In the huddle - dealing with Mary Mary quite contrary
And, thus it is, from time to time, that the Moderator has to banish the contrary poster who fails to understand their behavior is impacting the group, and more importantly, the moderator’s management time.
Groups are private spaces not subject to the legal parameters of "free speech". A group is a community committed, thru a mission statement, to discussion through reason and rational discourse. The interchange of ideas is vital for the function of merchandising ourselves, discovery, and the shared ideals through discussion.
Curtailment of free speech undercuts intellectual freedom that defines our purpose. It also deprives some individuals of the right to express unpopular ideas, and others the right to listen to unpopular ideas. There is some ambiguity where the lines should be drawn in email based Group forums where there is much diversity culturally, differing educations levels, broad age range bringing on generational differences, and different agenda for each and every participant.
Group Dynamics
Group process starts at a collective level below the sum of the average skills of the Group. As the group matures this process, exponentially, grows. As a collection of people, a group needs to relearn some basic manners and people skills. The group process is a series of changes which occur as a group of individuals form into an operating unit. Understanding that process will allow the changes to be accelerated thru facilitation.
From the individuals perspective there is incentive in belonging to a group as each can participate in the combined resources. The shear number of members soon becomes the prime motivator for people joining the group with the advertised mission being secondary. Along with that, there are individual differences that come to the forefront in the form of discourse on the Group message board along with individual power struggles.
The defining line
The defining line is the mission statement of the Group. As long as that mission statement is clear, then the moderator's task of keeping the forum on tract is simplified.
List disruption is not an uncommon occurrence. Some members revel in their capacity to inflame a situation, create disruptions and take the discussion off on a tangent best suited to their own personal agenda. Behavior that is meant to dishonor a moderator, or member, is contrary to the mission of the Group. It shows grave disrespect for the dignity of others.
The disruption can be in the form of spam, outright flames against one particular member or the group as a whole, a systematic contrary position that is arbitrary in nature and only meant to annoy and harass thru passive aggressive means or a behind the scenes gossiping network. That gossiping network results in constant multiple private emails to the Moderator's email box complaining of the impact of rumors. The poster often uses long emails, off list, to individual members to defend their position that are full of justification and vilifications that present partial facts to substantiate their stance. This type of poster is hard to pinpoint in the beginnings of their campaign but the pattern becomes evident over time.
List moderators need to consider intervention at some point to dispel irresponsible and incendiary responses from appearing on the group board which only serve to disrupt the group process. When the disruption spills over into the private email arena filling the personal email box, the moderator has to consider "time value for money" and make a personal decision as to how much time they want to spend deflecting the actions of one individual versus an entire group that requires time and management. Time and resources allocated to the Group is an inventory item that has to be managed as any other resource and it must be planned, monitored and reviewed just like any other managed process.
The moderator always reserves the right, particularly when the list is a sole proprietorship, to act on messages containing personal attacks or other potentially inflammatory messages meant to disrupt a forum by not posting them and or re-directing them back to the sender. This same policy is also applicable to messages that are out of the confines of the mission statement or messages that are of a personal nature or meant to be used in a personal conflict resolution arena.
Time vs. Value
And, thus it is, from time to time, that the Moderator has to banish the contrary poster who fails to understand their behavior is impacting the group, and more importantly, the moderator’s management time. There are cases where the moderator can discuss the matter with the poster, and sometimes, it will be determined that any intervention, privately, will be used as a lever in further private emails to other selective members vilifying their position. This contrary poster is best dismissed, from the huddle, without notice despite the uproar it might inflict initially on the Group process since they have not been made privy to all the nuances, track history, or other incidents involved in the decision.
Conclusion
In the short term, despite the upheaval, the Group will return to the process of combining resources and continue to provide an innovative solution to networking in cyber space. Groups are no different to relationships - you must work at them constantly. As the membership changes, so does the needs of the group. Also, as the group moves forward collectively, so does the emotional growth of the group move forward, onward and upward in an exponential spiral bringing with it, at a faster rate, the new members, new ideas, and past noted problems are stored as a culmination of the learning experience. All of this is brought about by planned and organized facilitation and moderation - which brings with it the need to make difficult decisions concerning members you have begun to know as a friend.
Kathleen Johnson 10/7/03
http://www.geocities.com/grannywyo//Articles20.html
Showing posts with label social psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social psychology. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The Cyber Lawless Frontier
The nebulous virtual existence of the banned cyber poster.
The internet has outrun the Constitution and has indeed outrun current concepts of free speech. Forums and Message boards have been struggling to find the answer to bad behavior on the internet. Enhanced by anominity, some posters frequently step outside the bounds of decorum and find them selves at odds with Forum Hosts, Moderators and members alike. With prerogatives set by the software manufacturers the Moderators and Forum owners have the ability and are forced to ban posters who harass thru the written word, consistently inflame, disrupt, browbeat, annoy, slander, and generally alienate their fellow man.
Upon banishment
Upon banishment the poster has to vilify and justify their position to fellow posters often thru fair means and foul and a systematic posting of half truths, displacement of blame, and projection. The first line of defense is a tirade of emails to fellow posters on the board, and a campaign of the “poor me syndrome” on Instant Messenger. The net result of such action is that the group becomes caught up in a new phenomenon called “Cyber Gang Mentality” and it fits all the parameters of the modern street gang.
Within short order the gang finds an unmoderated board on which to congregate with the soul purpose to further find their own pleasure by creating displeasure in others, denigrating the persons they hold responsible for their banishment, and with plotting and collusion scheme the demise of the board or boards they have been banished from, or self banished themselves from.
Over the years I have observed several cyber “operating gangs” and usually they congregate in numbers of no less than five but no more than 10. I am not sure what creates the limitation of the group’s growth, or the inability of the Group to maintain no more than 10 or so active members for a limited time span. The group, in time, self destructs due to lack of order and descend into disorganized mayhem. The various and sundry posters dissipate to other boards to, once again, in time, be banned again or find themselves ostracized by their choice of friends.
Net Lists Are Not Public Places
Net message boards, Forums and Bulletin Boards are not public places and are not, therefore, subjected to the application of the rules of “Freedom of Speech”. The lists are private places into which the people freely agree to abide by a set of rules prior to admission. It is these rules that this lawless poster finds constricting to their “style”.
Challenging their peers, the dissident poster is a constant challenge for the moderator and owner of forums . The dissident’s constant incitement and self posturing on the forum is time consuming in that the behavior generates box full of private email, screen falls of Instant Messages with complaints, and lack of productivity on the boards.
Moderator’s Number One Rule
The number one rule for Moderators is to not respond, and do not engage. Often it is difficult, at the onset of their campaign, to recognize the provocation. It is even more difficult to not go into details justifying your action, as moderator, on the board. After all, the moderator is going to be admonished as, of course, everything posted and said by the banished poster is factual - right? Most bullies on boards are desperately seeking attention. Seeking any type of attention and the more public, then that best suits their purposes. First and foremost, take the discussion of your concerns off the board into the private arena. One on one, the provocateur can, sometimes, be reasoned with. But, alas, the seasoned bully will never be tamed and you, as Moderator, will be forced to banish the poster to the land of the cyber lawless.
The Internet is not a lawless frontier
A belief, held by some, is that the internet as a whole is a lawless frontier. Like the inflammatory tales told of the Wild West, the truth is that there were some scoundrels but, on the whole, there were only a very few gunfighters. And so it goes with the internet. There are a few cyber scoundrels out there, but on the whole they are quickly banished anymore into the lawless virtual frontier to dissipate over time.
Overtime the Board under fire returns to calm, order and on topic. From time to time it may be challenged by an anonymous poster from the renegade board who has circumnavigated the block of their ID by creating a new one. But the current members of the board have been alerted to such a possibility and they ignore the posts, the invitations to join them in their campaign, and the renegades find themselves eliminated from the Chat lists as the members tire of their constant agitation. The “Rejection Forums” also, in time, dissipate due to lawlessness and lack of a real rewarding focus.
Kathleen Johnson
9/17/03
Kathleen Johnson works for Primedia.inc as a moderator on the AllExperts Board for About.Inc. Kathleen also owns multiple Groups on Yahoo and has participated online for many years observing and writing articles on Group dynamics.
http://www.geocities.com/grannywyo//Article21.html
The internet has outrun the Constitution and has indeed outrun current concepts of free speech. Forums and Message boards have been struggling to find the answer to bad behavior on the internet. Enhanced by anominity, some posters frequently step outside the bounds of decorum and find them selves at odds with Forum Hosts, Moderators and members alike. With prerogatives set by the software manufacturers the Moderators and Forum owners have the ability and are forced to ban posters who harass thru the written word, consistently inflame, disrupt, browbeat, annoy, slander, and generally alienate their fellow man.
Upon banishment
Upon banishment the poster has to vilify and justify their position to fellow posters often thru fair means and foul and a systematic posting of half truths, displacement of blame, and projection. The first line of defense is a tirade of emails to fellow posters on the board, and a campaign of the “poor me syndrome” on Instant Messenger. The net result of such action is that the group becomes caught up in a new phenomenon called “Cyber Gang Mentality” and it fits all the parameters of the modern street gang.
Within short order the gang finds an unmoderated board on which to congregate with the soul purpose to further find their own pleasure by creating displeasure in others, denigrating the persons they hold responsible for their banishment, and with plotting and collusion scheme the demise of the board or boards they have been banished from, or self banished themselves from.
Over the years I have observed several cyber “operating gangs” and usually they congregate in numbers of no less than five but no more than 10. I am not sure what creates the limitation of the group’s growth, or the inability of the Group to maintain no more than 10 or so active members for a limited time span. The group, in time, self destructs due to lack of order and descend into disorganized mayhem. The various and sundry posters dissipate to other boards to, once again, in time, be banned again or find themselves ostracized by their choice of friends.
Net Lists Are Not Public Places
Net message boards, Forums and Bulletin Boards are not public places and are not, therefore, subjected to the application of the rules of “Freedom of Speech”. The lists are private places into which the people freely agree to abide by a set of rules prior to admission. It is these rules that this lawless poster finds constricting to their “style”.
Challenging their peers, the dissident poster is a constant challenge for the moderator and owner of forums . The dissident’s constant incitement and self posturing on the forum is time consuming in that the behavior generates box full of private email, screen falls of Instant Messages with complaints, and lack of productivity on the boards.
Moderator’s Number One Rule
The number one rule for Moderators is to not respond, and do not engage. Often it is difficult, at the onset of their campaign, to recognize the provocation. It is even more difficult to not go into details justifying your action, as moderator, on the board. After all, the moderator is going to be admonished as, of course, everything posted and said by the banished poster is factual - right? Most bullies on boards are desperately seeking attention. Seeking any type of attention and the more public, then that best suits their purposes. First and foremost, take the discussion of your concerns off the board into the private arena. One on one, the provocateur can, sometimes, be reasoned with. But, alas, the seasoned bully will never be tamed and you, as Moderator, will be forced to banish the poster to the land of the cyber lawless.
The Internet is not a lawless frontier
A belief, held by some, is that the internet as a whole is a lawless frontier. Like the inflammatory tales told of the Wild West, the truth is that there were some scoundrels but, on the whole, there were only a very few gunfighters. And so it goes with the internet. There are a few cyber scoundrels out there, but on the whole they are quickly banished anymore into the lawless virtual frontier to dissipate over time.
Overtime the Board under fire returns to calm, order and on topic. From time to time it may be challenged by an anonymous poster from the renegade board who has circumnavigated the block of their ID by creating a new one. But the current members of the board have been alerted to such a possibility and they ignore the posts, the invitations to join them in their campaign, and the renegades find themselves eliminated from the Chat lists as the members tire of their constant agitation. The “Rejection Forums” also, in time, dissipate due to lawlessness and lack of a real rewarding focus.
Kathleen Johnson
9/17/03
Kathleen Johnson works for Primedia.inc as a moderator on the AllExperts Board for About.Inc. Kathleen also owns multiple Groups on Yahoo and has participated online for many years observing and writing articles on Group dynamics.
http://www.geocities.com/grannywyo//Article21.html
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