On 9/15/05, Dag Wieers dag@wieers.com wrote:
It might be because the 4 options you gave all add overhead to subscribers. (actually, the 4th option is no option to most that care)
I think unsubscribing and going to the forum are a very legitimate option without adding extra work for the subscriber.
If you use a threading email client and can set up filters, it's a 10 second fix that makes the list very reasonable and doesn't require a long thread about what the "majority" wants. Moderation is sure to bring up it's own set of problems that would themselves become long fight-filled threads (as we've already seen). Client side filtering makes you in charge of "what is on topic" which is therefore guaranteed to be the right answer for the majority :)
While selective moderation (when long threads, abuse and personal attacks flourish) by someone (not necessarily a developer) needs to be initiated by someone of the project team.
I'veonly seen this model used for _really_ off topic things. Most people here seem to stay on topic but get repetitive and flamey.
If there's someone fair that has the authority to police the mailinglist following some written down guidelines, I'm pretty sure this mailinglist becomes viable again without adding much overhead to the guy who can intervene. (If necessary just a warning might suffice)
That's the tough part, though, isn't it. A /. style board solves this problem, but CentOS got established early as a mailing list and barring the developers completing killing mailman I doubt we'll see a mass move to a forum or /. style means of communicating...so, given all that, I think the 4 options I gave remain highly reasonable.
Greg