and signifying whatever folks want, perhaps something close to the truth.
Lois Willand contacted me about the Minneapolis Prospect Park Neighbors Forum
of e-democracy.org and gave her permission to share our discussion (below,
quoted e-mail in order from bottom up; you would not be reading it on this
forum without her permission as we have a rule against sharing such private
communication without it).
The exchange was triggered by the recent expression of various views on the
āe-list,ā a google group distribution maintained with membership of a few ālist
keepersā who send out digests of topics of interest to or contributed by folks
about the neighborhood, about the release of a sex offender to the
neighborhood. This event is something usually limited to neighborhoods where
rape convictions are more common than in Prospect Park, although I suspect as
many rapes happen here as anywhere, maybe more. I couldnāt read the notice as
it was a photo of a flyer distributed in a three block radius of and
apparently they donāt offer these notices online until six months pass
I once belonged to the PPERRIA (now PPA) communications committee of which Lois
was chair, and thought that this forum might be better for all concerned to
discuss neighborhood issues and see the stuff that makes it into the google
group distribution mailings from Lois and her fellow list keepers. The main
issue at that time was privacy and the strange Prospect Park google group
settings provided a bit more of it with complete control, distribution and
contributions of content through a few members or "list keepersā to those
approved by the same.
I didnāt care as much about privacy and thought these forums were far less
trouble with far more useful discussion. Another issue was the potential for
the kind of repartee occurring on city issue forums perceived by some as
disturbing (some occasionally is disturbing when contributed by those who
ignore the rules); the neighborhood forums are not perceived this way nearly as
often, but perhaps a hot button issue like sex offenders reentering the
neighborhood might be different (donāt think so).
E-democracy.org forums are available for anyone to read online, just as many
yahoo and google group discussions are, and posts to these forums are archived
forever; e-democracy.org forums also have the participation rules mentioned
above, the top one being that you may not post anonymously and a few others to
keep things on an even keel, that one agrees to follow when joining a forum.
Anyway, this and rapists (another thread, Iād give you a link, but this and it
are āin moderation,ā I guess because I have never posted to this forum before
or am somehow untrustworthy) are not something those running the ppe-list like
to deal with, I think, so what good are they? I think we should give them a
permanent break and use this forum instead of the e-list, but Iām just one
resident.
Care to offer your 2Ā¢?
> On Sep 11, 2017, at 1:58 PM, Lois Willand <<email obscured>> wrote:
>
> Bill, we did not expect the e-democracy forum to fail!! We took your
recommendation that it would be a useful way for people to comment on things
that would not be published because of their opinionated comments at the
ppelist!!
>
> Part of that reasoning was that the ppelist had been set up as a neighborhood
bulletin board kind of list that would be informative, friendly,
non-opinionated, and non-inflammatory or threatening to its readers.
> We've had a number of people over the years say they appreciate that format,
and that's what we plan to continue doing.
>
> My purpose in writing to your earlier today was simply to ask if you had any
hints for easy access and use of the e-democracy forum for Prospect Park. I'm
glad the e-democracy has been established, and am disappointed that the
referrals we've made from the ppelist to the pp e-democracy forum don't seem to
have had much impact.
>
> I think it could be useful if you'd care to start a discussion on the e-dem
forum, as you suggest below, and to quote my messages.
>
> Lois
>
>
> On Sep 11, 2017, at 1:27 PM, Bill Kahn wrote:
>
> Lois,
>
> I donāt have many hints.
>
> I advocated such an e-democracy.org <http://e-democracy.org/> forum to
replace the e-list, not co-exist with it, a situation that will likely always
be problematic and relatively useless, especially with topics like this
offender moving back to the neighborhood with all its ramifications. To project
some sort of advocacy on you tit for tat, I guessed that you approved of
forming the e-democracy.org <http://e-democracy.org/> forum (if you did) just
to see it fail; however if it lasts, I suspect it can replace the e-list after
you have no more input.
>
> I would be pleased to discuss these matters with you on the forum with the
approval and perhaps the participation of the forum manager, whom I have
copied. Frankly, I would think the e-democracy.org <http://e-democracy.org/>
forum would be an even less desirable solution for you than Next Door as anyone
in the entire world can follow posts on e-democracy.org
<http://e-democracy.org/> forums, if they bother to find them online. It would
be a much better use of āstickyā threads, as in the current announcements
thread (much better to treat them as individual posts, not sticky); sticky
threads appear at the top of posts on the forum webpages, usually for
procedural matters or introductions and such matters as new and continuing
members might find handy and useful.
>
> Anything I could provide folks is already on the forum website,
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-prospectpark
<http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-prospectpark> , and such advice
really is one of the functions of a forum manager for those who donāt or wonāt
request it from her as she is essentially the good shepherd of the neighborhood
forum member herd; those who demonstrate ignorance of the rules will hear from
her via e-mail with warnings, official or unofficial, and advice.
>
> Can I forward all of this to the forum in an appropriately titled discussion
topic thread?
>
> It anyone wished to direct folks to a topic on a given forum, providing a
link to an existing topic thread is probably the most effective way, e.g., here
is the most current thread from Jan Morlock about the start of the current term
at the U:
>
>
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-prospectpark/messages/topic/7bqWvmBHRCvAxXyRfNHjsN/
<http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-prospectpark/messages/topic/7bqWvmBHRCvAxXyRfNHjsN/>
>
> Start a thread on the announcement of the arrival of the sex offender to the
neighborhood and link it in a post to the ppe-list and youāre done with it; I
think weād see far less discussion of this matter on the e-democracy.org
<http://e-democracy.org/> forum, or at the least, more considered posts, as
these are forever available to the world from the archives.
>
> Bill
>
>> On Sep 11, 2017, at 11:43 AM, Lois Willand <<email obscured>
<mailto:<email obscured>>> wrote:
>>
>> Bill, am writing to ask if you have any hints for people accessing/using the
e-democracy site.
>>
>> We at the ppelist pushed the PPERRIA/PPA Committee to establish the list,
they did after a fair amount of trouble getting it up and running, and now it
is getting very light use.
>>
>> With the current discussion on the sex offender and group home and safety,
etc. discussions, I want to refer ppelist members to the e-democracy list if
they wish to continue. Personally, I've not found it convenient to use the
site, mainly because I have to remember that it's there and then go to it.
Plus, when I've gone to it, have found it to be just routine announcements.
One of the list members today wrote with a similar message and suggested that
people who want to continue the discussion use the Next Door site. I don't
think that's the best solution either, because the NextDoor Prospect Park site
has subscribers from neighborhoods way beyond Prospect Park--it has people from
Merriam Park, Seward, Como, Longfellow, Cooper,etc.
>>
>> Since you're the person who was the first real advocate for PP discussions
taking place on an e-democracy site, do you care to offer any suggestions on
how to get our Prospect Park people to use the site?
>>
>> Thanks for your thoughts,
>> Lois