Log Week Three
This morning I proposed the blogging project to the board of the League of Women Voters. Dr. Baumann was correct- they are very informed and passionate women who care very much about public service and the community. I explained to them some about blogging and my goals with the project. Also, my commitment and dedication to working with the league beyond the project as well. I showed them the syllabus and explained how our class is setup- two teachers and students who read each others blogs for assistance.
The board was excited about blogging - especially for the candidates forums. They also liked the option of updating readers of current information by being able to subscribe to the blog. They like that it could be free, and wanted to know if it could be set up to the existing web page. I thought it probably could- but explained to them that I was currently learning the technology and needed to get back to them about more info.
The concerns were mostly with the comment section - What if someone were to reply angrily or use profanity? Would it look bad for the organization? Can the league sensor certain comments that are hurtful or inappropriate? I promised to talk to Dr. Baumann and Dr. Chen about the concerns - whether the comments could be erased or deleted. They also were going to look in to whether they wanted the option to have comments or not. To be honest I am concerned about the comment section also - would the work we put into the blog be ruined by a reader who uses the comment section only to harm the organization? Dr. Baumann maybe we need to talk more about this subject. And also how to ease the fears of the organization we plan to work with who have the same concerns.
The board concluded their meeting by asking me if I had any questions. I asked for the mission statement and also asked to have a contact person - who will be Amy - she will help me stay informed, proofread, and evaluate when finished. I also asked if I could have an objective for the project, so we could all be on the same page. I will find out next week if the board has approved.
My work on the project this week has been 30 - 40 minutes. Plus I should get bonus time for attending the 7:30am meeting, so add another 60 minutes.
posted by Amy Baker @ 1:12 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
This is a thoughtful post that raises a number of issues most of us will have to address. Especially the questions about the handling of comments. Professor Chen will be able to address some of the technical issues there, and the substantive issues will be a good topic for class discussion. One potential option between open comments and no comments is to moderate comments (you approve them before they are posted).
Not allowing anonymous comments also provides a lot of protection. I have several test discussion forums set up that allow anonymous comments and they are filled up with spam by robots.
It will take me a week to delete them all, or simply delete the entire discussion threads.
If People have to sign in, they may be more thoughtful.
Moderating is also useful, just to keep the harassment down and keep the discussion on thread.
My 2 cents,
Duke
I've run into similiar questions with my organization (Clay County Democrats). We're going with moderated comments so as to keep things to a civil tone.
My organization has also decided they want moderated comments. (F-M Humane Society) Personally I think all our organizations worries about comments are a little unfounded. I don't see people searching out "The League of Women Voters" website in order to write inapportpriate comments. Most people drawn to the website I think will be people with similar political interests, or at leaast respect for and "intelligent" political process. But I guess we will see, hopefully I am right for all of us.
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