Time wasted – the baby is still crying

Part I: Moderators personal agendas.
Part II: The discussion not taking place, the time wasted, and the
work not getting done as a result
Part III: Time wasted – the baby is still crying

* * *

Part I: Moderators personal agendas.

The moderators pretend they are moderating against personally
charged content, however two of them have proven that they are
personally motivated in censoring me, and prefer to promote their
personal motivations above those of common interest such as the
issues of the appearance of the group.

*
> the discussions have been interesting
> and thankfully "Reda-less"
The rest of the posting suggests that it would be hard to get
anywhere near a fruitful discussion of public interest, such as
forum improvements, with this moderator. Clearly personal feelings
are in the way.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Structure_Integrator/message/181
0

*
This moderator does not seem aware that discussions of public
interest such as forum appearance improvements are also part of
forum moderators' responsibility. "Desired
communications" include
such discussions. However they are being censored at times, ignored
or dismissed the rest of the time.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Structural_Integration/message/7
72

Earlier the same moderator obtained executive changes to the mission
statements which reduce Structural Integration to a mere work on
posture. His explanation at
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Structural_Integration/message/1
83
suggest that his loyalty to other mathematicians are enough to
justify 7 words added to the original 23, dedicated solely to
guiding such mathematicians and engineers. My proposal to replace
the 7 words with the classical phrase `Structural Integration [of
the Human Body]' (4 words added to the original statements of 23)
would not only cover the mathematicians concerns, but also both
concerns of not reducing SI to a mere work on posture, and that of
respecting the historical wording by Dr. Rolf herself. Now this very
moderator pretends that my `bandwidth' on this forum is to be
limited ,see:
> we won't allow […] him
> to dominate the bandwidth of the list
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Structural_Integration/message/7
68
I could never surpass the bandwidth occupied by his change in the
mission statement, which time after time the main portal is loaded
in a browser window, enforces a wrong perception of SI as a mere
work on posture, and dedicates 7 of 30 words to tell the whole world
about this moderator's loyalty to mathematicians.


* * *


Part II: The discussion not taking place, and the work not getting
done as a result

If and when some of the leadership is finally willing and capable of
overcoming personal feelings and agendas, perhaps we could address
the issues I raised since 2000-2001 about the forum appearances.
These reflections have been modified over the years to take into
account the fiercest objections. Also, these reflections take into
account today's new situation.


1- Forum title:

The title of the forum should be changed
From: Structural_Integration
To something like: Structural Integration Forum (or: Structural
Integration Discussion Forum)
The reasons:
*Removal of underscore: Optimizing Internet Consumer keyword
matching in search engines; the underscore makes one very rare word
out of two much more commonly searched.
* Adding `Forum': makes the title more descriptive of the
usefulness
of the resource in important directory listings such as the ODP:
http://dmoz.org/Health/Alternative/Massage_Therapy_and_Bodywork/Struc
tural_Integration/
The listing of the forum repeats the title as it is. Therefore a
title like `Structural Integration Forum' will go a long way
in
terms of optimizing Internet consumers direct directory access to
the resource, as well as Search Engines ranking (titles have more
weight than descriptions).
*Adding `Forum': Optimizing the Search Engine ranking for
those 3
keywords. See:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Structural+Integration+Forum
You can all take note of commercial resources trying to attract SI
information consumers into their forum. Interestingly, the first one
listed has a near-zero activity on its SI section, and further
investigation reveals clear misinformation about SI:
http://www.alt-med-ed.com/practices/structural.htm (`Same as
Rolfing')
http://www.alt-med-ed.com/practices/rolfing.htm (then only a
reference to the Rolf Institute)
Long ago I made the point that if we do not take care of optimizing
our forum's exposure to the Internet, then both legitimate SI
information providers and consumers may be misled into other
resources which may be misinforming people and ultimately make them
loose legit opportunities to find our forum. This above Google link
is a compelling example.



2 – Mission Statements - Description

The Yahoo groups configuration is highly flexible and allows to put
a lot more text in the description, including HTML and therefore
links. Therefore an opportunity to be significantly clearer in the
description is available:

My original improved proposed modifications:

<<

A forum for the practitioners of the various schools of Structural
Integration [of the human body{a}] (Rolf Institute, Guild for
Structural Integration, Hellerwork...) to discuss their work.
[Accessible to the public{b}]. [Please read the forum
<link>guidelines</link>{c}].

>>

This is a streamlined version: very few words added. It includes:

{a} [of the human body] instead of [with the posture of the human
body] (by moderators)

Taking care of the potential mathematicians confusion, while
preserving the integrity of the meaning of Structural Integration as
expressed by Dr. Rolf, not reducing it to a mere work on posture.
Certainly, we could be more descriptive with yet another sentence
such as:
[Based on deep-tissue manipulations and movement education,
Structural Integration optimizes the relationship of the human body
with gravity (More information at the ODP <formatted link>Structural
Integration category -
http://dmoz.org/Health/Alternative/Massage_Therapy_and_Bodywork/Struc
tural_Integration </formatted link>)


{b} [Accessible to the public]

This short statement accomplishes 3 important goals, related to both
content providers and consumers:
- informing every forum user right away about the open nature of the
forum. Even those who do not read the guidelines or do not click on
the portal's Settings menu, which has incidently been moved a
click
further from before with the new group's look: The settings used
to
be more visible on the portal before. See:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Structural_Integration
The danger of posting private information, phone numbers, etc., or
words which can be regretted later is reduced with such a wording.
- being more inviting and clearer to information consumers at large
about the usefulness of the resource for their potentially
legitimate concern, helping them making the clicking decision before
clicking (!).
- Allowing the ODP category editor (see link further up) to
reproduce such wording, propagating the public nature of the forum
to most search results on search engines. This will strengthen the 2
previous points to their optimal potential.

Objections. Some practitioners were concerned (and may still be)
with my original proposals, that too many unwanted visitors would
visit and enroll as a result, and that the forum scope was changed.
A problem is that there is no way of checking who is a Structural
Integrator, therefore it seems adequate to acknowledge that users
can be of a variety of flavors, with various motivations. Also, in
order to not change the scope of the forum, I did not change the
first sentence:
A forum for the practitioners of the various schools of Structural
Integration.
My modified proposition neutrally highlights a technical property of
the forum: it is technically `accessible to the public'.


{c} [Please read the forum <link>guidelines</link>].

Obviously, it is good practice to expose the forum guidelines to
potential users before they actually sign up, only to discover later
that there are guidelines, or to even miss them for a while.


* * *


Part III: Time wasted – the baby is still crying

Once again, if and when our leadership is finally willing to set
personal agendas aside, perhaps something constructive may begin to
happen.

Perhaps this image will help. One may think of the information
consumer (especially health information) as a baby starving for
potentially life saving information. This baby has been crying for
such food for many years, kept outside crying all by itself, behind
the closed doors of our community's paying resources. This new
resource is a very unique one, in the sense that it is free of
charge, and it is open to the public. The baby can finally feed and
finally stop crying. I have been the only one advocating for caring
for the baby's needs on this forum since 2000. This baby can be a
Structural Integrator, or a SI student, or a client, or a potential
student or client. As a matter of fact, consumers of SI information
begin in my mind with people who gravitate closely around our
professional world. In other words I have not prioritized potential
clients over our professionals. I have done all I could to find
solutions that would accommodate all possible consumers of SI
information.

Until I am being seriously heard, the baby is still crying, and
someone will have to keep knocking on the closed door for a little
humanity. I cannot knock softly. I can only echo the baby's
scream,
and bang on the door. Those who are in charge, who have some power,
who can do something have to open the door for me to stop banging.
For already too many years all I could do is bang that door, hoping
that something happens. On this porch is a crying starving baby, and
our leaders have the key to the cellar. Will they let the baby cry
indefinitely?


* * *


Reda el Andaloussi
* http://idaprolf.org Structural Integration Information Consumer
Resource Center
* http://biomechanics-structural-integration.org Biomechanics and
Structural Integration, from digitized pictures to Biomechanics
* http://abcsi.net Advanced Bodywork Convergence & Structural
Integration (practitioner web site)
* http://redaelandaloussi.net main personal web space