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Re: A private club

2014-02-26 20:03:48
If a person posts a comment and receives a sarcastic reply he or she will be
uncomfortable to post more comments.  If a person sees "someone like
him/her" receiving sarcastic replies the person will be uncomfortable to
post a comment.

This is a really important point that merits highlighting, because we
(collectively, not present company in particular) *very* often don't
understand and take to heart.

If Joe Slobotnik gets nasty to Gar Farkle, because that's just what
those two do, and they're both experienced IETFers and "they can take
it", that might be fine for Joe and Gar.  But Abraham Wallflower, the
newbie who's trying to get up the courage to start speaking, might
well look at this and say, "Oh, MAN, I don't want to be treated like
THAT," and go away without every having contributed.

Even worse if Gar Farkle is a relative newbie who's gotten off on the
wrong foot with folks, and those folks feel free to treat him badly
because they think he's a pillock.  If, as SM says, Abe W sees Gar as
"someone like me", it makes it much worse, and then we find ourselves
driving people away... new, young people, many of whom may have good
ideas and be the future of our organization.

Really: let's be careful with that stuff.  I'd love to see us all
learn to treat each other with professional respect, regardless of
what we think of each other.

Barry

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