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Dear List members,
Rebekah and David met as list moderators yesterday to discuss list moderation issues and here are some thoughts that came out of that meeting.
1. Spam
We have now changed some of the security settings set for the list to try and limit spam without limiting members’ access to the list. We will monitor and see how well this works over the next few weeks. If we continue to be spammed we will look at other measures too.
2. Attachments
Many other lists do not allow attachments as a way to reduce virus risk and to minimize the volume that a list might take up in members’ inboxes. We suggest it would be sensible for us to change the list settings to no longer allow attachments to be sent to the list. Members could still send each other attachments off list, of course. We would appreciate your views about this suggestion.
3. Expectations of the list
We are committed to placing the minimal possible restrictions on list communication. However, we have received communications from list members saying that their expectations about what would be posted on this list are not currently being met. We believe that it would be useful to have some collective discussion about what members see the purpose of the list to be, what we might collectively expect to characterise a specifically community psychological list as opposed to other lists and how that might be relevant to the content and style of discussion posts. If members feel this would be useful please feel free to post your views on what would characterise a community psychological list.
We are aware that list members have passionately held positions and strong feelings about the issues to be discussed and would urge that all who contribute to such discussion to refer to issues rather than persons and ensure that their posts are consistent with the values and assumptions of community psychology as they see them.
4. Unacceptable behaviour on the list
Whilst, we are keen to avoid all unnecessary restriction on list activities, we do accept that as list moderators, with a variety of list resources available to us, we have responsibility to do what we can to maximise the safety of the list for members. We believe members of this list are not prepared to tolerate oppressive behaviour whether in relation to class, disabling practices, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or on other grounds. We also believe list members are not prepared to tolerate bullying or harassment on this list. We also believe that list members expect us, as list moderators, to attempt to tackle these issues if, as and when they arise. We see a number of ways to do this. One is to consult JISCmail since these issues are no doubt common to a number of lists. Another is to adapt bullying and harassment policies from other domains to the list environment. Another is to develop a distinctively community psychological approach to dealing with such issues. We are willing to pursue these and consult list members. In the meantime if list members feel victimised, bullied or harassed by behaviour on the list we will be happy to act as contacts to offer support to try to resolve any problems.
Yours,
Rebekah and David (List moderators)