Journal Entries
Ivan isn't quite here yet, but he's on the way back at least.
Posted Sep 30, 2011
Hello everyone,
I thought I should drop in and admit to being alive, if nothing else.
There's now very little chance of me actually writing a journal entry about the Tasmania trip, which is a pity, but so much time has elapsed that it would lack any immediacy at all and would be rather dull to read - let alone to write. 
Maybe next time.
Anyway. In the last week I've been to Melbourne and back, spent an entire day in a meeting with various people who want to lynch each other, pondered possible reasons for a subordinate to be such an inert mass (no conclusions yet) and almost inevitably had another day of illness yesterday. Or to paraphrase - I've been busy, and now I'm tired. But I am lurking as and when there's an opportunity.
If I don't put in much of an appearance over the next few days, I'll definitely be on the new site as soon as it's available and I'm within reach of a computer. 
I'm getting quietly excited about the change to a sane moderation system. I wish the new Mods (and all the other volunteers) all the best with setting things up. 
Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [15]
Latest reply: Sep 30, 2011
Where's Ivan?
Posted Sep 3, 2011
For anyone who's noticed that I'm not around much at the moment, and is vaguely interested about the reasons - well, I'm still not exactly healthy and energetic. I do try to keep up with hootoo but it's only rarely that I have the energy to engage. So I'm resting and hoping to get my life back sometime soon.
As part of this recovery plan I've taken another two weeks off work. on Wednesday this week I'm going to Tasmania to stay with friends, where I'll be cosseted and generally looked after in a way that's just not possible if I stay in Canberra in my one-person household.
I'll be back about a week later and I hope I bring some energy with me. Chronic fatigue is the most exasperating thing I've ever dealt with.
In the meantime, if anyone's still waiting for me to answer an email - sorry...Ivam.
Discuss this Journal entry [58]
Latest reply: Sep 3, 2011
The Human:Troll ratio, and other reasons why I might not stay with hootoo.
Posted Aug 2, 2011
OK, this is a serious Journal entry by my standards. It will be a long slab of text with hardly any pictures. As only a few people read what I write at the best of times I might not reach a large audience, but at least I'll have said my piece.
There are a number of issues here.
1. Trolls
Hootoo has never been troll-free, but there is currently a disproportionate number of active trolls onsite. There are categories of trolls:
Blatant trolls - the sort who are just rude and nasty for the sake of being rude and nasty. These are easily yikesed. Nasty little bigots - these are also easily yikesed when they're being overt, but the rest of the time they're on standby waiting for their chance to be offensive. The really clever ones manage to do this while staying within the House Rules. With any luck we'll lose some of these during the site move (and no, I don't mean Taff - he's a naughty little boy, but he does generally mean well). Wind-up merchants - there's a current case which a lot of you will have noticed. This is idiotic behaviour from a usually-respectable source, and with any luck it will blow over soon. Insidious trolls - This is the worst case; most postings are within the House Rules and there's nothing that's strictly yikesable, but the effect of these people is to reduce the ability of others to participate onsite. In one case, this has gone on for years. I am sick to death of having to stay out of threads because this individual is there, sprouting various lines of drivel. The current line is the poor-little-me line, in which the troll complains of being bullied and is apparently *believed* by otherwise intelligent and alert people who haven't seen the whole sorry saga unfold.
Shrewd readers will have worked out that it's this category of troll, the insidious troll, that bothers me the most. For years now - years, literally - I have had my ability to use hootoo curtailed by such a person. There are no grounds for yikesing individual postings, and I'll only get attacked (and thus have something to yikes) if I get too close, and I genuinely do not have the energy for a fight (I can even produce a doctor's report to that effect). There are other cases like this; I am not unique in having such a shadow fall across hootoo, though the identity of the troll varies.
This brings me to...
2. Moderation policy
In the new world, there must - I stress, MUST - be scope for the Mods, in collaboration with the Eds, to consider the whole career of a researcher who has been the subject of repeated complaints, especially if the complaints come from more than one source.
There must be a mechanism for a researcher to contact the Mods to initiate the discussion, even if the initial contact is with a generic 'Mods' email address and the person responding on behalf of the Mods is not an identifiable individual. This is sorely lacking at the moment.
All moderation must be undertaken in context. In the new world this will be possible, and indeed will be the default, but I will keep saying it to remind people of the fact that context is absolutely crucial.
The Mods must be anonymous. This is the only effective way to ensure that responses to moderation are not coloured by responses to the individual(s) responsible for the modding. The Mods must appear to be omnipresent and omniscient - though not necesarily monolithic. Having a channel to ask Mods general questions would be great for internal Public Relations.
I know there are some who say that the Mods should have their identities known onsite, even if moderation actions aren't attributable. I couldn't agree less.
3. Why I can't participate effectively in 'public' threads on issues to do with the new site
There are a couple of reasons.
I did volunteer to help on noohootoo, but had to withdraw because of a conflict with my employment. Essentially, as 'an officer of the Commonwealth of Australia holding an office of profit (
) under the Crown', I can't also be an officer of another entity that is governed by the rules of a foreign state. This withdrawal from volunteering has of necessity deprived me of the chance to enter the major discussions about noohootoo on Noesis.
Now, not everyone has that level of access to discussions, but a lot of other people don't have to contend with being 10 hours ahead of most of the participants. Also, I only have a couple of hours on a typical day in which I can be online and involved, and that's only the case if I have no other commitments. (As it happens I've been sick for two and a half months now; this has give me more time online. Silver lining, of a sort, though a bit tarnished.) The upshot of all this is that anything I say in response to a discussion on hootoo tends to get overlooked because it's a response to yesterday's news.
I know that kea, one of the best and clearest thinkers on hootoo, has to contend with a 12-hour time difference. I admire her skill in keeping up with things. Sadly, my life doesn't allow either for that level of involvement or the ability to plug into hootoo whenever the moment seems right. (Note to everyone: make sure you listen to kea.)
I did speak up on an issue or two on Noesis, but I'm not convinced anyone was listening. If I'd been online with everyone else I might have been better heard. As it is, I think I might have been talking to thin air for the most part.
If noohootoo wants to be a global site, everyone needs to remember the time difference thing. Not everyone is in GMT, GMT + 1 or in the US/Canada. There's more to the world than that. If decisions are to be made, everyone must have the opportunity to have a say.
Also, nobody should be derided as a mere colonial. This has happened to me in Peer Review, and it goes part of the way to explaining why I haven't put anything in there for years and why I don't even comment any more. (I get paid to write, by the way. Well-balanced, carefully crafted prose, unlike Journal posts where I just slap words onto a page.) The new site has to get away from this sort of crud, with UK residents/nationals assuming that they somehow have more right to participate than a 'colonial' or another sort of foreigner. (My experiences in PR left me feeling proud not to have any UK ancestry whatsoever.) Yes, it will be run under UK law - it has to be run under someone's law - but that's only an administrative issue. Under the Beeb's rule, hootoo has come dangerously close to being 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Home Counties'. Noohootoo has to steer away from this perversion and restore internationality to the place.
My professional role at the moment is essentially that of a go-between, trying to broker agreement on arcane issues between employer groups, unions, two non-sovereign governments and seven sovereign governments, all while avoiding being mentioned in the media. I'm inclined to believe that some of the skills required for this job could be of use to noohootoo - but it has to be unofficial as I can't sign up to be bound by foreign laws or by a foreign entity. If anyone thinks I have something useful to put forward, there's an email address on my PS, or I can be PM'd on Noesis.
4. Why do I bother speaking at all?
Because I care to some extent.
But is there any reason for me to stay? Will noohootoo cage the trolls, keep a close eye on the insidious malicious ones, restore credibility to PR, and look beyond the UK's shores when considering its members and their needs?
Will noohootoo listen to all of us, not just those who were able to sign up for active voluntary service?
Should I stay? Is there any point to staying? Will noohootoo be sufficient reason to stay? The jury's out.
Discuss this Journal entry [211]
Latest reply: Aug 2, 2011
Sluggishness put in perspective.
Posted Jul 16, 2011
Further to my last journal:
I'm still hauling myself back towards normality with regard to chronic fatigue. In the coming week I'm moving up to 7-hour workdays, and presumably to full normality in the week after that. Current thinking is that, although CFS has only just been diagnosed, I've actually had it for about 30 years already. This would explain a few things. Hurrah for medical science, which I believe to be still in its infancy even though it gave away the ideas of leeches and bloodletting some time ago.
Whatever the situation, I'm bloody tired. I can get through most daily activities without drama but every so often someone sneaks up and removes my battery and I slump into torpor. Not that this matters too much if it happens during a meeting because nobody notices. In general, though, I'm not far off what passes for normal in my experience. After all, it now seems that my entire adult life has been spent in this condition and I still manage to get things done and have fun along the way.
It's very easy for me to get some perspective on all this. One of my colleagues is on leave at the moment as a new form of treatment for her multiple sclerosis hasn't been beneficial. Who am I to complain about something as trivial as fatigue?
Also, I had some disturbing news earlier today. Another (younger) colleague wasn't feeling too well on Thursday and was admitted to hospital on Friday (yesterday) with an unspecified infection. This morning I was told that he's taken a turn for the worse and he's been airlifted to Sydney for treatment because Canberra doesn't have the necessary facilities or specialists. His parents are rushing home from India to see him. They've already lost the elder of their two sons. I can't begin to imagine what's going through their minds right now.
So I'm lucky. I honestly believe myself lucky.
I think I'll have a drink, purely because I can.Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [44]
Latest reply: Jul 16, 2011
In which Ivan feels a bit sluggish.
Posted Jun 22, 2011
Hi everyone...
I'm more or less back again after an extended period of an absurd w*rkload followed by illness of an unspecified insidious kind. After weeks and weeks of low-grade awfulness, I finally have a diagnosis!
I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Yay. I'm under doctor's orders to rest, and exercise, and apparently I'm also supposed to overlook counterintuitive contradictory instructions. Most important, though, is that I'm under instructions to work at least four hours a day but no more than six hours a day for the next couple of weeks. I'll see the doctor again after that... The good news is that I'm not barred from drinking.
I just had a challenging discussion with my mother in which I tried to get the point across that I'm not dying, that being tired all the time isn't so different from how I am at the best of times, that I'm only surprised it's taken 40 years to diagnose me, and that she is under no circumstances to come over to 'help' me while I recover because that just wouldn't help at all. Then I explained it all again to my sister and got her to agree to help me keep Mum in her own home until I'm well enough to cope with her being here. Then I fended off another attempt from Mum to come over here. It's a good thing the airports at both ends are currently closed because of volcanic ash.
Anyway. I note that hootoo has officially been Saved. I am happy about this, and I will be watching developments with interest, but for reasons outlined above I still can't guarantee that I'll be very active onsite just yet. But I am around, and I do care what happens, even if I am mostly curled up under a quilt in front of the heater because I'm tired and it's bloody cold outside. Happy Winter Solstice, everyone!Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [30]
Latest reply: Jun 22, 2011
Ivan the Terribly Average
Researcher U539106
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