[CentOS-devel] Mailing List issues

Karanbir Singh

mail-lists at karan.org
Thu Dec 8 02:30:57 UTC 2005


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



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