>> ... This person quickly develops strong supporters in the group
>> for his right to offer these type of questions (e.g., the free
>> speech arguments) ...
After a lot of years moderating both newsgroups and mailing lists, I've come
to a fairly hard-nosed position where I give people one warning and if they
don't get the hint, I kick them off the list. As others have noted, the
Internet has plenty of fora for free speech, and your list is not one of
them. Also through experience I've discovered that it is a bad idea to
permit discussions of list management policy on the list, although it's OK in
private mail.
This may seem awfully fascistic, but the reality is that someone has to be in
charge of your list, and if it's not you, it'll be the loudest and most
persistently obnoxious people on the list. If you're in a generous mood you
can create a parallel unmoderated whatever-discuss list where people who have
nothing better to do than to complain about your moderation policy can do so
in a place where you don't have to read about it.
Regards,
John Levine, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
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