Managing a community with a cause... http://alexbrownracing.com
I have spent considerable time trying to manage an online community with a singular purpose, to end horse slaughter. A noble cause for sure. We need to not only end domestic slaughter, but also shipping to slaughter of our horses to Mexico and Canada. Anyway, despite having a community with a noble cause, the community cannot always get along as it gets embroiled in "sub issues" such as:
a. rescuing horses from feedlots / kill buyers versus directly at auction: issue, buying from kill buyers and feedlots is buying from the "slaughter system" and thus in part helping finance the system ... course it is also the last point a horse might be saved from slaughter ...
b. rescuing horses from slaughter at all (versus abuse rescue): slaughter demand is driven by the demand for horse meat, for each horse rescued another takes its place, we have an abundance of horses that can be sold to the slaughter system.
c. horse racing is evil: issue, it is a horse racing site dedicated to ending horse slaughter.
Anyway, often times a heated discussion breaks out over one of these issues that ends up in me needing to ban ppl ... which ultimately weakens our community in our fight to help end horse slaughter.
I guess I just wish we could all learn about our differences, understand them, respect them, and focus on our ultimate goal ... the HORSE.
(Note, this post was going to be about abusive e-mail I receive from time-to-time from anti horse slaughter people ... but ...)
posted by Alex @ 4:00 PM
5 Comments:
It's well-known that people say things in an "online community" that they wouldn't ordinarily say or do in the face-to-face world. They loosen up, feel more uninhibited, express themselves more openly. It is called the "disinhibition effect". It's a double-edged sword. Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves or they show unusual acts of kindness and generosity, this is called "benign inhibition". On the other hand, the disinhibiton effect may not be so "benign". Out spills rude language and harsh criticism, anger, hatred, even threats. This can be referred to as "toxic inhibition", and it simply becomes a blind catharsis, an acting out of unsavory needs and wishes without any personal growth at all in the "community". It is much more difficult to try and understand a person's "tone" or "senses", if you will, via a post or comment, the only thing you can do is ask questions for clarification on what exactly they are feeling, that, and have a large amount of patience as the host. In closing, your "online community" probably knows what the "face" of slaughter looks like first-hand, however, they may never know for sure what the "face" of the ones doing the rescuing looks like....that's the downfall, in my opinion, of this type of "online community", no "face-to-face" contact.....Hopefully they can stay focused on the main goal, which is, as you said, the safeness and well-being of the horses. Good luck! (Glad you didn't comment on the nasty e-mails you received, this topic is much more interesting......)
yes, I find this topic more interesting too :) thanks for contributing. while I agree with your thoughts, it was pretty apparent to me that not everyone can get along even with the same higher goal. my post was also quite simplistic, i know there were other drivers behind the arugments that spilled over into direct personal attacks (previous reputations from other horse fora for example).
ego issues also is a contributing factor, and worthy of a post on its own.
"Anyway, often times a heated discussion breaks out over one of these issues that ends up in me needing to ban ppl ... which ultimately weakens our community in our fight to help end horse slaughter."
I was one of those banned. I was irked about it. Now I'm not. No biggie. There's a bigger picture.
It's gonna take years and years to clean up the horse slaughter mess. Though I'm more anti-cruelty than anti-slaughter, if abolishing slaughter is what it takes to end the cruelty, then that's the path to be taken. You cannot turn your back to the graphic nature of the topic.
Best to you, Alex.
Rob
Rob, thanks for your recent support.
Most online communities need a crash course in "netiquette"
:)
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