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<P><STRONG>I assume Chas probably told his closest buddies about his decision to leave 2020. The rest of us are still waiting to be "illuminated" by his interview. After that, you might see a few ripples. Doesn't the tsunami usually follow the earthquake?</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Vision2020 has had some rough spots in the road in the past and right now it feels like we're dodging boulders and potholes. . . but that's just part of the scenery. Some enjoy the trip, others don't. At times my "delete" key is so overworked, it's hot to the touch!</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>I enjoy vision2020 for it's wide variety of people and ideas. . . sort of like life. I don't have to agree with everyone but I don't want to have blinders on either. . . a view from the other side can be thought provoking.</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>It's a very interesting sandbox and it would be great if we all played nice. . . but, hey, that's other people's kids for ya!</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Ellen A. Roskovich</STRONG><BR><BR></P></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>From: <I>Nils Peterson <nils_peterson@wsu.edu></I><BR>To: <I>"vision2020@moscow.com" <vision2020@moscow.com></I><BR>Subject: <I>[Vision2020] Chas leaves V2020; Liberal Moscow Dead? How might V2020 be improved?</I><BR>Date: <I>Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:05:09 -0700</I><BR>>The following is posted here<BR>>http://www.nilspeterson.com/2006/07/26/thoughts-on-improving-the-community-e<BR>>mail-list/<BR>><BR>>I could have arranged my blog to post to this list, and you could return to<BR>>my blog to post a reply. This is part of my exploration of the alternatives<BR>>outlined in this post....<BR>><BR>><BR>>Moscow has an un-moderated, city-wide email list called Vision 2020, hosted<BR>>by First Step Internet (thank you for that.) The mission is: "Moscow Vision<BR>>2020 is an informal, multi-partisan
group of Moscow residents formed in 1993<BR>>to encourage more public information and debate about the future of Moscow<BR>>and Latah County."<BR>><BR>>On the list, I happened to catch Chasuk's departure note (he was a frequent<BR>>poster). A victim of flame war burnout. The waters closed over the corpse<BR>>with hardly a ripple.<BR>><BR>>And where is the Liberal Moscow blog? A V2020 alternative, announced in<BR>>early June 2006. I looked in via the RSS and the last post is mid-June.<BR>>Another corpse un-mourned, a better medium (blog + RSS) but no critical mass<BR>>on the site.<BR>><BR>>I have a research interest in these types of communities. What would enhance<BR>>the communication channel that V2020 can at times be? Chasuk spoke about<BR>>wanting a better signal to noise ratio. It seems to me that much of the<BR>>noise comes in the
feedback to original posts -- questioning of the poster's<BR>>premise, elaboration, or conflation, of the issues. Simple provocation. For<BR>>some, that rhetorical exchange is clearly the fun of the list. Baiting and<BR>>pouncing. Word play.<BR>><BR>>The problem is, some would prefer that the 'exchange' were taken "outside,"<BR>>but then would it be fun, without a crowd to watch? For those who prefer an<BR>>information dissemination channel, or a non-personal rebuttal or elaboration<BR>>on a news or opinion piece in the DNews, the banter on V2020 is distracting<BR>>at the least and more often off-putting.<BR>><BR>>For a long time, I have been reading the V2020 digests. This reduces the<BR>>clutter in my inbox. I scan the table of contents of each digest for a<BR>>couple features. First, is the post original or a reply. Second, who is
the<BR>>author. Third, what is the topic.<BR>><BR>>If the post is original, the author of good repute (to me) and the topic<BR>>plausibly interesting, I typically read it (However, scrolling from TOC to<BR>>item in the digest is clumsy.). If the reply is from a short list of<BR>>authors, and the topic formerly interesting, I read. This choosing is hard<BR>>to automate with a bozo filter alone.<BR>><BR>>Email seems to be a good vehicle for transmitting the content, but list<BR>>processor technology is clumsy for separating the good from the bad? How<BR>>might it look?<BR>><BR>>I posit that it would look like this:<BR>>*Original posts could be subscribed to, without any replies, and readers<BR>>could apply (or not) personal 'bozo filters' to the original posts.<BR>>*The whole dialog, or the whole digest, could be subscribed to, as it
is<BR>>now.<BR>>*Threads could be subscribed to on an individual basis. Making an original<BR>>post, or a reply, would automatically subscribe the author to the resulting<BR>>thread.<BR>>*When reading a post, a reader would have the ability to one-click subscribe<BR>>to the thread and perhaps see a digest of all the preceding posts in the<BR>>thread.<BR>><BR>>---<BR>><BR>>Thoughts?<BR>><BR>>=====================================================<BR>> List services made available by First Step Internet,<BR>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<BR>> http://www.fsr.net<BR>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>>====================================================<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></div></html>