The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #14197 Message #121043
Posted By: Joe Offer
05-Oct-99 - 05:59 PM
Thread Name: Proselytizing
Subject: RE: Proselytizing
Hi, Peter - it's a subtle matter of tone, and I don't think a poll would detect what I'm trying to detect. I'm asking us all to take a step back from the 'Cat and try to view it objectively, and ponder for a moment. What impression do we make on visitors, and is this the impression we want to make?
You make a very good point about the danger of things getting too dull around here, so it IS a delicate balance. Same with the idea of control - if you control the Forum too tightly, it loses its spontaneity, and we certainly don't want that. Still, I have this feeling that something isn't quite right with the Forum, and I think it's worthwhile to consider alternatives. It's at the point where I feel a bit uncomfortable, where I get the feeling that I don't quite "belong" here.
This community of ours is an interesting phenomenon. On one hand, we are an absolute dictatorship. This site belongs to Max, and he alone has control and authority. He listens to Dick and Susan and I think he wouldn't do anything they wouldn't want, so they have authority. But they are the only ones who have authority, and they pretty-much leave things alone. There are a few of us who have "edit" buttons, but you can be sure we try our best to do what Max and Dick and Susan want us to do - leave message content alone, and edit only the technical things and the duplications. So, are we a dictatorship, albeit a "benevolent dictatorship," or perhaps are we an "enlightened anarchy"? Although only Max and Dick and Susan have "authority," I think that we all have varying degrees of "credibility," based on the personnae we have built for ourselves during the time we have been here, and the contributions we have made.
But that's all a bit off the point. My main question is whether the presence of the insider stuff enhances or detracts from the value of the Forum as a folk music resource.
Over to you, Peter. (grin)
-Joe Offer-