Posted by
Steve Smith on
Oct 12, 2009; 5:55pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/An-easier-question-less-contentious-but-somewhat-depressing-tp3802172p3809590.html
I will add that in this particular Kaffe Klatch, especially through the
Philosophy Wars and now the
Emergentist Period that
even "Oh No, NOT AGAIN!" has become more good natured ribbing or the
extravagant eye-rolling of friends who have agreed to disagree about
the importance or relevance of a given topic. Clearly there are many
camps and many of them overlap and people even (usually quietly) drift
from one to another.
I also appreciate the reminder that deafening silence is not
necessarily (or even likely) a censure by the group. I often notice
that when someone makes a profound statement on a particular thread
that it sometimes actually *cuts* the chatter rather than raising it.
It is as if some people are stunned at the obviousness or finality of
the observation while others are probably chagrined that they had been
talking all around it and failed to say it so clearly themselves.
And of course many are simply not listening or not prepared to chime
in.. they are busy with their lives, careers, and other obsessions
(perhaps including other forums, blogs, etc.). For example, my
colleagues and I have been mani(a)cally building, rebuilding and using
various stereo and multi-camera rigs to capture the 600+ balloons that
were launched many times over and over this week at the Albuquerque
Balloon Fiesta. During that time, I managed to take the time to open
and skim virtually every FRIAM message (especially the ones on
emergence) and was very motivated to read, re-read, track-back parts of
a thread (thanks to Owen's coaching to the group about good thread
hygiene) or two but simply have not had the time. By the time I do and
am ready to have an idea, the topic may have since gone stale and I may
have to let it sit. On the other hand, I have to appreciate Sam
Clemen's approach to the reading of news two weeks late, as by the time
you read it it is either proven to be bunk or has become irrelevant.
I am curious if anyone else on this list has given much thought to
analyzing the dynamics of this list directly. What would a tool look
like that allowed us to model the thread(s) and the conversations here
and do some intuitive as well as formal analysis? I was (almost)
motivated enough to build a simple visualization tool for Nick's
Noodles a year back or more when he introduced them... they had much
more specific structure (being wiki-based) than mail lists. What
are some of the mathematical models people might consider for modeling
the discussions on this list? What are the objects being modeled?
Concepts, Terms, Threads, Members, ??? All of the above?
There must already be tools out there designed to help visualize e-mail
archive threads at a superficial level at least... Owen?
Carry on,
- Steve
Thus spake Rikus Combrinck circa 09-10-11 01:53 PM:
What the hell? [...]
If there is the possibility of
additional insight, any insight, how about some applause when people spend
their own resources to advance their understanding, and share it for free as
they go!
Well, the thing you might be missing is that detailed criticism _is_
applause in scientific circles. Online media are difficult to
understand. Detailed criticism is usually a sign of _respect_ and
should be interpreted as an "atta boy". But ignoring someone's post is
NOT a secret message for that person to stop contributing. Sometimes,
the impact of a post is quite large even if there is no response. These
things are occult. But one thing is for sure, if a person takes the
time to actually read and respond to what you've written, then it is a
sign of RESPECT, even if (or perhaps especially if) the response is very
critical.
Now, while I agree that self-indulgent mocking in the form of "Oh no,
not again", without any detailed criticism is bad form (because it's
mostly useless), I don't think we need saccharine back-patting. But
then again, I've been accused of total failure in my attempts to
encourage people after doing a good job. ;-) So, what do I know?
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