Hi Everyone, Two days ago I posted some thoughts about improving the quality of contributions and protecting the definition of the group (see the referenced message below).
There have been 22 replies to that message (not including this one). (Sadly predictably), only 4 messages were relevant and on-topic: (http://socallinux.org/pipermail/linuxusers/2010-January/008406.html http://socallinux.org/pipermail/linuxusers/2010-January/008407.html http://socallinux.org/pipermail/linuxusers/2010-January/008409.html and http://socallinux.org/pipermail/linuxusers/2010-January/008410.html ) The other 18 responses on that thread could be summarized as follows: 14 messages of just plain off-topic, non-sequitur comments, 4 messages containing insults or other personal attacks (1 of which could be viewed as containing profanity) This is pathetic and unacceptable. When given the opportunity to contribute to a discussion about improving something for everyone, the mailing-list once again became a private channel for Roger,Chris,Dino,and Pete's asinine postings. This is not going to continue. If there are any members who believe they need to continue subjecting everyone to these types of e-mails, I encourage you to unsubscribe and create your own forum for your banter. Going forward from 2010 - we will be keeping the "SocalLinux" group on-topic with material that matches the stated goals of the charter and is of interest to everyone. I'm past the point of single-handedly moderating things - we will definitely be setting up a moderator group in the very near future. Every email to the list, including the insults and personal jokes are sent out to 93 subscribers, (most of whom do not wish to read this in their Inbox - some on their work e-mail systems even), as well as added to an archive on our website. Members have subscribed to this list because they enjoy the technical and philosophical discussions related to Linux and Free/Open Source software. The other noise is very distracting and adds no value to the entire group. Please keep this in mind in the future. Thanks Everyone, David David Kaiser wrote: > Happy New Year Everyone! > > January 1, 2010 > > > For the first message of the new year, I wanted to take a moment to > reflect on the great 5.5 years we have been here and say thanks for > everyone for making SocalLinux.org such a great community. I feel that > we have a great and diverse group and I really appreciate everyone that > participates and the contributions of each and every person in our group. > > I also wanted to take this opportunity to share some thoughts I have had > about the design of the group. > > Since we started this group (originally called 909linux.org), we have > tried to focus as much as possible on creating and maintaining an > environment that is open, allows anyone to contribute and speak their > opinion, but along with that comes the need to do things such as control > the tone of the discussion at times so that members of the group are not > offended by any particular individual. It is a fine balancing act to > encourage everyone to speak their mind – but still ask everyone to be > respectful of others. I want to keep that approach in the future. > (Given the low number of conflicts we have, I think we have been > successful in this.) > > When we started, we decided not to have a formalized structure, (where > members at the time did not want to have cycles of elections and people > being nominated as a president, etc.) so we have had a completely > informal and unstructured group this entire time. Since I am the > [genius/sucker: pick one] who registered the domain and maintains the > computing infrastructure for the mailing list (and our 1 web page!) I > want to bring this up and explain some of my thoughts, and also I think > it would be useful for me to get feedback about this organization. > > While I don't mind being in the position of being the domain owner, I > want to make sure that the workings of the group are actually the > responsibility of the group. > > I am going to be looking for a way that there is a “moderator group” (or > some title) that we have a number of people that are aware of and > publicly making decisions that are for the benefit of the group. While > I have never actually unsubscribed or banned any person from > participating (mailing list, irc channel, or in person), I have had to > enable some brief periods of moderation to the mailing list while > personal issues were resolved. I feel that this and other duties should > be the responsibility of a group of people, and that this group should > somehow be enabled or voted on by the members. > > To start with, just having multiple people be the moderators of the > mailing list, and also having a way for the group members to maintain > the web site (a task which I completely FAIL at doing in case you have > noticed). This will go a long ways to achieving the goal of not having > myself be singularly responsible for this and ensure that things are > done for the benefit of everyone. These things are on my agenda for the > coming months and I will be making more announcements about this soon. > > I am going to be enlisting everyone's feedback and working to establish > the following: > - an official charter which details the group structure > - a group of moderators > - an additional administrator to help me maintain the site (likely to > be easier to do once we install a proper web management system of some sort) > > For now, I am asking everyone to take a moment and read what I have > proposed for a Charter. > > The proposed charter is located at http://socallinux.org/charter > > This will be something which is only a 'read and understand' option for > now. If conditions demand, then in the future we can make this be > something which has to be agreed upon before approval of signing-up to > the mailing list or other activities. > > While I have started this Charter, I did so by following the example set > by many other successful Linux User Groups. Ultimately, I expect the > members of this group to add to this list with their own ideas because > this isn't just something I manage alone. We all need to share the > responsibility of keeping things running smoothly, so I am asking this > conversation in an open forum like this. > > Please reply to this thread with comments and suggested additions. I > know the charter as it is currently written needs some help, but I need > your help in keeping the group self-moderated and running smoothly so I > strongly believe this is something we need to do. Specifically seeking > comments on Articles 6, 7, & 8, as I have not yet developed a policy on > how moderators and administrators are selected and how the voting > process might work. > > Thanks again for making SocalLinux.org a great community, and thanks in > advance for taking the time to read this and the charter document idea > I've posted. > > Looking forward to 2010! > > Regards, > David > _______________________________________________ > LinuxUsers mailing list > LinuxUsers@socallinux.org > http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers > _______________________________________________ LinuxUsers mailing list LinuxUsers@socallinux.org http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers
