I do not agree
with, because I think that fosters an environment in which
beliefs and opinions can be questioned, analyzed, discussed,
argued, and maybe--or maybe not--changed.  I actively seek
out those environments, in part because I think it's
valuable to question my own dearly held beliefs.  I do not
see any disconnect between actively and heatedly arguing and
challenging ideas, then agreeing to disagree and grabbing
a cup of coffee together. It's not personal--at least it
shouldn't be. Obviously, on TECHWR-L, many issues are
personalized beyond all reason, but I can't control that.

That said, I freely admit that, for a wide number of reasons
mostly unconnected to TECHWR-L, I'm not much of an advocate
of using a public forum of this size and scope for emotional
support or succor. It's not wrong, or bad, but I certainly
wouldn't do it, and can't say that I'm too surprised when it
doesn't work out. TECHWR-L, for example, is a great place
for advice, technical support, finding alternatives,
exploring solutions, and finding out nearly anything that
you need to be a really good tech writer. It's a lousy place
for commiseration, sympathy on anything but the most
superficial level, or similar topics. That's not an issue
with TECHWR-L--it's the nature of the medium, compounded by
the fact that this is a community of 5100+ direct
subscribers and another 5000 readers.

I think this is a useful list for technical writers--that
hasn't changed. I would almost certainly not be where I am
in my career right now without the community and resources
that this list represents. We've been through this kind of
departure many times, and I don't expect that this departure
will be any different in terms of the overall resilience of
the community.  The community won't be any better--and will
be worse for several reasons--because of this departure, but
it will endure.

Unfortunately, as we've recently been reminded several
times, TECHWR-L is a community that
 * is remarkably intolerant of dissenting opinions,
 * is surprisingly incapable of separating message from
   messenger,
 * shows virtually no ability or willingness to grant anyone
   the benefit of the doubt on any issue, any time.
Whether you like him or hate him, Andrew contributed a lot
of time and energy to the community (and took very little
other than aggravation from it), and did so because he cared
enough about the profession and its practitioners to try to
prod, goad, and push in the direction that he thought was
most appropriate. Think about it.

For all of you who have seen fit to harass Andrew (publicly
or privately), I do hope you feel good about your role in
silencing his voice. Unfortunately, I think that the only
abiding lesson that the community will learn from this is
that the community can be sanitized from dissenting opinions
through sufficient effort, complaining, and offline
harassment. As a result, the next person who dares to
challenge the status quo will have a harder time of it,
and the community and profession will be worse off for it.

Eric
ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com
TECHWR-L Listowner (and not particularly proud of the role
  today)




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