On 9/15/05, Dag Wieers <dag at 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