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cmcgee
Member Initiative: Do Nothing For Four Weeks. Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:01 UTC 2004

Member Initiative:  Do Nothing For Four Weeks.

I'm serious.  I'm afraid that the whiplash being created by being forced to
chose between the two previous items is making Grex into an emotionally
driven, lines-in-the-sand, frenzy.  I'm proposing a cooling-off period in
which we make no decisions, and stop the running of all time-based governance
processes.  

I'm not sure how to suspend the rules, but that IS what I'm proposing.
Let's all take a deep breath, and not be driven into even more unfortunate
reactive decisions.  We stand to lose a lot more by whipping back and
forth and making decisions based on some feeling of
end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it urgency.  Grex will not go away if we pause
for a bit.  As an organizational development consultant I am seeing
serious signs of self-destruction here.  
56 responses total.
jep
response 1 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:12 UTC 2004

Colleen, you are an eminently sensible person.  Thanks for this 
proposal.

I will support it when an opportunity becomes available to do so.
richard
response 2 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:20 UTC 2004

thats a fine idea, but util this issue is addressed, staff should move to
disable use of the program valerie wrote to mass delete old responses.  It
is fair to ask that the users have time to consider this, as you suggest
cmcgee
response 3 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:22 UTC 2004

I would agree that that program is part of the frenzy and use should be
suspended as part of the cooling off process.  
aruba
response 4 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:29 UTC 2004

Sounds good to me, Colleen.
gelinas
response 5 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 03:45 UTC 2004

Thanks, cmcgee.  I, at least, want a chance to think things thhrough before
making any decisions.  Right now, I can barely keep up with the flow of
text, much less digest it all.
albaugh
response 6 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 04:24 UTC 2004

Sorry, I consider this more histrionics!  Cool off, scmool off.  So far, all
that has happened is a bunch of talk.  Isn't that what grex is for, talk?
In fact in a "twisted" way this episode has driven more talk out of the
woodwork than anything I can remember happening on grex, even the scribble
log escapades.  The strength of a system, policy, bylaw is that it *won't*
be set aside in "troubling times".  So I say *let* jp2's & jep's proposals
work their way forward until a possible time to hold a vote, and if a vote
comes, let it have its 2 weeks or whatever it is to be decided.  That's plenty
of time to have more TALK and convince people one way or the other, if needed.

A proposal to suspend good, in-place mechanisms is the most harmful thing to
come up yet out of this mess.
richard
response 7 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 05:27 UTC 2004

just becuase YOU think it is a good in-place mechanism albaugh doesn't mean
everyone else does (speaking here about valerie's program which has only been
"in place" a couple of days.  I really think Valerie should have let the users
discuss it and decide if they want such a program.  I think it is highly
dangerous to have a program that enables users to scribble multiples of posts
at one time with no further effort.  This is how people who happen to be in
a bad mood can do create destruction, because it is easy to do.  At the least,
you should only ever be able to scribble one post at a time.
kip
response 8 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 05:32 UTC 2004

What exactly do people want?  An emergency meeting of the board to settle
this?  The next regular board meeting is January 19th, I have no doubt this
will be discussed if it isn't already on the agenda.

Or is the intent of the other items here to whip the membership into enough
of a frenzy to make a rash and potentially unmaintainable referendum?
jmsaul
response 9 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 05:33 UTC 2004

I don't see much of a frenzy here, do you?
willcome
response 10 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 08:55 UTC 2004

HEY< GUYS<

WHAT HAPPENS IF ALL THREE OF THE RECENT PROPOSALS PASS?!?  THEY"RE MUTUALLY
CONDRADICTORY AND HOW DO WE DECIDE WHICH TAKE PRECEDENCE?!
richard
response 11 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 09:06 UTC 2004

then I guess the board votes on which of the passed proposals to actually
enact
willcome
response 12 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 09:20 UTC 2004

What if someone enters an initiative saying the Board can't do that?
jaklumen
response 13 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 13:41 UTC 2004

resp:0 It has seemed that matters of diplomacy and negiotation have 
suffered a bit.  I have read carefully through the mass of these 
debates, trying to make the best sense of it all.  I have offered some 
of my experience rather than to openly enter the debate.  Perhaps I am 
idealistic, but I think this proposal allows us some time to consider 
such discussion rather than make decisions that might appear quick or 
hasty later.

resp:3 As long as everyone agrees the script should be suspended as 
part of this proposal, I have no problem with it.
willcome
response 14 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 14:32 UTC 2004

Of course, there's no-way to "suspend" the script.
cmcgee
response 15 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 14:47 UTC 2004

To "suspend" the script, I would ask Valerie or another staff member to
make sure no one could run it on Grex.  I would also ask that anyone with
the skills to create another script that achieves the same effect (robotic
removal of all posts created by a single login and uid) refrain from doing
so for the same time period. 

It may be that this becomes a type of robotic action that is forbidden under
our no-bots policy.  

mary
response 16 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 15:16 UTC 2004

People here are very angry, just like Valerie was angry.
I think they need to be allowed to vent even if that means
removing all of everything they've ever posted.  Even if
it means they walk away or take a break from Grex.

This will settle down.  Grex will survive.  I find it reassuring,
actually, that people care enough to get upset. 

I'd *not* try to meddle with any additional rules at this time
or try to calm things down until they're ready to calm down.
jmsaul
response 17 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 15:29 UTC 2004

Re #15:  Minor point:  Valerie is not a staff member.
willcome
response 18 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 15:44 UTC 2004

Re. 15:  There's still no-way to disable or hinder anyone who wants to run
the script.
remmers
response 19 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 15:54 UTC 2004

Donning by voteadm hat...

The fact that there are now three conflicting member proposals on the
table entered at about the same time raises some interesting procedural
questions that the bylaws don't address.  I'd appreciate some guidance
from the board about how to procede.
jp2
response 20 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 16:10 UTC 2004

This response has been erased.

remmers
response 21 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 16:40 UTC 2004

Re #17:  That's true, and not a minor point.

Re #20:  Jep gets to "worry about" it too, since he made one of
the proposals.
naftee
response 22 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 17:19 UTC 2004

The GreX staff should prepare a list of blacklisted scripts, and post it
somewhere, so we can all balk at how long it would be.
gull
response 23 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 18:29 UTC 2004

Re resp:2 and resp:3: I think that would be silly.  Valerie's script 
only automates something that everyone can already do.  It's ridiculous 
to tell people, "Okay, you can go scribble all your responses by hand, 
but don't you dare automate it!"  It's also unenforcible.
scott
response 24 of 56: Mark Unseen   Jan 10 18:30 UTC 2004

We apply that rule to other operations, like sending mail.
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