Posted on 10/26/2009 4:32:01 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
This is a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Admin Moderators (Sidebar gave us some attitude so we shoved him in the closet for a while. He never recovered from the Yacht incident) For a while, we have noticed some things happening that we need your help with. The Free Republic community is strong; we are almost a family, albeit very dysfunctional at times. Like any community, we have new members joining us daily. Unfortunately, the air of suspicion and the desire to keep things “the way they are” has fostered a feeling of distrust with new members. Almost every day, we see new members join, then, because of comments of suspicion, they often don’t return. For any community to thrive, it must grow. Because of this, we are asking for your help. Here are some important things you should know:
The Internet has changed greatly since Free Republic first started. When we formed, few people had their own websites, now, everyone has their own blog. With this, there is an attitude change where someone who doesn’t understand how our community works may be more interested in self-promotion than we have been used to in the past. We don’t want to change the overall feel of this site- it is about our shared values, not about self promotion, however, we don’t want to drive people away simply because they link to their own blog. There are blog “pimps” who want nothing more than to promote their own sites, but for most people, it is simply how they start out sharing their thoughts on a matter. Encourage these members to take part in existing discussions.
Many new members may not communicate well what they believe and it gives the appearance they are not 100% kosher in their Conservative beliefs. This may have nothing to do with their Conservative credentials but simply how they are communicating their beliefs or how the media/pop culture has told them what to think. Be an example and discuss what you think is wrong. A liberal troll’s true colors will reveal themselves while a new member who is honest, but may not communicate well, may learn from the conversation.
Remember, how you respond to a topic not only reflects your thoughts, but also is a reflection of the community and Conservative values. We need to be an example of positive conservative values when responding to members, especially new ones. As mods, we make a strong attempt to screen all new members. Every new sign-up goes through a period where their posts are reviewed. This helps us eliminate most trolls, porn and commercial spammers, and those who don’t fit in with our Conservative values. This isn’t a perfect system, but it does help us make sure that by the time a new member reaches the community, there is a greater chance this person is the type we want around. Some slip through, yes, and you can always help us by hitting the abuse button. (of course, we do let some world class morons through every once in a while as “Live Chow”- after all, the kitties have to have toys.)
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With all that said, we need to grow. We need to be far more welcoming to new members and guide them into how to use our community best. With this said, we are issuing a challenge to our long time Freeper family. We would like to start up a ‘welcome wagon’ type of ping list or group whose job it is to welcome new members, show them the ropes, and guide them through our community. This could be as simply as giving new members a kind welcome, guiding them to how to post topics or replies, or just making the experience pleasant.
As this is your community, we would like your thoughts, ideas, and most importantly, for some of you to step up and help us with this.
We are passing the ball to you. What do you think?
Virtual meetings are a problem across many time zones. It is far easier to make the painful journey 1/3 the way across the world and spend a day or so adjusting to be at meetings on time than it is to suddenly get up at 11 PM for 9 hours of meetings by telephone.
Interesting.
One thing implicit in your response is that it takes several days to compensate for a several-hour meeting.
This could be accommodated in a “virtual” manner also. Imagine a hotel in a nearby city, which specializes in virtual meetings.
To go to a “meeting” there, you would check in early, then “travel” virtually to get to your virtual time zone. This could be working out on exercise equipment, with the goal of stretching or shortening your waking period.
At the appointed time, you should be ready and alert for your meeting. You go into a special conference room, don the visor gear for seeing in 3-D and tracking voices, calibrate your avatar image, and prepare for your presentations and observations, making sure all the equipment works.
If your work-station has a glitch, you transfer to another. In this “virtual” meeting room, there could even be other meeting attendees physically in the same room, but in different meetings.
After the meeting is over, you get back to your time zone as best you can. It could involve another exercise stint, or simply a long sleep period.
But not for me.
Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but *I* take my cues for timing my day from the environment around me. (And that even though I live in a household whose days are at least four hours shifted from my own.) Yes, I have worked "other" shifts before -- evening & night shifts in NASA wind-tunnels among them, but I am much better when on the local time: breakfast a few hours around sunrise, lunch a few hours near noon, dinner soon before or not too long after sundown.
Shifting my schedule a third or half of the way around the globe in a single "day" is no fun at all and is explicitly painful at times. But it works far better than anything I've tried with teleconferences.
And to be frank, my work doesn't end at meeting's end. There is (I hate to say) a lot of political schmoozing that just isn't going to occur over a telephone connection into a bar or restaurant.
*\:^(
Yeah, setting up a “virtual” wine-tasting would be pretty much a disaster.
Der IS no place like Mom. Me sez sew.
Welcome to verticality, sez Bob as he sidles out the door.
I’d left two sweatshirts on the bed, and when I went upstairs a few minutes ago, there was a cat on each one, giving me the evil eye.
Good morning. I’ve been up since 3:00. Why, I have no clue.
Yesterday, I bought a bundt pan at the local Saver’s but it’s a small one. So I either halve the recipe or bake the cakes back-to-back.
One of my finds was a butcher block knife holder. I finally figured out why my flatware drawer was so full: After adding all the knives to the holder, it was full. Scary stuff!!
I’m going back today. I saw some blue and white saucers that will look great on my plate wall.
Also, I have an appointment to look at another house. :o])
Woo-hoo! Good luck with the house! I’m catching up on late Christmas cards. Later I’ll go to Walmart: the kids broke another pencil sharpener. It’s a curse!
I don’t want to say anything about the house...in case it feels like home, and saying something might jinx the sale. The mojo thing, ya know.
At any rate, I tried to figure it out, and I can afford the payments. Which is awesome! Now, I just need to get the class take care of...
I know just how you feel ... don’t say anything ;-).
Ugh, 34 in the sun here, what sun there is.
Not much better here. 40 and ugly dark gray with a chance of rain.
I want summer!!
Lots of chocolate for me to eat
Lots of coal making lots of heat
Warm hands, warm face, warm feet
Oh wouldn’t it be luvverly?
Grey and cold here. No rain. I want to go back to bed.
So do I, but it’s full of catz.
Just put my pork roast in the oven for supper. Making the pumpkin soup will only take about 20 minutes. I suppose I should write another Christmas card before the mail comes.
Supper... and here we just finished breakfast.
It’s a big roast, and I don’t think it’s thawed all the way through, so it will be cooking 3 or 4 hours.
Missed the mail, but at least I got the card done and out. Two DVDs from Netflix came; I wonder what they are.
Finally completed the blog entry and got it posted, two weeks after I started on it. The number of visitors has fallen way off, unsurprisingly. But I am sure they’ll be coming back next week.
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