[pp.int.general] Rättning mittåt, sort of: some thoughts for the mailing list

[Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)]

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Dear colleagues,

I read the notice of a formal complaint about this channel. It was not
set up to be a moderated channel, nor is it one. Therefore, a formal
complaint is kind of an oxymoron as there are no formal rules to base
a complaint on.

After all, rules that cannot reasonably be enforced are not rules you
want to have. You cannot keep somebody from posting to an open list,
and openness is a virtue. The alternative would be moderating posts
and/or participants, and that's not who we are; that's not the swarm
way of collaborating.


Instead, I'd like to remind everybody about two important principles:

- - Attention is reward.
- - If you see something you don't like, contribute with something
  you do like.


ATTENTION IS REWARD: If you give somebody attention for a behavior,
you will reinforce that behavior, whether the behavior is something
you want to see more or less of. This means that giving attention to
things you dislike is inherently self-defeating, as they will be
nurtured by your attention.


IF YOU SEE SOMETHING YOU DON'T LIKE, CONTRIBUTE WITH SOMETHING YOU DO
LIKE: This is closely related to the Law of Two Feet. We're a
meritocracy where we're dependent on many people trying many different
things. Leadership with us is not achieved by vote or appointment, but
by taking an initiative and letting others follow that initiative of
their own free will. Disliking an initiative is fine, but criticizing
the initiative from that emotion misses the point - being pioneers, we
must necessarily try many paths, and many of them will be dead ends,
but we don't know that before trying them. The more paths we try, the
more ways of success we'll find. Therefore, the proper response to
seeing somebody walk down a path you don't believe in is to walk down
your own path that you believe more in.


(As a final plug, these and many more principles are covered more
in-depth in my book Swarmwise, which covers my leadership experiences
taking the PPSE from nothing into the European Parliament. Five
chapters have been published so far, and you can read them here:

http://falkvinge.net/2013/02/14/swarmwise-the-tactical-manual-to-changing-the-world-chapter-one/

)

Cheers,
Rick



PS: On the rare occasion, I have seen disrespect against fellow
activists on this mailing list, and I never think that's ok. Whether
to call it out or not is a judgment call on a case-by-case basis, but
that will not be done by the mailing list maintainers in that role.
See the two names as technical administrators of the mailing list
server, and not enforcers of any kind of social rules.


- -- 
Rick Falkvinge
Founder of the first Pirate Party
Piratpartiet SE

@Falkvinge
+46708303600

Blog, bio and press photos at http://falkvinge.net/photos-bio/

My mails are always digitally signed. If you get a mail that isn't, it
was not sent by me.
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