I guess I'll confess to a certain amount of hesitation about the Yahoo Group. The last time I joined such a group, I had to end up leaving - I couldn't handle the tone of some of the conversations relating to FSGW politics, and at a certain point, posts of that nature were becoming a daily event. I understand that these posts were written with the best of intentions, but would submit that perhaps it wasn't quite the right medium.

In my work I deal with the advantages and disadvantages of e-mail as a method for communication a great deal. I have found that it is an excellent medium for sharing information, a pretty good medium for coordinating simple things, and a truly lousy medium for dealing with conflict. We miss so much when we have only the written word to go by, it's so hard to catch nuance, and it's so easy to just press "reply" and vent our feelings, that sometimes e-mail lists can end up looking more like the "letters to the editor" page in a deeply divided town than a conversation among friends with common interests.

I don't blame anyone for what happened last year; I often find that people don't intend their list posts in quite the way they end up getting heard. And it's true I didn't speak up at the time - largely because I didn't want to get caught up in the conflict. Instead, I quietly left the group.

I'm hoping that any Yahoo Group this year can be limited to talking about the Getaway, sharing memories and experiences, and I guess I'll wait for such assurances before joining.

I apologize for dealing with this on the Mudcat, but I'd like to be part of the photo sharing, and I just didn't feel I could join the group without raising that issue.

Respectfully,
Dan