Understanding Media

[Bravus]

Something I've been noticing in this forum is that different people have different understandings of how a web-based discussion forum like this is supposed to operate, and that sometimes those different expectations lead to friction. So this is just a short note to explore the ways in which particular on-line communication media work, in the hope of increasing the clarity and decreasing the friction.

First thing to keep in mind: there are two separate ways of viewing Club Adventist. One is 'flat' - that is, posts just come one after the other in chronological order. The other is 'threaded', so that posts have a structure in terms of which particular post they responded to. It's a preference issue whether people view the forums flat or threaded, and what this means in practical terms is that which post someone is responding to will appear different depending on which way someone is viewing the forum. That in turn means that people sometimes are confused about the way their post is received, because they saw its context differently.

Second point: different media do different things well. Chat rooms are good for conversations, for immediately checking what someone meant, and (with some practice) even for multithreaded simultaneous conversations. They're not particularly good for making an argument painstakingly over time, for example.

E-mail is more like a letter - a chance to write something a little more carefully, then send it to one person, or like a newsletter - copy it to lots of people.

An online forum is more like an open discussion group: responses are given to the whole group, not to a particular individual. This is one of the issues we've had some challenges with here: people getting offended by someone who they perceive to be replying to them. Unless it specifically has your name in it and is addressed to you (or quotes you, or addresses specific points you raised), the fact that a message comes immediately after yours in either the flat or threaded version of the forum does not mean it's a direct response to you. You should ideally construe all responses as being for the group.

And one last point - 'a great host of witnesses'. There are those of us here who are always here and always posting, so it's easy to forget the dozens or hundreds of 'lurkers' and less regular posters who read what we write. Sometimes what is written in a thread is written for them, rather than for those actually posting in the thread.

Hopefully when we have a better understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and purposes of various communications media, we'll be able to use this medium to its fullest potential.