Posted by twinleaf on March 12, 2008, at 17:18:01
In reply to Re: Re your 'requests' » gardenergirl, posted by adelaide curtis on March 12, 2008, at 13:29:36
with Adelaide. Dinah is, of course, fully entitled to make any decisions she would like, and is also entitled to change her mind if circumstances warrant. I do feel very badly about her doing it in such a public manner, with dozens of posts giving her reasons for leaving, followed by many further ones explaining, to a minimal extent, why she has decided to stay. She has a position of responsibility, and her posts were so cryptic that many members of the Babble community experienced a lot of distress as they tried to follow the changes in her thinking. We first learned from her that changes in procedures were coming. Because she found them unacceptable, we were extremely concerned that we might feel the same. Many people began to ask Bob about what these changes were going to be. All these posts were accompanied by strong expressions of support for Dinah, and shock and distress that we were going to lose such a valuable person because of some unknown rule changes. At this point, there was widespread alarm and distress, which Bob should have addressed with us directly.
Instead, he ignored our distress and uncertainty, and spent his time reaching a solution to Dinah's personal concerns. She, having originally been extremely angry and critical of him, was able to come to a point where she felt comfortable enough to stay on. She gave us only a minimal explanation about what had gone on, We still don't know what the new rules are. Dinah's original anger at Bob then turned into OUR collective anger. We were furious that he was going to allow Dinah to leave, that he would place rules and regulations above a poster who had been so important in Babble's functioning. Our anger deepened and spread to include resentment over the imposition of rules without our input, and, as the week progressed, anger that Bob iwas declining to respond to a large number of posters who have genuine concerns and frustrations.
Long after Bob and Dinah have cleared up their differences, we are left with much higher levels of anger and frustration in our relationships with this site. I think that, in the future, deputies should be more responsible in how they use Administration posting in working out problems with Bob. I say this, because, while Dinah is able to solve her problem with Bob by direct, private communication, we can't. Numbers of posters picked up on Dinah's anger and frustration- these feelings became our
own, and many of us are still feeling them. Unlike Dinah, we have no way of resolving them.I feel confident that it was inadvertent on her part, but I think that Dinah, by posting so extensively about her own concerns and anger at Bob over some rule changes, set the stage for the entire community to adopt and magnify her original anger and frustration and then make those feelings their own. Unlike Dinah, we have no communication channel, public or private by which to work out those feelings. They are festering here, damaging the whole community. For this reason, I would like to ask Dinah to be more careful in the future. As a deputy, she has private ways of alleviating her concerns. She should not be using her position to incite anger and dissatisfaction in the Babble community as a whole.
poster:twinleaf
thread:817501
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20080204/msgs/817567.html