On Dec 7, 2005, at 4:19 PM, Scott Granneman wrote: > however, to my knowledge sluug still has no form of moderation > whatsoever on > the list, so problems could erupt again at any time. the reason i > like this > (admittedly smaller) list is that the signal to noise ratio is in > general far > higher *more consistently*, & i attribute that to (a) the fine > folks on this > list, & (b) the fact that it *is* moderated. if someone acts up, > they're > warned & then banned.
A subtlety, but I view the words monitored and moderated as different by their default behaviours. A moderated list means that by default all mail goes to a moderated and needs to be approved before passing to the list. A monitored list means that by default all mail goes to the list, and only when there is an issue, is any action taken. The CWE-LUG uses a mixed approach. New subscribers are moderated until they post. If their first post is real the moderated flag is removed and they are free to post. This policy has three advantages: 1) having the moderate flag initially turned on cuts down on the amount of spam to the list. One spam tactic is to subscribe to a list and then spam it. By having new subscribers be moderated those spams never make it to the list. 2) turning the moderate flag off reduces the administrative burden and allows for the free exchange of ideas. Moderating a list is a lot of busy work. Don't want to do more than is minimally possible. 3) having the option to turn on the moderate flag prevents what I call "poisoning the list". We're all human (well most of us) and we have emotions. Sometimes we let our emotions get the best of us. That moderate flag is a nice safety valve if off-list e-mails don't persuade someone to take a breath and relax. By default I assume there's no problem unless people post personal attacks. If you have an issue with a post, speak up by e-mailing me directly. > that's good list management, in my book. It may not be the best policy, but it has worked so far for this list and other lists that I help manage. Again, if someone has suggestions, I'm all ears. Also, if someone wants to help out, raise your hand. Regards, - Robert http://www.cwelug.org/downloads Help others get OpenSource software. Distribute FLOSS for Windows, Linux, *BSD, and MacOS X with BitTorrent _______________________________________________ CWE-LUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.cwelug.org/ http://www.cwelug.org/archives/ http://www.cwelug.org/mailinglist/
