Backchannel is probably happening RIGHT NOW...

AIFG?

Take it to email, however, is a good thing in general. I'm all for it.

we were much more accepting of new comers and more likely to see them as a positive addition rather than people to be wary of.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, wary of newcomers. I have ALWAYS thought there is a normal learning curve.

Backchannel is probably happening RIGHT NOW...

I'd almost guarantee it.

Yeah, I don't think "One of us!" has ever happened immediately with a new poster, unless their inaugural post was a masterpiece of snarky, pendantic analysis.

(Not to be Little Miss Obvious, but the back-channeling was going on before anyone admitted it, and would have continued to go on even if no one had brought it up. So nothing's changed here.)

Dude! We've broken the First Rule of Backchannel!

Dude! We've broken the First Rule of Backchannel!

BWAH.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly exactly.

I had a situation recently where someone didn't respect this rule, and went to Other Person with the stuff I was venting about, and it's basically ruined that relationship, because I don't trust this person at all now. And I couldn't quite verbalize why I was telling this person stuff about the Other Person situation in the first place, and Betsy puts it nicely.

There are always gonna be back-channels. When I see Jesse or msbelle, if the board comes up and we talk about what's going on, that's a backchannel. When I talk to amych about my sister's wedding and I tell her about the ridiculous things that the relatives she's met and no one else here has did, if the board comes up, that's a back-channel. Back channels are a normal part of friendships that have an online component, and I've never seen them be detrimental to a virtual community's health except in situations where all the former community "leaders" (most visible posters) stop posting except in back channels. And even then, sometimes, new communities form where the old ones were.

Of all the things that annoy me about bulletin boards, it's the idea that we have a groupthink and act in concert.

I ran into this a lot on the Time Faith board. Someone would appear to present his/her detailed argument as to why WE WERE ALL GOING TO HELL!!!, attract a number of counters (with varying degrees of civility), and then there would be complaints about groupthink and mob mentality.

Ok. The guy in that case doing most of the complaining was insane. (Seriously, I think he had certain mental illness problems.) Problem is, I have a few thoughts that go through my head:

1. Everyone has a right to respond if they want to, and people responded independently of each other. This is no more mob mentality than if you took a poll of your town and found that 65% of the populace like vanilla ice cream. Conversely, if one person attracts a large number of complaints independently of one another, then maybe the problem ain't everybody else.

2. But then, the people making the complaints were generally long-timers, and even if it they responded independently, they would've had a pretty good idea that their position was a safe one within the community. Did that encourage complaints?

3. But then we factor in the point that there's a written etiquette for this place, and complaints (such as they are) are made in terms of said etiquette. Is not the point of such a policy to make people feel safe here? This makes the community principle-driven, not cliquish... right? Or has the recent attention to said policies just increased sensitivities?

4. So then we ask whether the policies are being applied fairly, and this to me is the hardest issue to decide. Problematic, as it's also an important issue, and it seems to me that positions thereon appear more often as premise than conclusion. I'll react differently with people I know fairly well compared to those I don't, and most people will. Sometimes that's appropriate, sometimes it isn't. Concerning treatment of others, I think the best labels I can give here are Allyson's comment that everyone deserves respect as a human being, but props are earned. (Without adding some content to these notions, it probably isn't too helpful in a practical sense. And I'm not sure I'd want it to be.)

5. There are points of etiquette that are technical in nature (our spoiler policy, for instance, isn't the sort of thing people would be expected to work out for themselves). It's always going to be a good idea to read said etiquette guide. And there are different standards, levels of moderation, policies etc between message boards; it's sensible too for anyone to check out what the etiquette guide says about that. Not that it'll stop conflict, not that it probably should. The etiquette guide was itself crafted through long and involved debate.

Eh. So I guess I don't really have a position to contribute to the discussion.

The problem is that we---those of us that were here before the Firefly Population Explosion---are on the defensive with everyone. I don't think any of the new members are really getting the kind of welcome that they would have gotten if they had shown up before Firelfy aired or if they had shown up on Worldcrossing.

And I tend to agree with askye. I mean, yes, it is a different experience to have people trickle in a few at a time, as opposed to finding that in the space of a few weeks the number of people who were present on WX are now outnumbered by newbies. It's only natural that it should cause concern. But just as a series of complaints don't in and of themselves imply a mob mentality, nor do a large number of registrations at one time. Each person coming in is doing so individually. (Incidentally, I originally turned up on TT, not individually, but as part of a named group, and we were treated with some suspicion. So I guess this isn't some universal comment.) There's a disconnect there. A person comes in as an individual, and discovers we're worried about a horde.

Anyway. We haven't been swamped. We may well have attracted many more lurkers. (Hi lurkers.) We've picked up a few new regulars, each of whom (AFAIK) arrived as an individual. There've been issues and spats arising with regard to a few others, who also (AFAIK) arrived as individuals. All in all, I feel much like I did after Y2K: we may have destroyed the files of Paraguay's secret service, but basically fears have not come to pass. I think we can afford to react accordingly.

unless their inaugural post was a masterpiece of snarky, pedantic analysis.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to the person whose inaugural Buffy post was an absolutely brilliantly funny anya?

billy deserves a hug. I apparently have vouchers for several.

Perhaps I'm all Allyson and stuff, but I never felt all "one of us! one of us!".

Um. Me either. I won't say that I felt unwelcome when I started posting here but I certainly don't recall that welcoming of a reception. But, then again, my tenure here started under much the same "people who are not us are talking about and linking to us" cloud as the community is experiencing now.

Also, regarding backchannel discussion, I'm all for it and not just here. On every board/community I frequent. There are times when I will speak up and say, "Okay. You said XYZ and it bothered me because ABC." But most of the time, it's a lot easier to just let it roll off my back and vent to one of my friends on IM.

I've already done the fighting in the trenches thing. I was a Bronzer and fought long and hard because I loved that community and felt it had given me so much. And, at the end of the day, I got ripped to shreds and almost gave myself a nervous breakdown and it wasn't worth it.

So yes. I'm all in favor of the backchannel.