Please mind your online manners…
One aspect of using WordPress I appreciate is that it can feel like the dynamic flow of a great cocktail party – lots of intelligent people in active conversation. And like at a cocktail party, conversation is injured when somebody says something inappropriate or out of sync.
This is my way of saying I’m looking for everyone to be on their best behaviour – making creative, valuable and respectful contributions.
In particular, now that everyone has arrived, my tolerance for anyone not keeping up with our weekly schedule will diminish rapidly. If you can’t make a contribution according to the topic and activities of a specific week between Monday morning and Sunday midnight of that week, please don’t make one at all. I know schedules will sometimes overwhelm you, but I’d rather you miss a week entirely than contribute something in the following week, or even later. This will be especially relevant as our EMTs start taking the stage – it will be downright discourteous to disrupt the experience they’re cultivating. I have a widget for tracking anomalous contributions, so its prudent just to keep with the flow as best you can. EMT’s can post their launchpad anytime after 6 pm on the Sunday evening before their week, or on the Monday morning, to facilitate a smooth crossover.
I also mentioned elsewhere that ‘filler’ comments like “I agree” all by itself – ostensibly to boost your participation numbers – will only backfire on you. I don’t grade participation with those kinds of numbers, and I’ll certainly notice (and be as aggravated as everyone else) by unnecessary statements and dross.
Those are some of my pet peeves. I’d enjoy hearing any other suggestions people might have for guidelines and conduct that will improve the experience for everyone.
David
Posted in: Announcements
teacherben 11:31 pm on September 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
Just to be clear, if we ‘discover’ a post outside of the week where it was posted, or we want to carry a discussion on, you would prefer we not bother and instead try to focus on the new topic for the week and let the older stuff rest. Is this right?
Paula Poodwan 2:48 pm on September 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In my humble opinion, I think if we want to continue the discussion in the outside area of the weekly forum, like in the Announcements, Blog Café, General, and Questions & Answers, we should be okay to post and respond at anytime. Just my two cents 🙂
David Vogt 1:16 pm on September 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for these –
As Paula suggests, the Cafe, Announcements, etc, are places designed for legitimately off-topic conversations. For example, someone sharing some news pertinent to the whole course, or asking a question about an assignment down the line. What I’m looking to curtail are ‘dead letter’ postings covering an activity or conversations from a previous week. With 40 people active in a blog attention is our most precious commodity – we all need to take part in cultivating it wisely.
David