respect - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Mar 3, 2006

respect

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Thanks, Amy. You are absolutely correct. Thanks for helping us refocus on the core issues.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Amen, Amy.

Let's remember the original name of this board. (Hint: it wasn't fireharold).

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Unless this stops, we will pull the board as an AAUP link and restructure it to require registration.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Gee, I get all involved with work lately & miss the fireworks. But I've long supported a registration-required board with better moderators' tools.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

I think registration is imperative.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Thanks Amy - I have also grown weary of fighting posters who have no connection to the university and seek only to disrupt real issues and concerns with falsities. Let's do registration.

Fire Shelby!

Date: Mar 3, 2006

As someone who doesn't work/live/play in the Hattiesburg area, I am concerned with what is happening at USM and have been for 2 years now. A dear friend of mine brought me to the original FireShelby board, and I've stuck around. I read and try to digest what is happening, and I will say something if I think I have a valid point.

But Amy you are correct, this board has gotten downright ugly, and I suspect its one or two people using multiple names to stir the pot. If this board goes to registration, I do hope you will allow an outsider who cares to be a member.

I'm actually all for registration.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Angeline wrote:

Thanks Amy - I have also grown weary of fighting posters who have no connection to the university .....Let's do registration.

Uhh, I'd support registration, but only if I'm grandfathered. Or granted visitor's privileges. I can submit character references---LVN, Invictus, Truth, W.J. Johnson, Mlle. de Guerre...

AE

"I would never want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."---Woody Allen, channeling Groucho Marx

Date: Mar 3, 2006

So registration will prevent administrators from retaliating against faculty how? Anonimity protects those who are without other protections.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

I'll be happy to speak for AE -- he's a character all right!

(Sorry, you walked into that one.)

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Right wrote:

So registration will prevent administrators from retaliating against faculty how? Anonimity protects those who are without other protections.

Has nothing to do with administrators. Would protect the board from being trolled and swamped. As I understand it only the webmaster would know who a poster really is, and our webmaster is not even at USM, and has guarded the anonymity of many posters for a long time. This board is not run through USM servers.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

LVN wrote:

Right wrote:
So registration will prevent administrators from retaliating against faculty how? Anonimity protects those who are without other protections.

Has nothing to do with administrators. Would protect the board from being trolled and swamped. As I understand it only the webmaster would know who a poster really is, and our webmaster is not even at USM, and has guarded the anonymity of many posters for a long time. This board is not run through USM servers.

Has everything to do with administrators. Keep anonimity and get a "local" webmaster to delete troll posts.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Right wrote:

Has everything to do with administrators.

In what way? Remember, this has always been a private message board. It was the decision of FireShelby to make it open, and it was the decision of Amy Young to keep it open. If the AAUP makes registration a condition of keeping the board on their site, that's their call. You should address your concerns to them.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

It would be very easy for me to make this board "registration only"--would only take one click of a button. Wouldn't change the board at all...the only difference would be that you would have have to register a consistent board name and use it.

Web Master

(PS--If anyone at USM-AAUP wants to get in touch with me, contact Jameela Lares. She'll put you in touch with me).

Date: Mar 3, 2006

I'd like to be an active part of the new board but have a pending lawsuit against USM. Would my identity ever be compromised as a result????

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Since Mlle. de Guerre and I sometimes use the same computer, would we need to register separately, or would one registration for chez de Guerre suffice? Of course, on the rare occasions I am able to go to my own home, that is a different computer.
This is beginning to sound a bit technical for me. Perhaps a brief primer on registration would be helpful to us all.

Appreciatively,

Hermione Angleterre, Social Secretary to Monique de Guerre

Date: Mar 3, 2006

From what I understand, in order to participate in a "log-in only" board, you would have to give an email address, and then a link would be sent to you via that email address for you to click on and post to the board.

I'm not sure if the email addresses would be kept anywhere, but it is possible that they might. So, those with privacy concerns would have to think about this possibilty before registering and posting (of course, you can always set up a separate email account through Yahoo just for this purpose).

FWIW, I'm all for the "log-in only" board concept. But, until I hear from a USM-AAUP official, it will remain its usual free-for-all.

Web Master

Date: Mar 3, 2006

H.A. wrote:

Since Mlle. de Guerre and I sometimes use the same computer, would we need to register separately, or would one registration for chez de Guerre suffice? Of course, on the rare occasions I am able to go to my own home, that is a different computer.
This is beginning to sound a bit technical for me. Perhaps a brief primer on registration would be helpful to us all.

Appreciatively,

Hermione Angleterre, Social Secretary to Monique de Guerre

My understanding is that it is one board name per email address. But, as I mentioned before, you can set up email addresses through Yahoo for free (just for this purpose).

Web Master

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Web Master wrote:

My understanding is that it is one board name per email address. But, as I mentioned before, you can set up email addresses through Yahoo for free (just for this purpose).

Web Master

But it's important to note that trolls can register too and can register under many different names, just like everyone else. At best registration will slow down trolls but won't stop them. Trolls who really want to be a nuisance won't be put off by having to register. They'll keep making one-night lightning strikes, every time under a new name.

Trolls are something we have to live with on this board. Fortunately they have little stamina and vanish quickly most of the time. I like to think that trolls are a sign that things are not going well for SFT and company or that posters are getting too close to a truth that someone doesn't want revealed. Trolling is a way to divert attention from real issues, and the closer we get to understanding the issues, the more trolls we'll see.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

The issue of registration will be on the agenda at the next AAUP meeting.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Advocating Devil wrote:

But it's important to note that trolls can register too and can register under many different names, just like everyone else. At best registration will slow down trolls but won't stop them. Trolls who really want to be a nuisance won't be put off by having to register. They'll keep making one-night lightning strikes, every time under a new name.

True, but at least they would have to go through the extra step of setting up a new email address everytime they wanted to post under a different board name. Should stop most of the trolls (at least the drunken ones).

Web Master

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Amy Young wrote:

We are approaching the second aniversary of the March 5 lockout. I hope that we can continue to communicate with each other, but let us recall also that we need to be civil and honest. Gary and Frank are among the most honorable individuals that I know, and we should undertake to be as honorable as they. I understand that some people have had their names used in vain on this board. If this ugliness and dishonesty continues, I suppose AAUP might be called on to no longer support this form of communication.
The battle for administrative accountability, academic freedom, and shared governance will continue. But let us try to keep our minds on the facts. It is difficult enough as it is, as we continue to fight for what is right in higher education, just as Gary and Frank did while they were here.
Amy Young

Free speech for a free society. Anyone ever heard that before? What is the origin of that quote?

Date: Mar 3, 2006

coastliner wrote:

Free speech for a free society. Anyone ever heard that before? What is the origin of that quote?

Yes-it's a good quote from a good person. A board that requires registration will not hinder free speech.

Keep in mind that what is posted here does reflect on the AAUP, and no disclaimer can change that. As you can see from some postings from the AAUP EC and other long time friends of AAUP, we believe that how this board has been used of late by anonymous posters is not in the spirit of the AAUP. How this board is run is the decision of the AAUP. We will listen and consider all opinions, but as long as we have a board called the AAUP-USM Message Board, this decision must be ours and ours alone. We seek to provide a wide open forum for voices across the spectrum of allegiance and experience and opinion. Recent posters have made this a bit more challenging.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

Free speech for a free society. Sound good on the surface, but when things get hot and heavy, free speechers are ready to back off.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

"Free speech" applies to public life, it does not apply to private situations. This is not a public forum. It is a private forum, the owners of which decided to keep open this long. I would reprise my "Fireshelby's House" message from a year or two ago, if I could remember it. The gist of it is, you and I are guests here, and the host has the privilege of showing us the door whenever.

(My brother belongs to several message boards for his hobby. I was telling him about our situation and his comment was, "I'm surprized you've been able to keep it open this long. Most message boards go to registration very quickly, or they get spammed and trolled to death.")

Date: Mar 3, 2006

LVN--i'm not clear on your private/public distinction about this board as it pertains to free speech. as it currently stands, this board is public--anyone can post. i take the position that we need more free speech not less, but that speech carries certain responsibilities--which is pretty consistent with the courts' position. anonymous boards allow the responsibility part of free speech to be ignored. registration restricts some speech but requires some degree of responsibility. maybe that's a good balance.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

It's not public in the sense that it's not publicly owned. I could open my house to the public, say by having a real estate "open house" but I have the right to shut the door when I get ready to. The board is only "public" because those who maintain it decide tried to keep the door open.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

LVN--on the internet, this board is currently public. i agree with your analogy, but it doesn't apply to this board as it currently stands. in its current form, it is public. it has the ability to become more private, but now it is public. i think that is the heart of the issue--public or private.

Date: Mar 3, 2006

I think it's just a difference in how we're defining the word "public" -- I guess I'm using it in a narrower, legalistic sense than you are. I don't think it's worth hassling over. I agree with the rest of your post about responsibility.