Thank you everyone for the intelligent discussion. You've raised points that go beyond what we should do but also how we should view this forum. When I started this group, I said: "There's no plan on how to go about this. Seriously. The only thing I do know however is that once you get people together, magic happens."<https://groups.google.com/d/topic/silicon-beach-australia/mZOKD7xpHus/discussion> Needless to say, its immediate growth, the quality of discussions, and the impact its had (from catalysing a movement against internet censorship to informing government policy on what the industry wants to inspiring the various accelerators that will grow the industry) have blown away even my expectations. That's the power of when you bring people together. And it's important we protect this resource.
Two thoughts have been ringing in my head. The first is the comment that this isn't free speech, and it's a privilege that you have to be able to read the posts on this group but also the ability to to post (and broadcast to the people that see your message). The second thought I've been mulling over is how can we have a lightweight governance that continue to grow the value of this list. Looking at the numbers, I've uncovered the following: - It's high volume. We currently average about 11 separate posts a day. - We have 1920 subscribed on this mailing list, of which 1678 are not bouncing (mostly due to the moderators permanently banning spammers). Of that 1678, about 527 get direct emails anytime some posts; 658 get digest or abridged emails (ie, once a day summaries); and 493 don't get email (ie, use RSS to consume and post via the web interface...or completely ignore the list). - As an aside, we have several moderators who generously give up their time to moderate hundreds of messages (first time posters are moderated, spammers are banned). They include Bart Jellema, Kate Carruthers, Geoff McQueen, Bart Jellema, Chris Saad, Pratibha Rai, Nick Holmes a Court, and Paul Jones. My personal goal is that we can evolve away from this mailing list. The Silicon Beach Jobs board being an example where a need was identified, and we built a longer term solution to house it permanently (and while it still needs work, it's the start of a great resource that we can grow). But the truth of the matter is, this mailing list is too valuable for the ad hoc discussions that don't have patterns (like founders posting jobs, people sharing links). What matters is that we keep everyone on this list engaged..the more people who unsubscribe, the more we know we have a problem. Using David as a case in point, he frustrated people in past because he posted topics that were thought to be irrelevant, posted links with no context, and wrote comments that were seen as unnecessary inflammatory. He also posted a lot, which gave him a heavy presence in the minds of people and this list. The challenge with this, is that even though those individual posts may not have been bad (who's to say what someone posts is irrelevant to this forum?) the issue is that it's impacting the other people on this mailing list. The actions of one, are now ruining it for many -- and we're losing them. Given email subscribers bear the cost, should we perhaps say that if 1% of the email subscribers complain for whatever reason, that's grounds to put someone on a temporary moderation? And maybe a higher threshold is a permanent banning? I don't know. After some thought, here's what I think we should do: 1) Reinstate David. I said 90 days was his moderation, I don't think it's fair I break my word and so I've reinstated him immediately. My advice to you David is that you're on thin ice. 2) Develop a clear moderation policy, with the deadline to the first version of this being done by October 17. My thinking here being it's unfair to ban people or moderate them unless we have a clear policy. So I invite anyone and everyone to write what they think our moderation policy should be: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qPMsIMQe5UhGKG_8t7Gn2Zd9G3srQsWUMzWlkk2Y2to/edit?hl=en_US Once we finalise a community written moderation policy, we will then enforce that against people. From now on in, your membership on this forum is not a right -- it's a benefit. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
