[GSBN] private vs public archives (was: Calibration of Balemaster probe)

[stoneandstraw]

Bill,

My only concern, and it is a minor one, is that without the ability to have a "private" conversation among those on the list (all together), the nomination of a new member to the list is really a selection of that person by the nominator.  IOW, if anyone did have reservations about John Dough's nomination, would they express them, knowing that John Dough and everyone else would eventually see those thoughts?
This is, as I said, a minor issue mostly because before any of us nominate a new "member," we are pretty good about vetting the appropriateness of the candidate ourselves.  However, the situation could arise where some very bad and telling experiences with a candidate might only be known to 2-3 members, and that candidate could then be nominated by one of us who is ignorant of the negative experiences.  
For example, I had a reasonably good experience with a straw bale builder, about whom others on this list knew of some pretty poor experiences.  ...experiences that showed this person did not really have (1) the level of expertise claimed, (2) the commitment to improving overall construction quality, nor (3) a desire to share and learn as a community.  It was only because of a casual conversation at a CASBA meeting that I found out of the rest of the story.  If I were to have nominated this person (in my ignorance), I doubt that my well-mannered colleagues would have spoken up against the nomination - even though they probably should.  

Just my $0.02 worth.
Nehemiah


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Christensen" <billc at greenbuilder.com>
To: "(private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network" <GSBN at greenbuilder.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 9:10 PM
Subject: Re: [GSBN] private vs public archives (was: Calibration of Balemaster probe)


> At 3:41 PM -0500 11/8/09, strawnet at aol.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>This makes me wonder if there might be a way to automate a kind of 
>>differentiation of posts - some of which would not automatically be 
>>archived in the public sphere - perhaps using a key word in the 
>>subject line of posts that contain info not intended for wider 
>>distribution. I don't know how feasible that might be, but I would 
>>hope we might find a way to preserve both the openness of the flow 
>>of information and exchange and also preserve something of a more 
>>private/tighter community sharing when that is appropriate. On the 
>>other hand, I don't want to see more burden placed on Bill C for 
>>additional work.
>>
>>Either way, I just want to say how much I have appreciated and 
>>continue to value the existence of this list, the archives, and 
>>especially the members and their contributions. Kudos to Bill for 
>>all his work to keep this list functioning and for making the wealth 
>>of information that has been generated and shared here available to 
>>so many people.
>>
>>Warmest regards to you all,
>>
>>David
>>
> 
> I can't think of an easy way to implement a separation of private vs 
> public archives.  Even if we were to figure out how to define some 
> subject line tag that magically put certain posts in a protected 
> area, my guess is that most on the list would soon forget it or 
> forget to use it.  It's not like there's a whole lot of discussion 
> here that really needs to be kept private, and when there is it's 
> probably best just to use direct email to discuss it with the 
> relevant members offlist, and to discuss it on the list with the 
> private parts left out.
> 
> Regarding the instant searchability, it's not necessarily that 
> instant.  Google indexes sites at varying frequencies.  GSBN doesn't 
> get indexed all *that* often, despite how important any of us think 
> our work is.  In fact, I just did a completely non-scientific study 
> by searching for various phrases from posts to see how far back I'd 
> need to go before coming up with a match.  August 19th matched; 
> September 9th didn't.  (there was one other post in that span of time 
> which I didn't test, on Aug 21st.)
> 
> So we probably have an average buffer of at least a month before 
> anything posted on GSBN shows up in Google.
> 
> Of course anyone who knows of the GSBN archives can pull them up as 
> soon as the post goes through, and as Derek pointed out that would be 
> before any of us received them in our own mailboxes.  I doubt there 
> are forces of straw-evil out lurking out there watching our every 
> move, so it doesn't seem like we'd really need to worry about it much.
> 
> I think we're all pretty aware of the need to be discreet about 
> certain aspects of our discussions - we don't give out owners' names 
> when discussing catastrophic failures which may involve insurance 
> companies, for instance.
> 
> As for me, I'm just happy to keep y'all connected.
> 
> Bill "fly on the wall" Christensen
> 
> -- 
> Bill Christensen
> billc at greenbuilder.com
> 
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