Forum Level of Nice-ness. Cultureshock.

Stephan · Post by **Stephan** » January 30th, 2006, 2:02 am

unbeatable.

vee · Post by **vee** » January 30th, 2006, 7:20 am

Thanks for that story. I've always enjoyed hearing (or reading) from great story tellers. They are always illustrative and entertaining.

Thanks

Stephan · Post by **Stephan** » January 30th, 2006, 1:06 pm

*sigh* i just got an angry mail by Hugh.

So i better quit the discussion, lest i don?t wanna feel unwelcome.

There is no way to put something on the table here, i repeatedly dared, its always a librivox happyness violation. It angries people who don?t wanna listen and who don?t appreciate a good discussion and for whom it is too much work. Anybody who dares to voice issues to them is too rude and distracting. I am again called rude. Do you know how arrogant that is?

All this talk talk talk after all really is in vain. Doing is what counts.

After all we wanna push audiobooks into the world. If it must be on a painfully friendly level in here that you can?t trust as far as you can throw it - so be it.

Lets concentrate on the Audiobooks and not on cultural differences!
Thanks to those who input. Special thanks to Eugene for taking the time!

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 30th, 2006, 3:42 pm

Stephan wrote:*sigh* i just got an angry mail by Hugh.

Hmmm... maybe it wasn't angry, just blunt

*ducks*

Post by **hugh** » January 30th, 2006, 3:46 pm

thistle: it was a bit of both...mainly because I meant to get some of my MANY outstanding chapters finished this weekend, and did nothing of the sort!

eugene: you callin me a mrs. root? that what you doin? that makes me soooo goshdurned...so goshdurned ... so ... oh, let it go...

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 30th, 2006, 3:51 pm

hugh: i was jokin'... i thought maybe the big toothy grin smiley dude would have given it away

Post by **hugh** » January 30th, 2006, 3:55 pm

thistle: I didn't mention the "laugh out loud" here in cold montreal when I read your post! But for the sake of the official record, I wanted to back stephan up: it was both blunt AND angry, that's a fair assessment, not just blunt.

Eugene Pinto · Post by **Eugene Pinto** » January 30th, 2006, 6:32 pm

hugh wrote:eugene: you callin me a mrs. root?

Now I know thet your jest havin' a little fun with a old country boy, Hugh. But let me say thet I was really jest tryin' to hep out thet Stephan feller. Give him 'nuther perspective to take a gander from and to let him know thet even though we often times feel like we is alone, forgettin' thet they may jest be a friend waitin' right round the corner.

In my 'speriance they is always a little truth mixed in with a story in order to make it have more meanin'. Sometimes people they try to make everthin up as a fiction when they doan realize thet the best material is true.

They really was a Mrs. and Mr. Root in my life, many years ago. And most a what I said 'bout 'em is true. They was fine people. When Mrs. Root finally died, well Mr. Root went on and joined up with her only a few months later. He was too lonesome without her and they was nobody left to get mad 'bout his cussin'.

I don't rightly know what has been passin' between you and Stephan or anybody else. I don't rightly care for thet email, tell the truth.

You folks seem to be workin' yer diffrunces out jest fine and I don't have nuthin else to contribute.

So let's jest all shake hands and start tellin' some dang stories!

Yers truly,

Eugene Pinto

Post by **hugh** » January 30th, 2006, 6:58 pm

eugene, point taken and I offer up a hand shake to ya, you bet I was just jesting. this is the great shortfalling about the internet/email/text transmission of information in heated debates: all context is lost...which is sort of the long, long, long backstory to at least some of the issues discussed on this thread, the culmination of which (as far as I go) was the blunt email discussed above.

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » January 30th, 2006, 9:02 pm

Eugene Pinto wrote:So let's jest all shake hands and start tellin' some dang stories!

Amen! Thank god for Eugene.

Stephan · Post by **Stephan** » January 31st, 2006, 12:00 am

But doesnt ANYBODY take anything home from this discusion? *drops shoulders*
Its a shiny all american model and there is always that one european barbarian who comes trampling down the flowerbed and the petunias. Isn't that how its always been? *sigh*

I for myself go back to "easier" english and not try to formulate in sentences which obviously i am not capable to pull off, and which obviously have rude constructions in them. But other europeans i predict will come and you will find them rude too, and more and you will find them rude too, because your level of "what's considered nice" is higher and "what's considered rude" is lower. And MAYBE you will have to adjust FOR ONCE too.

Damn the european bluntness and rudeness.
Damn the american ignorance and arrogance.

Eugene worked out a truce, because we all just want to produce audiobooks, but nothing is changed.

*shake hands*

Right. Lets get back to caring about the books. Thanks Eugene, you?re funny and wise.

Btw, Neal Stephensons mysterious main character appearing through the cryptonomicon and his baroque cycle he called Mr.Root. He must be immortal and hence is pretty wise too.

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » January 31st, 2006, 7:09 am

Stephan,

You seem determined to have the last word but it's really time to let this go. I'd like to point out that there are many other Europeans here already who don't have any problem with communicating effectively. I'd also like to point out that none of them are rushing to support you in this thread, which indicates to me that they don't share your opinions. You refer to Europeans as rude and barbarous, yet none of the other Europeans here are rude.

It's becoming more clear to me that this is less an issue of cultural differences in communication, and more an issue of individual differences in communication. We've heard you out and discussed it to death and the general concensus seems to be that we're sorry you feel how you do but no one agrees. So, please, let it go, for everyone's sake.

Hugh or Kara - can we go ahead and lock this up? To be clear, I think this should be locked not because we want to discourage open discussion of issues, but because there is nothing constructive left to say on this one.

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 31st, 2006, 8:13 am

Oh, I thought of something valuable to add to this discussion while I was posting random encouragement in a going solo project....

Sometimes, there really isn't any improvement or critisism to offer to a reader, but instead of ignoring their progress, we acknowledge their efforts with a few kind words. As an MC who can read, record, upload, and catalog her own projects, I was feeling rather lonely that I had no feedback on my few going solo chapters.... simply acknowledging a person's efforts (regardless of the quality) goes a long way to creating a welcoming environment that offers reassurance that "we are not alone"... some people don't require external ego-strokes for their work... but some of us do and a good way to find out who needs it is by offering it.

Stephan · Post by **Stephan** » January 31st, 2006, 8:28 am

May i answer to the last post, pleease? Which in my humble opinion is indeed very much a valuable contribution. I don?t need to have the last word, no, but this is too interesting.

Raises a moral question don?t it?
How would i feel, if i am the person adressed by "random encouragment", if i find out? If i find out that the encouragment was not really addresed to me personally but rather made to create a certain librivox athmosphere and the encourager is dropping some startegically placed encouragment here and there...coincidentally by a click on my book project?
Wouldn?t i feel that there is someting wrong?
Or would i think: "Hey, good cheerleading here" (no pun intended).
I really don?t know. But i'd tend to answer that i would feel rather awkward, really.

Post by **hugh** » January 31st, 2006, 8:29 am

I think we can leave this open - I know it's been a frustrating discussion for some, but worth leaving around in case anyone does have more to say on the topic.

also there is one issue that comes out of it that I think coulc be explained better: the precieved librivox "hirearchy" and what's "allowed" and what's "not." The short answer to which is:
-hirearchy:
1. readers (at the top)
2. book coordinators
3. meta coordinators
4. admin (at the bottom)

the job of each is to help the ones above better do their job which is: to record books. we have certain mechanisms for choosing books, assigning and recording chapters, collecting and cataloging chapters - and pretty much everything else is up in the air.