I agree with Ed.

Thanks to whoever removed the 'poledance' plugin (REALLY? that existed? 
if it makes you feel any better, I don't think anyone who hangs out in 
#code4lib even knew it existed, and it never got used).

It's certainly possible that there are or will be other individual 
features that are, well, just plain rude and offensive, and should be 
removed.

But in general, I think it would be a HUGE mistake to think that all 
personality, frivolity, or 'subcultural' elements should be removed from 
all things #code4lib in the name of 'accessiblity'.  Whatever it is 
about code4lib that has made it 'succesful' -- is in large part due to 
the fact that it IS a social community with cultural features. If you 
try to remove all those, you are removing what makes code4lib what it 
is, you are removing whatever you liked about it in the first place.

If you want online or offline venues that are all-business-all-the-time 
with no social subcultural aspects, there are plenty of others already, 
you don't need to make code4lib into one. If you find those "plenty of 
others" not as useful or rewarding as code4lib -- well, I suggest the 
reason for that has a lot to do with the social community aspects of 
code4lib. YES, the social subcultural aspects WILL turn some people off, 
it's true, but by trying to remove them, you wind up with something that 
doesn't rub people the wrong way and doens't rub anyone the right way 
either.

On 1/22/2013 1:25 PM, Edward M. Corrado wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> In every "noisy" forum that I participate in (BTW, none of them are tech or
>> even work related), there are always people who dislike the noise. The
>> concerns are analogous to the ones expressed here -- irritation  factor, it
>> keeps people away, it's all about the "in" crowd, etc. Likewise, the
>> proposed solutions are similar to ones that have been floated here like
>> directing the noisemaking from the main group elsewhere or silencing it.
>>
>> For things to work, everyone needs a reason to be there. People with less
>> experience need access to those who have been around the block. But a diet
>> of repetitive shop talk isn't very interesting for people who have a decent
>> handle on what they're doing. They need something else to keep them there,
>> and in the final analysis, many come for entertainment -- this normally
>> manifests itself in the form of high noise levels. But even if people spend
>> the vast bulk of the time playing around, nuggets of wisdom are shared. And
>> if something's truly serious, it gets attention.
>>
>> It's far better to help people learn to tune out what they don't like, and
>> this is much easier to do in c4l than in communities where interaction is
>> primarily physical. All communities have their own character and
>> communication norms. It's important for people to be mindful of the
>> environment they're helping create, but reducing communication to help
>> avoid exposing people to annoyances screws things up.
>>
>> In all honesty, I think the silliness on the sidelines is far more
>> important than the formal stuff. I know I learn a lot more while goofing
>> off than in formal channels for pretty much everything I do.
>>
>> kyle
>
> +1
>
> I'm all for removing specific offended responses and commands as some
> others have suggested, but I agree trying to remove some of the
> lighter stuff will in the long term, be more likely to be detrimental
> then a positive.
>
>