I was a community moderator at ivillage.com(a woman’s website with message boards for a bunch of topics)for a couple of years and saw alot of stuff happen to various online communities.I’d say the good stuff way outran the bad,but there are pitfalls to any group of humans gathering in any place-real or cyber-to do anything.

Not all of us are leaders.Someone like me for example,wouldn’t be the best leader,I tend to mother everyone,too much(ask my kids,lol).And drive myself crazy making sure everyone is comfy,or at least included.Sometimes you can’t do that,plus it can eat up valuable time that’s needed for other things.(but,I ended up forming a little group of people willing to work with those feeling left behind a little,that spared the whole community a big headache sometimes)

But we do need leaders(for lack of a better word this minute-pre coffee-as I wave at Christy,lol),if we didn’t need them,then Progressive politics would be more of the norm rather than the exception.I don’t know that I’d call Markos a leader as much as I would someone who’s trying to clear the path a little so others can make it to the gate a little quicker.

Something that has worked for me in the past,in my moderator days,was to ask people who were feeling left out,or who were worried about getting too big too fast “What are you afraid of?What’s the fear behind your concerns?How do you think we can work past your fear to reach the goal we’re working on?”It makes people think about their criticism,or what might have happened to them to make them afraid.Now,this doesn’t always work,but it can de-rail and allay some people’s fears.Sometimes they are just scared of change,and that can be fixed.(actual trolls,not so much)I used to give them jobs to do too,be it research,or contacting organizations and people pertaining to the topic at hand,it takes away some of that helplessness that lies at the heart of their fears.

Anyhoo,good for Markos for putting a face on TV and presenting himself as someone who’s smart and savvy.We need that,but as long as we remember that’s not ALL we need,we’ll win out.

And nice post on Holy Joe and the rest of the Senators who ignored our faxes and phone calls.

If we become more powerful it is only natural that we will have to deal with the problems that it will bring, and don’t even bring up ego look what it did to Lieberman.

Having just spent 3 1/2 days in a convention with Markos (and 1,000 other people), I did not perceive any sense of grandiosity or lust for power about him. He seemed very friendly, open and I would say modest. My only actual conversation with him was at a book-signing, but I found him very approachable and just pleasant to be around. I did not see him moving around surrounded by guards or aides like I did Sen. Reid or Gov. Warner. He just did not come across as someone who was trying to elevate himself to some elite, exclusionary position of power in the blogosphere or in the world of politics. I think he is very deserving of the award. I would be interested in hearing other people’s perspectives.

Re Moog, I met him in conjunction with my work with a commission on the handicapped, where his expertise on speech recognition was very valuable. Nice guy.

Imman, I’m waiting. Are you coming over?

Good to hear from you – left a message back at the last thread.