Lenka PincotChief of Staff to the CEO| Project Management InstituteParis, France
Hi Georgia, sometimes it may feel like you said. What I see, as not native english speaker, it is sometimes matter of language skills to bring more politeness in the response, but that as such should not be considered as impolite behavior.
Or, some other people have quite narrow opinions due to the length of their career and expertise. Again, I don’t see that as a problem in communication, I respect that. My opinion may differ but that’s not a reason to disrespect other opinions and vice versa.
Online community has some pitfalls because we don’t see faces of people we talk to. It requires tolerance and sometime to read twice what someone said. Disagreement is ok. Value of this online community is so much higher that occasional patience that is required:) Saving Changes...
Whenever we contribute in an open forum whether it is in person at a conference or online in a virtual community, we are opening ourselves up to criticism from those who disagree with us. I find this community to be more supportive of genuine, valid questions or assertions than LinkedIn or other forums.
Here, everybody tries to share his/her ideas and experience. their thoughts may or may not be true. The answers and questions may or may not be true as well. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Georgia, stay on please.
As Kiron said, this site is friendlier than others.
Still, if experienced people get together, they will share their perspectives, which will differ. For the less experienced this is the best situation.
Besides the opinion itself, the way of offering it is important, as it transfers respect for the other, or the lack of it. Also, this kind of chitchat happens after hours, in between, after a glas of wine, so not during our most concentrated hours. Saving Changes...
Al TaylorI.T. Contractor| IndependentWaterloo, Ontario, Canada
I don't know Saving Changes...
Dinah YoungProject Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William CountySpringfield, Va, United States
Remember that you are reading the written word. You are putting your own inflections and tone into what you read. You are adding your own "noise".
There have been times where I thought someone was being "harsh" but responses from others did not seem to agree with my assessment.
And many on this site have been communicating with each other for years and a certain familiarity occurs.
If I feel someone is responding in a way that is rude and may make someone not want to come back I will either call them on it (in as nice a way as possible) or will respond to the questioner myself with a positive tone.
We are all here to help each other and sometimes we may be having a bad day or have gotten caught up to much in a conversation. In those cases we will "police" ourselves.
This is one of the best boards and I feel like many if the responders here have become my friends. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
know-it-alls... I wrote and delete my answer to this post several times...not sure how to engage you (Georgia) to participate more in this community, then you'll observe and realize how different are each of us and how rich is this community.
We are from different cultures, backgrounds, industries...and our comments and opinions are based on that.
On-line comments are like when you'll receive a text message from a friend or family member you need sometimes read those twice because you don't know if they are rude or just kidding. In this community some of us aren't English native, then sometimes we don't get the jokes, take a look to my old comments in this post:
Comrades, I know that this site is the interaction of the specialists, however, Georgia Harris is right, one has to do to know the knowledge richer and as some say it is necessary to be resilient before these attitudes of the members that is not only of know-it-all, if not that in some cases it is of contempt towards ideas and concepts that coincide with what they did, know or think about.
The value demonstrated by Georgia Harris is worthy of consideration and thanks, being professionals and experts in the field at PMI, but we are not perfect and since then not everything we sell as planned, I recommend a touch of humility that offers knowledge.
