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Submitted by chad360 on Sun, 01/06/2008 - 10:07pm.

I just want to open the topic of PM up for discussion--

--what are the OK and wrong ways to use PM?

Is [PM chatting on a blog] vs. [dialog back/forth in thread-space] detracting from the public dialog or not?

Or the same question expressed as: "Do private social spaces (maybe called "backdoors" or "pressure valves") benefit (or at least not constrain) public dialog and the construction of civil space online?

I'm not sure where I am on this one, all things considered~

any thoughts?

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Pressure Valves

Submitted by Ehver Green on Sun, 01/06/2008 - 11:34pm.

I've not heard the term before. This is great and one of the ways to use PM. I use PM when I'm uncomfortable posting publically or my message has a very restrictive audience.

If we thought of our conversations as PLC, where Olyblog is the mini-computer and our text is the OS, we'd have a very fine-tuned machine. Of course, out of the box it doesn't function perfectly. These things take time to bake.

this sums OlyBlog up for me

Submitted by enpen on Mon, 01/07/2008 - 12:13am.

These things take time to bake.

One of the reasons I've used

Submitted by Merwyn Haskett on Mon, 01/07/2008 - 7:26am.

One of the reasons I've used PM was to vent with a like-minded recipient about something that wouldn't go over well with the general populace (especially whenever it's a critique of an individual.) It's a way to get it out of the system while keeping the public boards pollution-free.

They're a good "backdoor

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 6:32am.

They're a good "backdoor channel."

Sometimes you only want to talk to a specific individual, because the information doesn't pertain to the entire group (nor would many be interested in it).

PMs are also a good way to tell someone they are out of line,

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 9:58am.

sparing them the public admonishment and the defensiveness that usually follows.

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