New! Guidelines to Support Online Communication

[Twog]

In the interest of keeping our online conversation as inclusive, informative, respectful, participatory and fun as possible, the TWOG and our web administrator have come up with some guidelines which we hope will be clear and helpful. The guidelines include some suggestions to make your communication as clear and effective as possible, and also a (short!) list of types of communication that we won’t tolerate. These last include obvious things like: name calling, threats, blame, obscenities.

I hope that you will take a look at the Guidelines (see Online Communication under the “About Us” tab), and let us know what you think. If you think they are in any way unclear, or if there is something we left out, please let us know.

May your conversations be fascinating and illuminating!

Emily - for the TWOG

[David MacLeod]

Sorry for the delay. The new document has been posted: "Transition Whatcom Guidelines for Online Communication May 2013"

I'm only allowed 24 characters, so the tab title is "Online Communication."

The pages under "About Us" are designed so that you can go to each segment directly by hovering your mouse over the About Us tab, or you can work your way through each page sequentially.  At the bottom of each page, there is a link to the Next page in the sequence.

The Online Communication guidelines can also be downloaded as a Word document.

[Heather K]

Emily- Wonderful!  We've needed something like this for a long time! 

I'll wait for you to post a link on this blog when they are ready (or you can email me).

I trust you've done a great job of clarifying online communication guidelines in writing. thanks!

[Emily Farrell]

Hi Heather,

Thanks for your thoughts. The new communication guidelines are not yet posted (oops). They include a brief intro statement, some general principles similar to what you listed in your comments, specific suggestions to help folks communicate clearly, and the "no tolerance" list (as well as a deletion policy in response to terribly inappropriate posts). Hopefully they will be up soon. Please let us know what you think, again, once they are up! Thank you!         Emily

[Heather K]

Hi Emily!    I would support having a simpler list of guidelines, than what I currently found under the 'About Tab' -  http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/page/tw-guidelines .

 

When I looked for the new TWOG guidelines, I found  a lengthy discussion http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/page/tw-guidelines  titled

“Transition Whatcom Guideline Paper:  Balancing the Principle of Positive Visioning with the Principle of Inclusion and Openness.  Introduction and Summary”.

 I recognize this paper from years ago, and am unable to tell what has been improved to simplify and increase clarity.

 

I like you recentlywrote on the TWOG blog: “ The guidelines include some suggestions to make your communication as clear and effective as possible, and also a (short!) list of types of communication that we won’t tolerate.

These last include obvious things like: name calling, threats, blame, obscenities.”

 

Is it possible the new suggested guideline tab or link  has  not been added to our website yet?

Would you add the specific new link for us to view and add a date to the text?

If it is helpful to you, the Group Guideline  I send out to most new members in Transition W Earth Gardens network are listed below: http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/group/organic/forum/topics/member...

 

  - GROUP GUIDELINES-

**   Open-mindedness:  Listen to and respect all points of view.

**   Acceptance:  Suspend judgment as best you can.

**   Curiosity:  Seek to understand rather than persuade.

**   Discovery:  Question old assumptions, look for new insights.

**  Sincerity: Speak for yourself about what has personal heart meaning 

**  Respect for all living beings and doing no intentional harm in written word or action

The Transition 7 Principles are another good link I refer folks to: http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/page/7-principles

 

Emily, thank you for the work you do on the TWOG.  We are fortunate to have you! 

You are a much better listener, than I am a writer!