I've always considered you a sensible voice, Clif, and you came through on this one. Because the U2UG is the trustee of the list, and because I think this e-mail will get to many of the board members without e-mail them individually, I will simply copy Brian Leach, the President of the U2UG, and request that this matter be taken up at the next meeting, if feasible.
Prior to that time, perhaps we can use an informal means of changing, however slightly, the rules of the game, e.g. -- a) no [AD] is required in the subject line, although it may be used (I have never had problems determining whether someone was making pitch or not, but might want to hide behind one if I know I am advertising a product or service) b) no meta-conversations (conversations about the list) are relegated to the trash bin (u2-community) as people can simply ignore them c) topics about theory, questions to the group, musings on related subjects will not be shut down by moderators, even if some on the list might feel free to indicate a lack of interest (self-moderating approach) d) only spam and blatant abusers of the list, unrelated to the broader mv community (which was the playground where the U2UG wanted to play, pretty much aligning with the interests of various members of this list) would be shut down by the moderators, offlist when feasible and removing posting privileges where necessary, while reporting any such removal to the list (so that the moderators do not start shutting out people that others would like around, for example). Thanks for the responses and thanks to Clif for agreeing that the time has come to move on from the u2-community approach. Cheers! --dawn On 9/6/07, Clifton Oliver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I already explained the reason the U2 Community list was started. It > was an attempt to keep the Monty Python jokes and other non-technical > discussions from running off a core group of technical people who > were providing the vast majority of answers to problems with the > products. Those people are gone, having moved on to other things and > other companies. Although it seemed right (to me and others) at the > time, I'm not sure it ever worked particularly well. > > As I've aged, I've also become more libertarian in my world view. As > just another user these days, I'd say shutdown u2-community. As to > content on u2-users, I agree with the idea of letting things free- > wheel, except when things get abusive. A lot less work for the > moderator(s), too. The technical people with either stay or they won't. > > Tagging was another idea borrowed from other lists that was well- > intended, but as we have seen, doesn't seem to work very well. In > part, that is because "to tag or not to tag" is a question of > opinion. Take the statement, "You can use U2 connection pooling, .NET > pooling, or a product like mv.NET (call Fred for info), then you can > etc." Some people would insist it be tagged just because it mentions > a third-party product as a potential solution. Others would say it > needed to be tagged because it committed the capital crime of > soliciting business (call Fred for info). And others see it as not > requiring a tag because, in their opinion, "call Fred for info" is, > in and of itself, one of several potential solutions presented. > > These days, I agree with Jeff. I'm in favor of eliminating all > tagging, except for the listserver tag in the subject line which > assists with filtering into folders. Let people write what they want > to write. Let each individual decide what the noise-to-signal ratio > is *for them*. If there are enough kernels that interest them, > they'll stay. If anything of a non-technical nature bugs them, > they'll leave, taking their potential technical knowledge with them. > > The list will find its own level. It will either continue to be a > technical resource, or it won't. It will either continue to exit, or > it will fade away and die. That might be sad for some, but it's okay. > Everything does, eventually. Or it might morph into something more > useful than we are thinking about at this point. > > I think that's called "evolution." > > That's my "vote." I'm done. > > > -- > > Regards, > > Clif > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > W. Clifton Oliver, CCP > CLIFTON OLIVER & ASSOCIATES > Tel: +1 619 460 5678 Web: www.oliver.com > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > On Sep 6, 2007, at 10:06 AM, Marc Harbeson wrote: > > > That is my point with the suggestion that we eliminate > > u2-community and permit discussions like this one > ------- > u2-users mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
