Interesting: sounds like a parallel evolution of the Word protocol. Not really surprising — it’s a very useful concept, so one would expect multiple people to come up with it.

when I post it I wonder if I’ll be seen as wimping out.

I can understand that, but I’ve gradually trained myself to not sweat that too much. It’s sometimes useful to express, and there isn’t much reason to waste peoples’ time by saying it wordily.

Although, now that I think about that, it’s interesting to note that some technologies provide what amounts to explicit support for this, through “rating” mechanisms. Various forum systems allow you to, say, rate a post from 1 to 5 stars, or to tick a simple “This was Useful!” flag. That has some of the same meaning, although I don’t think it carries quite as much weight as an explicit “Word” does.

Please do! Part of the point of starting this focused professional blog, separate from my personal one, is that this is intended to be very public. Anyone who is interested in the topic is welcome: I hope to gradually turn this into a destination for folks who care about how conversation works, so that we can have a really vibrant discussion.

And frankly, I’d love to get some more folks here who I *don’t* know personally. Fond though I am of y’all, we’ve talked enough about this stuff on LJ that there’s a real danger of groupthink. Some outside eyes are likely to challenge our assumptions, and help us understand the subject better.

So please: spread the word far and wide. Unlike my LJ, I’m actively interested in having this one publicized…

With your permission, I may refer others towards this material, either directly or indirectly. Now that we’re starting a Blog initiative on campus, there may be members of _my_ community that seek deeper understanding.