On 08/04/2015 23:08, Simon Ward wrote:

On 8 April 2015 21:50:01 BST, Alan Milewczyk <[email protected]> wrote:

I've been a member of quite a few lists over my 20+ years on the net
and
all lists I've ever been on required you to be a member to be able
to
post to it.
Are these the lists of the cabals, the elite and the brotherhoods? ;)
Uh? I take it that's an attempt at humour?
In my experience most of these lists have been for "closed" groups, or those 
that have some issue with outsiders, hence the snarky remark.
The only issues I have with "outsiders" is with those who make snarky remarks, those who pick arguments and those who spam.
Anyway, I see no problem with
requiring posters to be members.
I do. As someone else said it lowers the barrier to entry, and this is largely a support 
list. Why should everyone who ever uses get_iplayer, which is free software, be required 
to subscribe to the list just to ask a question? I know one retort for that, but I 
consider it off-putting to users and harmful to a community, which is "if you want 
help from us you must join in and participate and give back". That can be 
intimidating and unwelcoming for the uninitiated, regardless of its benign intention.

If I'm in a group, then I recognise there will be plenty of lurkers who don't "contribute", so what? My ability to contribute here is extremely limited (read practically non-existent). On the other hand there are groups where I am able to contribute actively due to my knowledge/skills/whatever. Big deal, it's the nature of the beast.

If I want to know something I'll quite happily join a group and if I don't see any mileage in continued membership (as in one-off queries) then I can always unsubscribe afterwards. But I'd rather someone policed in the first place to stop the idiots and asking people to join is a useful step.

So I totally disagree with you, but I can't be bothered arguing the toss. I ain't gonna change my view!

A

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