Yes, I have sometimes contacted people to say "please don't post x" to try and keep the list from straying too far away from its orginal intended focus. I post the odd off-topic message myself, and I have no problem with the occasional wild card. It's when it gets excessive that I have a problem - I have no hesitation in making my opinions known about such problems, but I generally try to keep them off the list. If that behaviour is patrician, so be it.
I do agree with your suggestion of clear subject headers - this is in fact already part of the list etiquette guidance. Maybe we could formalise this more, but I think it would be difficult for people to remember what to preface their subject with. A common protocol on lists and USENET is to add "ANN:" to the start of the subject header to make clear the posting is an announcement.
I found interesting too Simon's ideas on as it were "user participation" in moderating discussion. This seems to work better for web-based discussion fora such as Slashot rather than e-mail lists. Might be an idea for the future, but the systems involved can be complex to set up.
Personally I'd like to see <ambit> working well as a vibrant discussion forum before going down that road.
Chris
At 4:18 pm +0000 8/2/03, mark lawton wrote:
i would like to see more discussion, thought, for sure but there does seem to be an occasionally patrician hand visited upon proceedings which can be patronising at best
perhaps this is a consequence of the undue burden of responsibility placed upon the ambit staff to be the conscience of the list which is a waste of everyone's energy at the end of the day ... debating the not to be mentioned
so i agree with simon
why not just leave the list unmoderated
create clear protocols for subject headers that can be easily identified and deleted if of no interest
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Chris Byrne [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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New Media Scotland tel: +44 131 477 3774 P.O. Box 23434, Edinburgh EH7 5SZ fax: +44 131 477 3775
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