Just a thought .
OKAY, so I think that I have a pretty good sense of people and have a general "read" on communicating within the WA membership.
N O T
Nothing is further from the truth when one criticizes an Ambassador, let alone one who resides very near the top. I tried to be critical in a positive way and added a wee bit of humor to my brief comment. I was pretty reticent to write this message, but got up my courage because "after all, I just read a blog by Kyle that made the point that we all need to be a positive and kind community." I am not quoting him, just writing what I was remembering and thinking before I hit the Enter key on my computer.
About the time that the response came back in answer to my remarks, I was wishing my "stupid" computer had a button that could predict when I should NOT make certain comments to certain people and keep me out of trouble.....LOL or that I could crawl under some rock or my bed and hide. (not that I would fit under my bed, and I would have to have a truckload of rocks to hide under...lol ...a crushing blow to my ego) . Pun intended.
However, after much thought and reading the quick and kind response while wiping the perspiration from my forehead, I ask: is there something to offer this community that might work better than a warning light on our computers when we write inappropriately or mis-understand a written word ?
As "someone" once answered : "A person can't know what he or she doesn't know." With that said, there are many relationships among the members of this WA community. Some of those relationships have developed over years a certain way of communicating which is my way of saying that they do recognize humor, sarcasm, or just plain know how to "read" the messages from each other. Then along come hundreds of others who cannot know how to "read" these chats or responses, or comments between two or among several members who have established that "knowing or reading sense of communication."
TA DAAAAH ..... We have a misunderstanding! IS THIS A NO-FAULT SITUATION ? HOW CAN THIS BE AVOIDED... OR, AM I THE FEMALE VERSION OF DON QUIXOTE JOUSTING AT WINDMILLS??
NOTE : YES, I HAVE NO SOLUTION BUT TO ASK YOU ALL , MY COMMUNITY ??
opinions, comments, ??
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When I am thinking about what you said it comes down to just one word for me, you know I blog about words all the time.
Tolerance and lack of tolerance come into play here.
We either have tolerance and try to understand the other person's point of view and why they are saying or doing what they have done and accept the fact that we will not always understand everyone, as Mark as pointed out.
Or we do not choose to do that and let things fly off the cuff out of control where they lead us into situations that we would prefer to not be involved in most times.
Either way, if you do not attempt to have tolerance for everyone I see it as your fault for not at least giving others the benefit of the doubt and reading between the lines.
San
It happens sometimes and the fact that not everybody here has English as a first language can also make things difficult to understand, especially with no context, and humour definitely finds it hard to travel.
One of the reasons why emoticons exist and can play a large part in portraying the context remarks are meant in....a few within these comment boxes might ease some unintended tensions too!!
Mark
When it comes to textual communication there may be missing elements of tone, context, emphasis, etc.. Here is something Donald Rumsfeld talked about before which is probably not originally his idea but maybe its that person you quoted: The known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns.
I think sometimes miscommunication just happens and is unavoidable. Sorry :(
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Often it is very difficult to provide the kind of inflection and personality in writing that you can in person.
There are many degrees of communication that go on in face to face conversation that don't, or can't translate into the written word.
Learn to be clear and try to avoid colloquialisms and your writing will be as clear as you can make it. Often, this is good enough. Everyone will bring their own perspective to the table so miscommunication is not going away soon.