Adios Amigos

2005-5-18 05:34:00

Glenys wrote:

My latest round of participation that started with the Pope's death was after I wrote to JJ and said I would write more if he kept his rottweilers off me. He agreed.

Sorry to hear of Glenys quitting. It came to me as a surprise that there was any problem. I have been busy the past few days and haven't caught up on all the posts so wasn't aware there were any rottweilers attacking.

I am happy to help deal with the rottweilers attacking anyone here if I am aware there is a problem.

Here he what she actually asked of me:

Why not ask the Keys list what they think (about who will be the next Pope)? It'll get a conversation going and enable some to pontificate (pun intended :-) ). I might join in if you can keep your rottweilers off me.

To this I agreed and during the period where we were talking about the pope and his successor I paid particular attention to any sign of negative posts toward Glenys and as far as I recall things went pretty smoothly.

However, I never have and never will guarantee that I can filter out all negative posts toward any member indefinitely. Some are moderated and some are not. Some get moderated and behave themselves for a while and get off moderation, but then get back on again. When members are not moderated they can say anything they want. I have to be aware that someone makes an outrageous post or is offended before any action can be taken.

Unless a member has a history of causing trouble no direct action will normally be taken unless several people complain. One complaint is often not enough because some complain over minor issues that bother only themselves. If several complain then we know we have a problem.

This is a moderated list, but we try to be liberal with what we allow through and the unmoderated members can post anything they want though a really negative post may rise the risk of moderation for them. Overall we do not prevent a post from going through because it is critical, asks a pointed question, or just doesn't agree with someone including me. We use moderation mainly to prevent personal attacks, emotional outbursts or something way off topic.

We expect members here to have fairly tough skins and to be able to handle mild criticism, but if things get out of hand we will be willing to take action.

Sometimes the moderators may be behind in reading all the posts and the offended party may need to call a problem to our attention to give us a chance to correct it before getting in the mindset to quit.

Glenys made it sound as if our group is unusually negative and in the attack mode compared to others she has been in. This indeed may be her true experience. It is not mine. I like all the members here with whom I have experience and I always find it strange when two people I like cannot get along with each other. Yet it does happen.

The vibration of this group draws independent thinkers. Sometimes I feel that the lights we draw here are a little like the founding fathers of the United States who were great minds drawn together by a grand idea.

On the other hand, if we were to judge these men by how nice and thoughtful they were to each other we would think they were so negative that nothing good could come from them. They were often at each others throats, argued a lot, called each other names and one of them Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel.

The fact is that independent thinkers do stand out from the crowd, not only in the loftiness of their thought but in the intensity of their passion and sometimes this passion works its way into conflict.

The saving grace though is the principle of harmony through conflict. Despite all the conflict a Declaration of Independence and grand Constitution materialized of which all were proud and unified on.

I do not promise a group free of negativity and conflict, but I do promise one that is interesting and growth related if individual members will focus on the soul first and personalities second.

Much more important than the outer peace is the inner peace. Jesus himself did not have much outer peace, but it did not matter for the inner was his focus so it made little difference to his state of mind what others thought or said about him.

Peace be with you as it is with me. Let nothing disturb it.

Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise. Denise Levertov

PS: Glenys inspired me to end my posts with a quote.