Class Politics A new Laser Forum, a new opportunity

drLaser

Member
A COPY OF THIS POST APPEARS IN THE "Laser Talk" BOARD, TOO, WHERE A NEW "Terms of Service" FOR THIS FORUM WAS ANNOUNCED.
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On 5/02, Bradley Green wrote in his announcement of the new TLF newsletter:

> A newly revised terms of service can
> be found online at ...
> The new agreement guarantees
> your freedom of speech and
> addresses many other issues raised
> by the Laser Community on the
> forum, email list, and by private
> emails.


Greetings,

On October 23, 2002, I had unsubscribed from this Laser Forum (called "ILCA-NA Forum" back then) in protest. Now, more than half a year later, I am happy to join the The Laser Forum again as a subsciber.

This Laser Forum had a controversial infancy. The structure of the Forum, some of its practices and its relationship with ILCA-NA were publicly debated and criticized frequently, here and primarily in the NA Laser Mailing List.

Time has a way of fixing things, if coupled with open-mindedness and a willingness to listen and learn. Bradley Green, the young owner of this Forum, has surely shown his readiness to set his ego aside when necessary and to address all criticism and ultimately implement some serious improvements! The same maturity could not be observed even in the grownups leading our North American Laser Class today.

Gone from the Laser Forum are various past design problems, efforts to micro-compartmentalize the Laserites into interest groups, policies inconsistent with the generally accepted ILCA definitions, nationalist political rhetoric that has no place in an Olympic sport site, and certain illegal or unethical administrative censoring, language moderation, message deletion or publication practices.

In your new "Terms of Service", I can detect a new-found commitment to transparency, freedom of speech, democracy, perpetuity of the resource created and history tracked by the Forum subscribers' posts, and independence of the Forum - unprecedented in the history of on-line public communications media for Laserites!

I congratulate Bradley and wish him all the success in implementing and sticking to the new "Terms of Service" of The Laser Forum. I'm glad to be back as a subscriber!

Dr. Shevy Gunter
[email protected]

PS. A summary of my some of my past concerns with this Forum as they relate to ILCA-NA had been published on the drLaser website at the URL http://www.drLaser.org/ILCA-NA/NAfails.html with the title "ILCA-NA Leadership Flunks".
 

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