[p2p-research] Issue of bullying within private p2p-f communication

[Kevin Carson]

On 8/15/10, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, I've been off a bit.  It is probably appropriate for someone else to
> pick up my list support duties as my personally life keeps me too busy to do
> much.
>
> I have liked Alex and I don't see this as parallel to Nathan or the other
> fellow whose name I forget.
>
> Alex is not loony.  He is angry.  What is coming through here is a
> frustration, to my mind, with the idea of Michel's guidance of the
> foundation as its founder and, effectively, it's proxy owner or surrogate.
> I don't think that frustration is merited.  I think a point was being
> made...but that lives were at stake in the discussion.  Namely, Michel has a
> personal stake in his role in what the Foundation is and what it becomes,
> and anyone who doesn't understand that has never started anything.
>
> That said, organizations have the right to govern themselves how they see
> fit within the law.  In fact, I think that's what Alex has been saying as
> I've read it.  But organizations don't follow ideals and are imperfect.
> That much I know.
>
> I have long admired Michel as I do still, and he is a man of ideals while
> yet, as anyone, imperfect.
>
> Sadly, language has been used here on both sides that burned bridges.  In
> business, I've long learned to avoid such language.  No good comes of it.
> Ever.  It merely raises stakes until someone must crack and walk.  If that's
> the intent, it is a form of "chicken" as in racing two cars toward each
> other until someone flinches.
>
> I recommend, you both try to write something conciliatory...and if that is
> impossible to find a path of mutually beneficial advancement, I recommend
> Alex move on.  He is a smart guy and has a thousand futures.  I also
> recommend that the governance processes of the Foundation become more
> formal...whatever the ideal in play.  Organizations always have crises, and
> this one will be no different.  Mechanisms to face them will always be
> necessary.

Since James has established a clear set of rules for editing other
people's pages on the Wiki, and Alex has a sent conciliatory message
to Michel, I consider the issue to be defused.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html