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Paul Odekirk's attempt to remove me as KOOP's email/website coordinator
by Michael Bluejay

As KOOP's volunteer email administrator, I enforce the guidelines common to Internet mailing lists everywhere, such as no junk mail, no off-topic posts, no chain letters, etc. There are a few other reasonable guidelines (again, common to mailing lists everywhere), which simply attempt to keep members from posting in ways that are bothersome to other listmembers or outside audiences. Surprise surprise, Paul has been just about the only person to violate these guidelines. And when I politely asked Paul to refrain from breaking the guidelines, he went straight to the BoT to get them to authorize the creation of a collective to replace me! (Yes, Paul will actually go to that much trouble to ensure that he doesn't have to play by the rules.) So far, though, neither Paul nor the BoT have actually followed through on getting this collective started.

Paul said that my simple, standard guidelines for the use of our internal email list "have not had sufficient input from the programmers and the membership". Given the non-controversial nature of the email guidelines, this is akin to saying that the membership has not had sufficient input on whether KOOP should buy another pair of scissors or where to place the pencil sharpener in the office. Nevertheless, because of Paul's objection, I held a special election so that users of our email list could decide whether they wanted to keep the guidelines I established, and whether they wante to keep me as the email coordinator. The results were nearly unanimous. Notably, Paul failed to vote.

Below is an exchange of emails between Paul and me about this issue.

Example of how polite I was to Paul

Subject: Use of KOOP mailing list
Date: 8/26/97 1:38 AM
To: Bananaboy, tta@mail.utexas.edu
CC: manager@koop.org

Paul, I need to politely ask you to remember the email posting guidelines, which I've sent out in the past. (I've posted them again at the end of this mail.)

In particular, when sending mail to our list and to an external audience, please send your mail separately (i.e., send a mail addressed only to programmers@koop.org and nobody else, and send another, separate mail to your other recipients). Otherwise, when external recipients start doing Reply All's (as just happened), then they go to KO.OP's mailbox.

Along the same lines, the Austin Chronicle just got a gratuitous mail from that Reply All because you included them in your original mass mailing. If KO.OP is responsible for the Chronicle getting gratuitous mail and the Chronicle gets annoyed by this, then that could damage our relationship with them. So, when mailing the Chronicle, you might want to mail them separately, too.

Finally, please try to limit your mails to one per day. You can still communicate the same amount of information, just please put it in one mail rather than spread it across several.

Please take this in the spirit in which it is intended. In no way am I trying to pick on you. I wouldn't have said anything if I got just two mails from you, or if nobody did a Reply All, but after getting four mails from you, plus seeing that both we and the Chronicle were hit by a gratuitous Reply All (with possibly more to come), I felt I should step in and bring this to your attention. Indeed, as moderator of our list, it is my JOB to do so.

Thanks for your ko.operation. :-)

Take care, -MBJ-

 

USE OF PROGRAMMERS@KOOP.ORG
--------------------------------------------------

(1) Please only send mail that is related to KOOP Radio. (No non-KOOP advertising, virus alerts, chain letters, etc.)

(2) Please limit your posts to one per day. If you have more than one thing to say, please combine your comments into a single mail.

(3) If your message is intended for another individual, please send your mail directly to that person and not to the entire programmers list.

(4) There is no need to copy Jenny (manager@koop.org) on your mails to programmers@koop.org, since she's already on the programmers list. The same goes for trustees@koop.org.

(5) Please do not send mail to members@koop.org. First, this list is not set up yet, so there's nobody for it to go to. Second, when it IS set up, it will not be available for general use. We want to protect our members from receiving tons of email, so this address will be password-protected so that only the email coordinator (me) can mail to it. It will be used to send out a monthly or twice-monthly newsletter to our membership. You saw how much email got generated when just a few people on programmers@koop.org did Reply All's. Imagine how much mail would have been generated if 5% of 500 members had received the mail and did Reply All's.

(6) Please be careful about sending a mail to programmers@koop.org and to other people outside of KOOP at the same time. If all those people start doing Reply All's, then we all get inundated with mail.

(7) Please observe normal standards of courtesy and decency. Think long and hard before making any accusations on this list about an individual or group.

Paul's response

[my comments are in green]
Subject:     Re: Use of KOOP mailing list
Date:        8/26/97  5:35 AM
Received:    8/26/97  12:13 PM
From:        Bananaboy, tta@mail.utexas.edu
To:          Michael Bluejay, bluejay@pobox.com
CC:          manager@koop.org
             trustees@koop.org [Board of Trustees]
             donnah@io.com [Board of Trustees]
             qwaves@juno.com
             Teresa_Taylor@Notes-Brahms2.tivoli.com [Board President]
             devries@mail.utexas.edu
             Evera@igc.apc.org [Eduardo Vera]
[Notice to what a wide audience Paul sent this!]

Michael,

The posts I sent to the programmers list were about KO.OP's Board of Trustees voting to support the workers at Pacifica and voting in a new disclaimer.

All the information I posted was very important to the programmers at KO.OP and I would not want to post so much information in one e-mail. That would bog down my computer as well as others I'm sure.

[ (1) I never said that the mail Paul was sending wasn't important. (2) Paul well knew that due to the volume of mail he sent regarding Pacifica, I had asked those who wished to receive Pacifica-related mail to subscribe to the separate Pacifica mailing list to keep the traffic on our main listserv down. (3) Paul could have easily combined the mails he sent out into fewer mails -- if not into one, then certainly into two or three. This would not "bog down" anyone's computer as it takes the same amount of time to upload or download the same amount of information.]

I'm not too sure that these guidelines are useful to programmers at KO.OP since it limits the free flow of information at KO.OP. What good is the programmers list if we can only post a limited amount of information?

[The guidelines absolutely do NOT limit the free flow of information. The guidelines do NOT say that people can post a limited amont of information. The guidelines simply say that when they post they should put all their comments in ONE email rather than several. Paul is intentionally mis-stating what the guidelines say to make himself look like a martyr.]

Maybe that is the reason that the list is not in use. I notice that programmers are now posting to other programmers by posting their e-mail addresses seperately thus avoiding the list all together.

[This is laughable. Paul is referring to HIMSELF here!]

I think maybe it would be a good idea if this was brought up for discussion at the next Station Meeting. I hope the Community Board and the Trustees will bring these items up for discusstion as well.

I'm also concerned with how these guidlelines for the programmers list came about. What input did programmers have in the making of these guidelines? In that respect, what input do programmers and volunteers have in the information included on the website?

[It's ridiculous that Paul and his cohorts don't want programmers and members to have any input into IMPORTANT matters such as restructuring the Programming Committee and firing the General Manager, but he seems to think simple administrative guidelines have earth-shaking importance. Voting on very simple and very LAX email rules is tantamount to voting on where to place the pencil sharpener in the office.]

The Board of Trustees voted last night to give the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) full access to the programmers list to present information to the programmers at KO.OP.

Also I notice that I am still getting posts that are intended for the Trustees. I was under the impresstion that I was taken off the Trustees mailing list.

Paul Odekirk

Trying to get me replaced by a Collective

Shortly after this, I received an email from Paul which stated in part:

"At last nights Community Board meeting the e-mail list issue was brought up and a proposal was passed to ask the Board of Trustees to create a committee open to all programmers, volunteers, and members (that would most likely include Tony and myself) to create new guidelines for the e-mail list and work on updating the webpage... The Community Board as a whole feels that the guidelines as they stand have not had sufficient input from the programmers and the membership. The idea of a committee would be to create guidelines that are democratic and adhere to KO.OP's ideas of free flow of information, open democratic discussion and debate and involvement of as many people as possible."

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