Last week commonground saw a lot of activity from a new member who has brought an uncharacteristic yet unfortunately unavoidable tone to many of our discussions. 

Having established itself as a real value to so many in the community, I must admit I was a bit saddened by the repeated personal attacks this anonymous individual has issued to many members.  As Community Manager and, perhaps more importantly as simply a person with a job who goes home at the end of the day, I have always been amazed, pleased and proud of the rare yet consistent tenor with which our members have personally chosen to exchange, debate, disagree - and even cast dispersions.  

As unnerving as harassing comments from a given member can feel in the moment, know that it is not the norm.  It is the exception - at least in this community.  My message to all, be they civil contributor, silent observer, or offensive troublemaker, we are here to monitor the activity as it transpires to strike a balance between an open forum free to all those who want to participate in a professional discourse and harassment.

Civility is the word that has run through my mind several times since the nasty jargon began several days ago.   Civility and Mr. Rogers.  Yes, the one with the neighborhood.

Laugh if you want.  The truth is he modeled his "community" in civility, self-respect and tolerance.   It's the trifecta that works across the board if your goal is effective communication.  Business is just one part of our busy lives.  These fundamental golden rules with which we approach our communication in other life situations should not take a complete holiday just because we are talking business.   

Civility.  That is the way we have chosen to deal with any members who violate the community rules.  When the Rules of Engagement are clearly violated, warnings and opportunities to edit posts are sent - and when necessary, posts have been removed. On several occassions, other posts have been automatically deleted in cases where 5 members activated the Report Abuse function. 

That said many borderline posts from the past week remain.  Despite being volatile in content and quite possibly crossing the line of appropriate expression, they remain.  They remain because we are what we say we are: a global forum for environmental and due diligence professionals to come together to get answers, share information and debate relevant issues within the industry in the hopes that knowledge will be shared, business connections will be made, and the bar will be raised in best practices everywhere.  Kumbaya as that may sound - that is our mission.  With that understanding, that's why I do my job.

Crazy as it may sound to some, hard as it may be to believe, we have created commonground to serve a need, fill a void, start something new that we hope will have value to any and all who stop in - including EDR the company that came up with the concept and worked diligently to build it to what it is today.  With well more than 5,000 members as we speak, we are pretty certain it was a good idea.

But wait!  The most important piece in all of this is you - and other members like you.  If you have been paying attention for the last week you will see members have once again shown an extraordinary quality of civility and professionalism in your responses, even among those personally targeted.  Many are choosing to speak out about what they find offensive and have come to "police" the community on their own and defend the honor of others.  That is awesome.  Thank you.  Heck, you don't need me.

We are building something here that has the potential for offering many new opportunities to all who join.  Your visit to commonground, however often, and the comments of those who choose to share are invaluable.

As always, feel free to let us know if you disagree or agree with my post either by either commenting on this blog or sending us an email at commonground@edrnet.com - whichever you feel most comfortable doing.

Have a great week.  I hope I'll see you back here again soon.

Barbara