[Air-l] groups

[Dr. Steve Eskow]

Rosanna,

Your message below helps solve the puzzle. Apparently a veteran member of
this group decided I needed taking down a peg or two.

Does Tuckman explain that aspect of veteran/newbie behavior? Or any other
model?

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Rosanna Tarsiero [mailto:rosanna at gionnethics.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 2:39 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org; drseskow at cox.net
Subject: RE: [Air-l] groups

Steve,

So that you know...

You asked:
"I feel that you are grading me, paragraph by paragraph."

It happens *very* frequently in listserv involved in research of *any*
kind.... in virtual communities of practice of researchers, the
"peer-to-peer" spirit is a weird one. It's an egalitarian one among experts,
it's a top-down one between an expert and a newbie (instantly defined
"troll" if s/he doesn't conform to the top-down part of the norm).

Oddly, this is a tribal aspect of communities of researchers. Participants
post in a given way, with a given lingo (not discussing, but putting
references interspersed in what they write as if they were writing an
article), and honor and recognition are highly valued.

It's particularly interesting to see online exchanges because they make the
tribe apparent.

Rosanna