Collegiality

Posted by jaslar
Jun 17, 2019 at 04:11 AM

For many years, I worked in the area of “intellectual freedom,” mainly in public libraries. In the USA, this refers to the Constitution’s First Amendment right to speak freely. I believe that.

I also embrace my Millennial daughter’s comment that “I’m not opposed to free speech. I just think we need more free speech worth listening to.”

On the internet, we also have the right to say what we feel or think. Yet a lot of what people say is devastatingly dull or dumb or deliberately offensive. How then should we respond?

I can’t speak for others. But I strive to be kind, to be clear, to offer insight and encouragement. I frankly don’t have the skills to program the software I want to use. I sure appreciate it when someone else offers an attempt. That doesn’t mean that I have to give them a pass on things that don’t work. But I begin with an attitude of gratitude. I offer critiques to *encourage* them to improve their work, to our mutual benefit.

Thus far, outlinersoftware.com has been one of the more civil spaces on the web. Let’s keep talking about ideas, and not about personalities we may or may not understand.

This is a community. Communities are based on mutually nurturing relationships.