[CentOS-devel] Mailing List issues

[Karanbir Singh]

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 ?

-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq