Posted by gabbix2 on May 30, 2004, at 16:32:20
In reply to re: Lar's block, posted by spoc on May 29, 2004, at 21:51:56
Bob first said, "Well, he and I have been in touch. How about if I
reduce his block from 6 to 4 weeks?"The question was clearly seeking feedback on what people thought of
Bob reducing *Larry's* block. It's quite possible that some people
might answer that they don't want to ever see anybody's block
reduced, but we shouldn't get distracted into a debate about block
reduction in general. Isn't that a separate question? The question
was about Larry.It looks like, from what Bob first asked, Larry had raised some
doubt in Bob's mind whether he had been unfair. The replies seemed
to uniformly indicate that people agreed. Bob had been unfair. But
then it got weird.Bob came back with, "FYI, those with a minority opinion who would
rather not express it here should feel free to email me..."I've got two problems with that. It looks like Bob didn't like the
opinions he had seen, so he was specifically looking for the other
sort. Like he wanted to have people help him justify turning Larry
down. The other thing is that Bob's email address is on every board
on this site. Anybody who ever wanted to email him could do so. If
he was going to make this point, he should have done it when he
first asked for feedback, and he should not have mentioned the type
of feedback at all.I'm not made any more comfortable by the next thing Bob says, "I see
what you mean, but I'd like everyone to feel comfortable expressing
their opinion, and this isn't a vote, anyway..." He's not looking
for everyone to feel comfortable at all.....just people
with...umm...uncomplimentary opinions of Larry? Uncivil opinions of
Larry? Can I even say that? Maybe not, but it looks that way when this is posted after the fact.
Perhaps there should have been a reminder at the beginning that people who are uncomfortable publically expressing their opinions have the option of e-mailing their feelings privately.
I don't think it even matters whether there should be block
reductions or not. Bob's already done it. I'm glad he came forward
and asked peoples' opinions this time, because it was a secret
process before now. I can understand that this is not a vote,
because that measures popularity as much as anything else.Bob, at least establish a procedure that at least appears to be
unbiased. You've got a standard format you use for your PBCs
and "please rephrase" posts. How about something like "'X' has
requested a block reduction, and I'm looking for feedback, either
here or via email at..." and not ever coming back to us and looking
for a particular kind of feedback, after the fact. Please.
poster:gabbix2
thread:346427
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20040527/msgs/352182.html