State of the Community: First Town Hall Meeting

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MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
Community Leader
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Community,

Nearly six years ago I created the EMTLife community, and over the years have enjoyed seeing our community grow. As fashions, presidents, and members have come and gone, the Community Leaders have tried to nurture a community of professionals where everyone is welcome to contribute and participate. Like any community, sometimes we've struggled to find our way and make decisions that benefit the entire community. EMTLife, a community supported by members, led by volunteers, and visited by many, requires your contributions and leadership to succeed.

Our Story:
EMTLife was created in early 2004 as an online community where EMS professionals could share and learn with their colleagues. Over the years our 6,500+ members created nearly 15,000 threads with over 180,000 individual posts. We are not the same community we were back in January of 2004, but I strived to hold true to my belief that our relatively new profession needed a professional community. We don't require members to register in order to view our content, and with the exception of an April Fools day prank a few years ago, we have never placed advertisements on the site. We don't spam you with weekly emails or consider some of our members more premium than others. That's the EMTLife I envisioned many years ago, and in many respects we've stayed true to that vision.

Our Leadership:
EMTLife's leaders, our Community Leaders, are selected based on their demonstrated leadership abilities. As we continue to grow, I seek out members who are respected in the community. Similar to many online communities, our Community Leaders are individuals who volunteer their time to help better the community. Our CL's have a diverse background that allows us to view posts with a unique perspective. A significant portion of our duties are related to the maintenance of our community and enforcement of community standards. When I look for Community Leaders I don't look for a great medic or fancy title, but instead look for a fair, honest, and professional individual with a strong commitment to the community.

Our Members:
I realize that a community is nothing without an active membership, and I am thankful of our contributions to our site. This site isn’t about me, the Community Leaders, or you, but instead about us as a professional community. There are many members on this site who I greatly admire as professionals, but the list is too long to post here. At the end of the day my efforts and our efforts as Community Leaders are to support our entire community.

There are certain members of our community who struggle to positively contribute to EMTLife, and I sincerely believe that they would be happier elsewhere. As I posted back in 2004:

Our profession is relatively new, and our presence on the web isn't as prominent as some others, but I ask your help in fostering an online community where EMS professionals can converse. Besides EMTLife there are quite a few EMS forums and discussion boards. Even if you don't contribute to EMTLife, I'd hope that you remain active on some of the others.
Our Community Rules & Expectations:
Though our community rules are continually evolving, this seems to be an area where we will never be able to entirely please our members. It seems that everyone loves the idea of rules until they receive an infraction or warning for breaking one. Prior to 2007 EMTLife.com had no posted rules, but instead we enforced what we believed to be common sense. As we brought on additional community leaders and our community continued to grow, we felt the need to have more visible community expectations to ensure the quality of our forum and fairness in enforcement.

From the beginning we’ve strived to be community that welcomes all and is a safe place to learn and converse. From the beginning we’ve worked to put policies in place to deal with the variety of disruptions and problems that arise in any online community. As with everything in life, many of the situations that we observe as Community Leaders requires us to interpret and evaluate the information and to make quick decisions based on the information we have. Though we strive to be consistent and fair in the enforcement of our policies, on occasion we misread or misinterpret information, and have been known to make mistakes. We are human.

Enforcement of Community Standards:
More recently, I found myself avoiding read threads in my own forum due to the guaranteed EMTLife lynch mob that inevitably took over each discussion. I refuse to let a small group undermine the community through their eternal drive to take over every thread and ridicule and harass our members. It is one thing to contribute constructively to a thread, and something entirely different to bully members with differing views. Those members who feel it is their duty to right the wrongs of the EMS community via EMTLife are not welcome here.

Enforcement of Community Standards – Zero Tolerance:
Just over one month ago I instituted the Zero Tolerance rule with the intent of ridding our community of the small group of members intent on using the community as a platform to spew their hatred. Under my instruction and guidance, the Community Leaders began to strictly enforce our rules with the addition of new rules that increased punishments for violations. Under the current system it takes ten points for a member to temporarily lose his or her posting privileges, with the vast majority of infractions worth 1-3 points. Currently only a handful of members have been punished under the new system, with the majority only losing their posting privileges for a matter of days.

As is the case with most zero tolerance problems, there was little room for interpretation, and some of our members temporarily lost their posting privileges. I understand your frustration with the system, but it has always been essential that we are consistent and fair with our enforcement. We’ve already begun the process of reevaluating our system, and will solicit member feedback to guide our discussions.

Our Future:
Though you may find it hard to believe, our current situation is not entirely bad. Though we are struggling now, most important is our view that this is an opportunity to grow, learn, and better the community. With your help we will continue to evaluate the needs of our community and how we can work as a team to create a stronger community of EMS professionals.

You are invited to attend our first community “town hall meeting” on Sunday, October 11th at 9:00 PM EST. This is an opportunity for our members to interact and ask questions and receive feedback in real time, so that together we can determine the direction of our community. More information will be posted in the announcement section as we finalize the plans.

Thank you for your support over the past five and a half years. We are the community we are today because of you, and we will be the community you want us to be because of you and your contributions to EMTLife.

-Matt
EMTLife Founder & Community Leader
 
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MMiz

MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
Community Leader
5,519
401
83
Just a reminder, tonight's meeting begins at 9:00 PM EDT. You can find out your local time by visiting this website. More information will be posted at 6:30 PM.
 
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