Horse throws out a plea: Ok folks - how's about everyone that contributes to this list voicing their > opinion as to how we can make this into a forum whereby we discuss the MoQ > in a civilised and constructive way. > > Your thoughts and suggestions please
I'd say the only way to do it, is to do it. People tend to pick up on the flavor of those around them, and when there is polite discourse, people respond politely. I read an interesting article in Wired magazine a few months back, about the evolution of social networking and discussion lists like this one. The normal path for an online discussion, is that it grows in popularity till it becomes so big that nobody matters anymore. The community devolves into a collective. People feel lost in the crowd, and so everybody stops posting and the list melts away. Reading back over the years, I think one reason MD has resisted this pattern (over-popularity) is that newbies feel intimidated by the rancor. And this is, to an extent, a good thing. There are certain amongst us, who act as "white corpuscles" to attack foreign infections with strong anti-bodies of "you're stupid and shouldn't be here". That's not really my style, but I can see the usefulness to MD as a whole. The problem, of course, comes in when vituperative rhetoric dominates the majority of discussion. That's no fun. But if we make it too easy, then it'll just be platitudinous back slappin' all day long. I like to just let it evolve as it does, and move in ways that seem good at the time, and if that doesn't work, well, we'll try something else. Me and Harry S. Truman Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
