I don't know of a way to instill a sense of accountability in listmembers. One of the prime memes of this community is IAAMOAC. That seems to pretty squarely settle behavioral choices on the shoulders of the individual members themselves.
One thing we can all do, IMO, is drop a subject when it gets too heated. If it's continued offlist between the main participants, that's fine, but onlist discussions should remain level-headed and respectful. It's something I've been trying to remind myself to do, with mixed success. It was nice when Jo Anne weided the Wand of Dinging, but even that set up a relationship in which we didn't monitor ourselves, instead relying on a reminder from someone else. A theme in Brin's work that's always struck me is the concept of maturity - he usually addresses it on a societal level, but it's equally applicable on a personal one. We are all intelligent, articulate people. We are all (to my knowledge) adult, or close to it. We all have the capability to stop and examine our actions, and make appropriate decisions on our own. Is calling another member a "f**king Nazi" (to grab the most spectacular example - sorry, Tom. Nothing personal)a good choice? No. Is threatening a fellow list member with potentially disastrous real life consequences for calling names a good choice (Hi, Jeroen - nothing personal here, either)? No. Should we tolerate either? No. Should I ramble on much longer? Probably not. I'm taking a roundabout way to say this: "We are members of a civilization. We are members of a community. Act like mature members of both, or at the very least make a real effort." I remain proud of my membership in the Brin-L community - I've dropped out of several other online communities because they weren't as intellectually high-powered, or were prone to vicious flamewars, but I've stayed a member of Brin-L, and I intend to remain a member, so long as the list can retain the character and spirit I love about it. That's not a threat, just a statement. I'm going to make a stronger effort myself to live up to our ideals, both online and off. Adam [EMAIL PROTECTED] Long-winded today, but at least not SHOUTING __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Mother's Day is May 12th! http://shopping.yahoo.com
