[Foundation-l] Criticism of employees (was VPAT)

[Dan Rosenthal]

On Feb 17, 2011, at 1:29 AM, MZMcBride wrote:

> Dan Rosenthal wrote:
>> I'm not referring to a single incident. I'm referring to a broader trend;
>> there have been recent incidents on other mailing lists as well, including
>> ones where staff subscriptions are more prevalent than foundation-l (although
>> I'm going to disagree with you and suggest more than just a handful of WMF
>> employees and contractors are subscribed to this list. It's still the "main"
>> public list we have.)
>> 
>> You have a perfectly valid point about transparency, but that's not the issue
>> here. The issue is the unwarranted criticism that is starting to become
>> commonplace. That IS foundation-l (or more specifically, certain posters)
>> fault.
> 
> I'm going to assume this was just phrased poorly because you seem to be
> saying that "criticism is happening in a lot of places, so clearly there's
> just too much criticism." That seems rather backward and wrong. If there's
> more and more criticism in various forums, I'd venture to guess that there
> are actual underlying problems, not just people who are being too critical.
> It's possible that it's a mix of both, but the fact that you're seeing more
> and more people (some of whom I imagine you respect and trust) make
> complaints or criticisms indicates to me that there is likely a fundamental
> issue with the actors' actions.
> 
> If criticism is unduly harsh in your opinion, you should say so to the
> people doing the criticizing as it happens (privately or publicly). Nobody's
> perfect; sometimes people are too harsh. And sometimes text is just mis-read
> or mis-phrased. That's the nature of text-based communication, or any
> communication, really.
> 
> MZMcBride
> 
> 
> 
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Yeah, I realize (after the painkillers have worn off) that I actually meant to say "hostility and suspicion" more than I meant to say criticism. Criticism should always be welcome. I'm talking about the unfounded stuff.

I agree with your conclusions about what the increasing amounts would indicate, but in my experience it tends to be based around completely different people each time, implying to me that the anger is more generalized and lashing out at whoever is the target of the moment.

I guess this is my blanket statement towards all the people lately whose criticisms I think have been a bit too harsh. I wonder if anyone else has come to similar conclusions or if I'm just wrong.

-Dan