Re: Chilling effect

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 02:45:40 -0700

Hi Dan,
At 23:37 15-06-2015, Daniel Laeng wrote:
>Where I think we're not seeing eye-to-eye is on the cases that are
>less clear. I'm talking about:
>- Emails which are sent to officials by mistake (Reply-all)
>- Emails which are sent to 28 recipients (Spam-like)
>- Emails which do not represent the views of the MIU, but are part
>of a MIU thread, and sent to an official

Now I understand what you meant by spam-like. I recommend that
members do not send a message to that many recipients.

I'll make this very clear to every member: An official is not one of
your "Facebook friends"; do not click on the Reply-all button to send
a message to the official.

>To be very clear, I do NOT wish to:
>- Stop any form of conversation within the MIU list
>- Stop any member from contacting any official by email

Agreed.

>I DO wish to:
>1. Find a process or technical mechanism to stop MIU members from
>being able to click [Reply All], and sending emails to non MIU members
>2. Discourage members from sending emails to officials which can be
>confused as being MIU opinions
>
>I don't think the first point is controversial at all (but it may
>technically difficult). It is not limiting anybody's behaviour.

Implementing Item 1 would require making software changes. The
process for Items 1 & 2 is simple:

    (i) Send a complaint

    (ii) The person leading the group will decide whether to remove the member
         from the group.

>The 2nd point I'd implement just by calling people out on
>inappropriate behaviour. (When somebody has 28 recipients on a MIU
>email, then the MIU should probably point out to them that this is
>not appropriate.)

Yes, please see my previous comment.

>The aims of both of these points are to make external MIU
>communications more professional, not to limit any freedoms.

Agreed.

>If that's the actual "problem", then it's definitely not the problem
>I'm trying to solve. I fully support all discussions of this nature.

Thanks.

>And isn't that a nice way to deal with criticism...

It isn't but that's what happens on the island.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Tue Jun 16 2015 - 09:46:55 PST