[b-hebrew] Bullying, Challenging, and Appeasing: The Patterns of B-Hebrew
Isaac Fried
if at math.bu.edu
Thu Apr 16 09:08:52 EDT 2009
Your observations, I am afraid, are facile and superficial.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Apr 15, 2009, at 2:57 PM, John M. Linebarger wrote:
> I'm a B-Hebrew lurker who occasionally posts questions, and has
> also commented about the Jim Stinehart phenomenon. However, by
> trade I am a Computer Scientist. My dissertation work was on
> computational support for group collaboration patterns in a
> distributed virtual environment for product design.
>
> So I'm both professionally and personally fascinated by the
> patterns (ruts, really) that the B-Hebrew mailing list has fallen
> into over the last several months (what I call the "Jim Stinehart"
> era). In fact, I am considering using B-Hebrew as a case study in
> disfunctional Web-based collaboration and submitting the results to
> a conference or journal.
>
> Here are my observations:
>
> 1. Three patterns characterize recent B-Hebrew postings: Bullying
> (Jim), Challenging (Karl, et al.), and Appeasing (the moderators,
> although George has adopted more of a Challenging pattern of late).
> 2. The net effect of the Bullying, Challenging, and Appeasing is
> that those patterns have drowned out the Question/Response,
> Requests for Assistance, and Responsible Hypothesis Floating
> patterns that used to characterize the list.. Statistically, they
> simply dominate all other traffic.
> 3. Not only do these new patterns dominate all other traffic, my
> hypothesis is that it squelches and discourages other traffic
> because questions get lost in the crossfire. I know that I have
> submitted questions from time to time recently that were never
> answered, simply because all attention was focused on Jim.
>
> In short, it is hard not to conclude that the B-Hebrew is currently
> disfunctional with respect to its original goals. Sad, but
> absolutely fascinating. It will make a great case study. Thanks!
>
> John M. Linebarger, PhD (Computer Science)
> Sandia National Laboratories
> Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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