Re: Moderation of GZG-L (was Re: Back from SALUTE and bye bye)

I've noticed that, we've already started to drift off topic.  
Took about 12 hours -- that has to be a record.  (8-)  

Anyway, I'm just going to comment on some points from various people.

A bunch of the people leaving are old-timers who don't like the
direction
the list is taking, so they sign off.  They aren't known because
(probably
like me), since the list has split off in so many directions, they don't
want to take the time to read anything.  (It may be as simple as a 
traffic issue -- 300-400% increase over the past 6 years.)

And, for all the people who sign off announcing their disgust, there
are those who gradually just disappear as well.  

That being said -- I'm not suggesting moderation to retain people.  If
they choose to leave, then there's nothing that can be done about it.  
People leave and sign up all the time.	The reasons that they leave are
educational, and should be paid attention to, but, we should be paying
attention to the list, and not to client count.

Along those lines, more and more people are announcing that off-topic 
posts, flame wars, trolls, and other things of that nature are degrading

the quality of the list.  And, nobody has disagreed with that point, 
even if there is disagreement on the method of correcting the problem.	
  
Before I get any further, let me say that I'm not blaming any single 
person for this.  What I am blaming, is the general failure of
netiquette,
because of the changing audience of the Internet as a whole (for
example,
there's a time to take things off-list, and there's a time to
change the subject headings and there's a time to take a deep breath
and try and avoid the flame war.   Help people help themselves.)

Right now, though, it seems public opinion (from the grand total of
8 people who responded (8-) ) seems to lie against moderation.	We've
had some suggestions about formalizing and enforcing the ad-hoc policy
we've had to date on the list, using various mechanics.  Some people
have suggested that each person is responsible for making their own
decisions, and thus, personal filters and killfiles are key i.e. no
action be taken at the list level.

Further comments?  Note, I'd like to stay away from mechanics at this
point -- I think the big question right now is "Is something broken?
Can we fix it, if it's broken? Do we even have the right to fix it?" as 
opposed to "Do we use an elected body or trust the list administrator?
What email clients support killfile/filters? etc."  Just trying to keep
some focus.  

Matt, if you're out there, I'd like your opinion on this -- you 
administer a whole whackload of email lists.

Thanks,
JGH

-- 
*** Jerry Han - jhan@warpfish.com - http://www.warpfish.com/jhan ***
	  "Up, up and away, away from me -- It's alright...
  You can all sleep sound tonight, I'm not crazy... or anything..."