[ale] New Mailing List initiatives for ALE

[James Sumners]

I understand what those emails generally are for. But this list has an
unusually high volume of them. Almost one per week if not more. When I
don't get email from a mailing list, one I know I am still subscribed
to, I assume there just isn't any traffic on it at that time. Someone
sent a ping email to the Unreal admins list a few days ago and got
railed for it (really, no pun intended there). I think we are a bit
too lenient here when it comes to them.

I don't even read them, so I have no idea what happened with the one
today. I figured it was just more of the same and deleted it. When the
subject turned into a "was ping now such and such" thread I was
astonished. Not enough to actually read the thread, but still amazed
to see a ping thread turn into a thread that might have some sort of
relevance.

On 9/26/06, Jim Popovitch <jimpop at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-09-26 at 18:22 -0400, James Sumners wrote:
> > Don't get me wrong; my head might actually explode if I see one more
> > useless "Ping!OMFG IM NOT GETTING EMAIL!" thread.
>
> Most, if not all, of the "Ping" posts are a result of the server having
> issues, or people suspecting that the server is having issues.  It is
> true that today's "Ping" post wasn't indicative of this, _but_ past
> experience has taught everybody that ALE does periodically have delivery
> problems... so people "ping" it to see if it is working.
>
> Another way to look at this issue is does ALE risk alienating members
> when they reach the consensus that their email may or may not go
> through, let alone in a timely fashion (be it moderation or simply
> server issues).  How will moderation alleviate that?
>
> Are we shooting for Nirvana here now?
>
> -Jim P.


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59