order to ensure as positive a user experience possible for our growing
international community.
It is impossible to please everyone all of the time, so there are necessary
compromises.
There are 2 issues that require attention.
1. I recently received another of many, many complaints over the years
regarding some people using “Reply All” rather than “Reply” to respond only
to the individual who posts a case. There are some among us who prefer to
see every single comment and thought that anyone might have, but (based on
an unscientific tally of email complaints) that is NOT a majority opinion.
Quite the opposite. People have unsubscribed because of this particular
practice and have commented that some user’s comments have been “out of
control” and even “condescending in tone”. Many simply unsubscribe or
filter OCAD to Spam because of the volume of emails that are mostly
inflated by this practice by very few among us. This is why there is an
actual policy that specifies we all *hit “Reply” and not “Reply All”*….so
that the volume of daily posts is reduced, and there is some appropriate
filter (at the discretion of the person who summarizes the comments they
receive) before the summary reaches the group.
(see attachment, which we ALL receive when we join the forum)
2. We all just now received a promotion for an Online Course for World
Arthritis Day. Based on the # it is clear that it has been broadly
promoted on social media platforms that I presume most of you participate
in. We are a comparatively small forum, but certainly a high value,
appropriate target audience. (Organizations pay for promotions to high
value, targeted groups such as us)… Had permission been requested, we
certainly would have approved promoting this event to the group, but it is *NOT
OKAY* to promote anything without seeking approval first. It is not
difficult to imagine abuse. And once we all start promoting our own
projects and interests without permission or oversight this forum becomes
diluted for its original purpose. Respectfully, don’t post any promotions
to this listserv without requesting permission from the administrators.
Thank you.
Hilary
Welcome-to-OCAD.docx 