There's an open bold tag in this post: sumi "Spike's Bitches 15: But You Treat Me Like A Man" Mar 26, 2004 12:16:44 pm PST

Of course, to go totally flamebaity, I'm really anti-political posts in there, period, full stop, end of story, bang. Joss or DX could be running for president, and I'd be uncomfortable with it.

Whereas I think that DX's political campaign is precisely the sort of thing Press is for. Because he's one of us, and I thought that Press was for posting the Big News. The example someone gave once was something like, the annoucement to send vibes for my book contract goes in Beep Me, the announcement that it's being published by Knopf goes in Press.

Does anyone know whom I email to have my new email address added to the Buffista yahoo email list? It's still going to my old address.

If it's a yahoo list you need to change it on your profile for that list. Sign in to www.yahoogroups.com with your Yahoo ID, go to the group page and designate a new email.

That seems to have worked! thanks Astarte

My pleasure.

Ahh, the dreaded right-hand threads where sour stomachs are fomented.

So, after watching Beej get the smackdown in Minearverse I would like to broach (to a chorus of groans, no doubt) the issue of newbie handling and indoctrination. I know she caused bristling and, as accurately noted in the rebuttals, crossed some cultural lines which are known but invisible.

Could we be a little gentler with the newbies, though? It takes a while to get the lay of the land, and her posts were not flamebaity or purposefully offensive, but shading towards lecture-speak. Which we're all familiar with. It was her second smackdown in a short period of time, and she apologized for the first one. I realize that the surest way to rile the board is being patronizing, but I don't think she intended offense.

While I agree that it helps to get to know the culture for a while before posting, we can probably afford to swallow our ire a bit, and more gently redirect folks.

Tone is subtle and I think the tone that we cultivate here (with much work) has a great deal to do with our community's longevity. It encourages interest and engagning talk, but is respectful and civil at the same time. Plus funny.

Even in a fraught political debate, though, I think we could rise above and make the effort to suggest how things could be better worded, instead of simply saying, in effect, shut yer yap until you've earned your stripes.

Otherwise, instead of being inclusive and welcoming new blood, we run the danger of being insular.

Well, I was going to post a few thoughts on the welcoming/bristling dichotomy, but David got in ahead of me and did it so gracefully, that Ima just gonna go, "What he said"

In all fairness, I don't read every thread, I read maybe four, and not in entirety. So someone could trip and fall in the guacamole in 14 threads and I wouldn't know.

And if someone got a few smackdowns in a day, well, that someone sure is stumbling a whole lot. Which, you know, is okay, too.

My back went up on the "quiz" and then in two subsequent posts.

I understand the guacamole trip, and have great sympathy. This just seemed to be on par with an episode of Three's Company where it was guac, salsa, and then the jello mold.

Which points to "not getting it" to me.

But I'm an elitist prick with the patience of a 3 year old after a cup of coffee, and I fully realize that, and so, gentle.

We're extraordinarily welcoming. This was an exception to the rule, and perhaps Beej was having a bad day.

I'll repeat to some extent what I said there. Unfotunately, when you're new, it's hard to distinguish individual posters and there is a little sense of borg-ness. Or, if you prefer, b.org-ness, in that we're all the same buffista. So, a few people didn't like what Beej had to say, and to her it felt like we were all coming down on her-- but I actually think the original responses were pretty typical for us. They were no worse than the rebukes made to Typo in the same thread and timeframe.

And Beej further confused the issue by claiming that she was getting different treatment for "snarking," which is false. I felt like Beej kind of overreacted to people telling her we don't like to be condescended to. But I also think we treated her a little condescendingly by assuming her tone was because she was new, and not simply something that many people would find a little rude coming from someone they don't know well.