At the risk of extending this discussion, I must say I am perplexed by
the tone of this conversation. When I see charges such as "blog
spamming," I can only wonder whether the crime is a misdemeanor or a
felony. From my vantage point, albeit limited, there is simply a
question of etiquette here. We don't really understand Jacob Smith's
motives for directing us to his blog without explanation. As educators,
we might conclude Jacob Smith is not a good communicator. On the other
hand, he may have been in a hurry, and did not complete the task of
making his query. Perhaps he thought we were so sophisticated, we would
understand his motives.
Personally, I like to trust people until they give me reason to believe
otherwise. It is certainly possible Dr. Smith's agenda was not
honorable. Alternatively, it is as likely that he was looking for advice
from a group that should be able to provide some answers to the
questions posed in his blog. If so, and had I been in his shoes, I would
have simply asked the questions to the ISED list rather than directing
us to the blog. Dr. Smith might have also offered that others had
weighed in and we could go to the blog if we wanted to read those
responses.
As to the question of whether private or public schools are better, I
found the blog responses to be balanced. I would not add anything to the
general theme, which was, "it depends." The question of whether it is
hard to sever ties with a private school and transfer to another, the
answer might be the same. Unfortunately, Dr. Smith's information was
based on a single case, single school, single student, so his question
begs generalization even though it is really quite specific. Certainly,
the family in question had difficulty severing ties with their school,
but we have no knowledge of why. Bottom line: it depends.
As others have said, ISED is a safe, smart, and productive community. In
cyberspace, we will periodically be discovered by visitors. If we are to
maintain our substantial integrity, my suggestion would be to simply
articulate our expectations and community standards to the visitor. If
those visitors then do not understand those expectations, then we can
turn to our busy list managers for assistance.
Joel
_________________________________
Joel Backon
Director of Academic Technology / History Teacher
Choate Rosemary Hall
333 Christian St.
Wallingford, CT 06492
203-697-2514
=20
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and any attachments and
destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a
person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized.
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Johnson, Jason P Mr
WRAMC_Wash DC
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:10 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Jacob Smith posts - Blog Spamming (UNCLASSIFIED)
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED=20
Caveats: NONE
Dr. Smith,
The reaction you have received is due to the fact that, to all outward
appearances, your postings are a form of blog spamming. You have posted
your articles (typically link only) to this list and many other forums:
https://www.pta.org/bb/search.php?search_author=3Ddrjacob48&sid=3Df2ee3c4=
695
911e569105184a8e1df34b
http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/02/19/commuter-marriages-worth-the-stra
in/
The idea behind Blog spamming is that you increase the Google rank of
your pages by having many other authoritative sites with good rankings
refer to yours. You keep advertisements turned off so you can fly under
the ranking algorithms that check for this, and once your traffic grows
large enough, you turn on ads and reap a small windfall.
Given your questions in the WordPress forums it seems you are new to
this, and so I doubt this was your intent. But you also seem to be
ignoring the discussion oriented nature of this list and posting
monographs, which will not endear you to the community either. Finally,
trying to take members to task over their identity when they and their
schools are well known in the community will cause you to be viewed as a
troll or flamer.
Hopefully this is all just a misunderstanding, but if not, I am sure the
list managers will take note and act accordingly. =20
_J
PS: In the interest of full disclosure (since that appears to be a
concern of yours) I am former staff member of an independent school
(which is why I joined the list) and a current board member of an
independent school (which is why I stay on the list). Hence the reason
for my signature information not giving the appearance of actual
involvement in a school.
___________________________________
Jason Johnson - Program Director
Web Services Branch - Walter Reed Army Medical Center Ingenium (ISO
9001:2000 certified)
Office: 202-782-1047
Cell: 202-262-0516
jason.johnson@ingenium.net
jason.p.johnson2@us.army.mil=20
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=3DISED-L
