I have quickly found great friends and community at Dallas makes space and look forward to meeting more. How ever as a new member I find some online comunications amongst members, committees and the board to be very un excellent to other members of are community please remember if you wouldn’t say it in person dont type it in an online forum. Also please remember to T.H.I.N.K and have P.R.I.D.E
This is always the problem with online discussion spaces. They too easily invite people to misread and overreact to nonverbal cues that are not there. I try to modulate my writing tone as much as possible on here for that exact reason.
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Most of the threads are great … people helping people and sharing cool stuff
It is just a few threads that really are full of argument, etc. The question is how do you solve it?
I think part of the issue is that we are all put in the same box. Whoever commented last in the entire forum gets top spot.
I like the Facebook Groups idea but for DMS. Someone can create a group and you subscribe or join to it. Then you get the posts you want from the areas you want instead of just everything. They can be arguing in one group and most will never see it. It doesn’t have to affect all. Just my idea of how to mitigate some of it.
It also allows closer moderation as the person or people that created the group also manage it.
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TALK is not “poisonous” (interesting choice of word), and at present, has, effectively, zero poison, despite the ongoing stream of similar assertions. I would be curious which “communications” are objectionable, because I just don’t see it.
In fact, I would like to see a bit more contentious (though not discourteous) debate here on TALK, because I think there are some sore spots that could be massaged, but the debate needs to happen. Disagreements need to occur. This is not poisonous.
And I wholeheartedly disagree with Draco’s approach. Users may adjust their view of TALK in many ways if they wish to “…get the posts you want from the areas you want instead of just everything”, but I wish they wouldn’t. This is, I hold firmly, part of the problem with adult discourse in the modern world, plagued by “social media” and this kind of “only tell me what I want to hear” interface. Instead, I like to see TALK encourage folks into areas NOT “of interest” because you never know what just might be of interest that you didn’t know about.
All that said, your pithy maxims are not without value.
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I always imagine everyone “talking” while eating a plate of tacos. It really helps in all online discussions.
Seriously.
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It is the threads that get intense and heated … here are a few recent ones
- https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/getting-robert-off-the-hook-for-dms-bills/39651
- https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/open-letter-to-the-board-credit-cards/39402
- https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/rehashing-the-red-chairs-decision/38922
- https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/dms-volunteers-and-the-talk-forum/38374
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Nothing poisonous about intense and heated, and in those cases, specifically, I find effectively roughly zero poison. In fact, what I find is sunlight being cast on rumors and miscommunications, disinfecting them in the best possible way. These are things which are healthy and need to happen in any organization. I have no interest whatsoever in squashing, censuring, censoring, disencouraging, or otherwise dissuading these threads of discourse from this, or any other venue of expression available to DMS. Further, I think it’s healthy and good for members, folks considering being members, etc. to see that we are a thriving and vital community, capable of growth and change, even if it’s sometimes scary or contentious. We take YOUR opinion into account. Even if we disagree with it. Eventually, we work it out. This is how _vital_organizations operate, and is not poisonous.
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I think the reason that many consider them poisonous is because they tend to squash uplifting free-spirited, creativity. They tend to be more negative in tone and pointed. I’m not saying don’t have the conversations. I’m saying there needs to be a way to opt-in to them instead of opt-out. I mean seeing them come up again and again.
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There is:
- You Opt In the first time you open the thread. If you keep opening then I assume nothing is so offensive that you aren’t willing to read it.
- You can Opt Out by
-
- A) not opening that thread again
-
- B) Mute the thread so you don’t even have to look at it even showing up.
It is the ad hominem personal attacks I don’t like - but passionate discussion for me is refreshing in a world of “safe spaces”.
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I’m not a fan of personal attacks either. I’m glad you like passionate discussion but it isn’t for everyone and it puts many people off. They might want to just turn off talk and go somewhere more light and humorous like some of the DMS Facebook groups / pages that people have setup. Talk has gotten the reputation of the place that has a bunch of people that like passionate discussion and go at it. It doesn’t really represent the space in character.
No, if passionate debating had an area that you subscribed to … great … everything can be moved there if it falls under that … then you subscribe to that area if you like it … it keeps all that BS out of my main feed.
Now list the many hundreds of threads which are helpful, informative or inspiring.
For those who keep saying Talk is toxic, you are looking in the wrong places. Stop looking for the ugly fights.
TheLab has a real communication problem. Their powers that be do not like forums, so they do not have one. Their web site is static and does not say much about what do. They use a Meetup group as their event calendar. They used to have a wiki, but it has been taken down. They like Slack as their primary means of communication, if you can call it that. Some of their members claim to be DMSers who left to avoid the politics. I keep telling them that if they are this big and have no quarrels, they are not doing anything worth fighting over.
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I’m looking in the main feed. There is only one main feed. There isn’t a personal feed and there should be,
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We had an opt-in category for contentious debating, but it seems to have vanished. The group is still there though: https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/groups/Debates_and_Stuff/members
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I’m always surprised how some adults are offended by other adults conversation and wish to shut them up! Seems like they got a big’ole red button pushed that needs to be looked at in the mirror and leave the rest of the adults rights alone. I’ll I hear is wah wah wah 
!
Lol 
is this the kind of honest reaction that is toxic and poisonous to you, I wonder?
This is true. However unlike $random_internet_forum there is most often a connection between your persona on Talk and your identity in meatspace at DMS. Historically in other venues, this sort of personal accountability tends to drive increased civility. I am not sure this is the case with DMS Talk; if this phenomenon is occurring I shudder to think what it would be like without it.
I only see problems with a very few posts and with a very limited group of posters
And it is most often the same few folks that seem to dislike
the direction DMS is taking
Change is hard and can be unpleasant if one feels that their methods and culture is changing
Last weekend Talk did exactly what (IMO) it’s supposed to do. We had an issue with VCarve, and we were contacted on Talk by three other Makerspaces across the country claiming the same problem. I quietly celebrated and called that day a success.
We need to remember that we are one of the more visible Makerspaces nationwide and act accordingly. People reach out to us all the time for technical information and advice.
Some days I 
talk.
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If you take the number of contentious threads versus the number of helpful and interesting threads, it’s really small in the balance of things.
I like that generally this is a place to speak freely, take what you will, leave the rest. It’s easy to opt out of or turn off the threads I get tired reading/seeing.
I read Talk most days, and it’s interesting sometimes to open it and see a thread that seems very “hot” with a ton of replies in a short time span. I usually will skim it to be in the loop with whatever is happening, then mute it once it careens out of control or seems to be breaking down with diminishing return or becomes littered with deceased equine. No biggie.
The threads that are useful and productive are far greater in number. And even on topics that I have zero interest (or understanding) 
of, I like seeing those on my feed because they are usually threads with folks asking for help and receiving it, or folks updating something they’ve noticed broken, things getting fixed, etc…which all are signs and reminders to me of our COMMUNITY working together. It’s the reason I love DMS.
I suggest to new folks that while Talk is a useful tool, it IS an internet forum and gets a little contentious occasionally. So simply ignore/mute what bugs you, and use the rest to stay in the loop of what’s going on.
While I like FB groups (and full disclosure, I created three DMS groups, and admin on another), there are folks that strongly dislike anything to do with fb, and I respect that. I think Talk is openly accessible, and I like all the topics in one place, since I’d never go to some of them otherwise. Getting exposure to committees I haven’t spent much time in yet sometimes starts seeds of interest growing that I will follow up with in the future.
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Many years ago before FB I had my own jewelry making forum
After a while I made a category for rants of any kind from those about a poor business
or frinds and family members or even a local issue that bugged them
This allowed those that didnt want to read it avoid it
I don’t find it that difficult to avoid the craziness. Also, I recommend to folks who flinch at the the thought of Talk that they go directly to the committee threads, and only read what shows up there. Fired Arts seriously uses our Talk area to let folks know the progress of their pieces.
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