That covers pretty much most of the arguments I made against the dismissal of Insiders(Using the whole absurd, Insiders is no longer an MSU club loophole) I made both over here and with the MSU PR-ish officer Michael Wooder earlier this week. Another argument is that no matter what the MSU says about using their website, the fact of the matter is that Chad/Danielle or someone from the Sil will find out stuff posted on the MSU website, copy paste it over here and then everyone will start discussing it and the SRA members will step in with their own(usually counterproductive like "email us") efforts and things will get even messier. The sooner the MSU realizes that Insiders is a forum that will continue to grow and try and harness it the better it will be for them!
Here's my solution which I have also indirectly sent to in detail to the houseleader an hour ago:
#1 The MSU makes larger and much more detailed posts on the mainpage and the SRA Blog, Stuff that covers more angles gives more details and is generally much better then the minute, cliche'd and need to know stuff that is posted right now.
#2 As expected, The Insider Admins/Agents or someone from the Sil posts this up on Insiders. But the difference being that hypothetically, since the original post on the website is much more detailed it leaves out less room for random people to fill in the blanks and make assumptions and for SRA members to try clearing up stuff with their imperfect information(i.e: They are not always likely to know exactly what the BOD did) and most of all their ego/anti clique/whatever pisses them off rants that tarnish the image of the MSU even if they do later retract them. Also spend some money to get in a PR person from some political party to train the SRA members, as Ben honestly to his credit admitted yesterday, he like alot of people love arguing. Yet an elected official cannot partake in such a manner(last man standing arguments) since in a way they are representing the organization. I have no idea why someone wasn't brought in at Bark lake :S
I did get a consolation prize of a promise of some form of
"Communications Policy" regarding online interactions, I'm not sure where I go from there though yet. Chances are I make a policy and the BOD/SRA level people dismiss it citing the same Insiders isn't a MSU club rationale :(
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Here is the email exchange after Casey Park to his credit(thanks!
) messaged me regarding his plans for improving the SRA Blog: Posts made before, after and one explaining its implications for MSU students and asked for any suggestions!
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Hey Casey,
Thanks for the update. First of all I believe I might have indirectly mentioned it on Insiders, but I think with the SRA blog the MSU has improved from the last SRA. My problem with the communications aspect is one thing: Details.
The information posted "officially" regarding a serious issue, example Speaker's resignation was only warranted tiny posts from Vishal and You that in all honesty gave the vibes of being Cliche'd and Need to know. For example the you quoted "we were under unsurmountable circumstances" but there is no indication at all of what those circumstances were. I don't reckon teh average student will take that in a postive way, more likely the chances are that he will make his own cynical assumptions regarding that line to fill in the blanks. There should have been more details that were instead filled up by random SRA Members(Fadil, Matthew etc) on the MacInsiders Thread that were often contradicting each other or had "imperfect information"(In other words they didn't know what you or BOD were most likely to know), things got worse and it ended up with an SRA member saying "get a life" and general confusion and theories as to WHAT really happened. There was no way for the average reader to figure out the MSU's side of the story(which was needed since Norman wrote an allegation like "poisoning the workforce". Similarly I asked around for dates of the various aspects of the event and got no reply from anyone, even Norman doesn't know what the exact date was since hte BOD never told him; he reckoned it was sometime in May. If the circumstances were against the BOD(time constraints) there needs to be a detailed 2000 word explanation as to what happened. The same with the 1280 logo issue, once again it was criticized as not revealing enough information(who was the designer, how long did he take to make it, why does it "suck", how can people like Rohan/Chad come up with better stuff in a few hours, why was the EB put in a tight corner and only given under a day to make that descision and so on).
The above mentioned concerns were exactly what I talked to Michael Wooder earlier this week about, I proposed the creation of a Communications officer who goes around talking to various people in MSU collecting information like a reporter, writing a detailed 1000+ word article which any half decent writer would have no trouble doing so in 15-20 minutes. Because like it or not, whatever your post on the MSU website will be transferred over to Insiders and there will be assumptions made and criticism if there is imperfect information or people suspect that you guys are hiding something. A larger post will have lesser chances of getting holes poked at it because it will cover more angles then the current format. Accoring to Michael Wooder Insiders isn't an official source but because the Insiders admin copy paste stuff from the Website to Insiders, it becomes a focal point and with rising membership will continue to do so.
I did however after an hour of arguments get a promise of the need for a commuications policy for the MSU regarding Online Places, since as you can clearly see some SRA members are lashing out in Unprofessional and for the lack of a better word Politics N00b fashion!
I heard there will be a former Sil writer joining you as some variety of communications officer, I would hope that you work closer with him/her to cover more ground with the posts. I understand the board don't have the time or writing skills to write stuff that is not only detailed but also more importantly cleverly "Politically Correct". I think you would agree that it is better if a cultured official authority like you or the communicaitons person puts up more details on the website rather then SRA people running amok all over the place.
Thanks for reading.
Huzaifa
p.s: I know the MSU will highly disapprove but if it is possible can you put up the more important motions on Insiders as well? You can ask Chad to create a special subforum for you or to modify the SRA connection so that you have one thread for every fortnightly weekly SRA meeting!
The reason I ask that is posted on the 1280 thread!
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