Hi,
We all know that something needs to be done about the signal to noise issue on the CentOS Mailing List. Traffic is something we can all live with, and is a good sign - the Project is getting popular - but the s/n ratio seems to be going down the wrong path.
To blame might have been an odd few people, but looking at the list in its present shape - we seem to have developed a general mindset thats contributing to the issues. But whats the problem :
1. Drive by postings - people read a post, reply irrelevant content
2. General mindset of no moderation -
3. Thread deviation - almost every thread seems to be getting blown into a few directions
4. OverDose of content - A question of 'bootloader not working' becomes 'zen and the art of bootloader design'.
What can we do about this situation ? The options that seem to exist :
Kick off a few people, tell them to leave ? Moderate the entire list ? Establish some form of moderation and enforce it - but dont moderate the entire list.
Also, do we need to - at this stage, look at splitting the CentOS list into some subject focused Lists ? Traffic is on the rise - and will continue to do so, which I consider a good thing. Do we at this stage now want to split some of this traffic up ?
If so - what subjects / directions are we going to need ?
Lets try and think about things as they would be 12 months down the road and 24 / 36 months away, what do we need to do to prep for that ?