[ale] New Mailing List initiatives for ALE

[James P. Kinney III]

On Wed, 2006-09-27 at 08:36 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> James Sumners wrote:
> > I think moderation as you are proposing is absolutely the worst way to
> > go. Greg already pointed out the biggest problems with that idea. It
> > is slow and will probably drive more people away than it brings in.
> > Don't get me wrong; my head might actually explode if I see one more
> > useless "Ping!OMFG IM NOT GETTING EMAIL!" thread. But leaving it up to
> > one, or a handful of people, as to what gets through and what doesn't
> > is not the solution.
> 
> I think the thing I find most bothersome of late is the back and forth 
> of the one liners posters have posted dragging a particular thread 
> totally off topic and simply wasting bandwidth.
> 
> Let's face it folks, none of us are as funny as we think we are.

I am definitely funnier than all of you put together :)

As far as any degree of moderation goes, I don't think that any one of
us is qualified to decide what _I_ get to read or not read other than
me. I suspect that everyone, even the loudest tantrum tossers, on the
list shares that sentiment. 

If someone has issues with a thread, use the delete key, add a BS
filter, etc.

If someone has issues with the message quantity, subscribe to the digest
version.

If someone has issues with bandwidth, get a better ISP. 

If someone has a problem with spending too much time on the list, get a
life!

I am quite certain I have been on the ALE list since around 1996 or so.
For what ever it is worth, _my_ opinion has not been consulted off list
about any type of proposed change to the format.

Not that I have any say so as there does appear to be some semblance of
structure rising up from the deep, vi/emacs-edited, man pages history
past of ALE and the zombies of Atlanta Linux Showcase (Damn, I miss
that! Too bad Penguinfest can't get off the ground). If the really old
crusty farts want to make some changes, they can. No matter what is done
or not done, it will affect the membership of the group.

Several years ago (during the Clinton election #2, I believe) a
particularly nasty thread erupted into a flame war. Several people were
on the thread trying to calm down some hot heads. Some people, I was one
of them, contacted the hot heads off the list and did the escalating
requests to calm down, then please stop posting, then stop posting ,
then finally, GET OFF THE LIST AND GO AWAY. 

Yes, I participated in an action similar to the tar and feather and ride
'em out of town on a rail, virtual style. It's not an event I am
particularly proud of. But it serves as example of what community can
do. (NOTE: This public expose of hostilities lasted for MANY, MANY DAYS
and was rather abusive and vulgar. Nothing like the mindless bantering
and blathering seen recently.)

It worked. A particular individual left and the hen house that is ale
settled back down to its normal egg laying and general brooding.

I like the proposed additional lists. Specifically a list dedicated to
tech stuff would be nice. But at the same time, why bother? Someone will
goof and post a smarta$$ remark to the wrong list and feathers will get
ruffled. At this point I think that there is NO solution that is
adequate short of personal responsibility being ingrained into each
author. A reminder to those who get an emotional wedgie quite often,
this is a PUBLIC FORUM. Everything said here is available for all to
see. Each authors reputation dribbles from their hot-headed fingertips
every time they hit the <send> button.

I don't want to see _any_ of this change. The tech notes, the blather,
the jokes, the tips, the _community_ (warts and all). I would personally
rather move from my house than have a neighbor or group of neighbors
suddenly decide that they get to make the choice about who gets to
associate with who and in what manner. That is quite contrary to the
general philosophy of the operating system around which this community
has been formed.

I appreciate the well-meaning efforts of the inner-circle who decided
that the neighborhood needed to be cleaned up. However, in my mind, the
long term effect of adding controls to an existing community structure
will only serve to empower those with the rule making ability and to
alienate the others.

If the powers that be feel they must exercise their sovereign rights
over the ALE domain and mailing list etiquette, they have the root
passwords to do so. Please make the announcement at the onset so that I
can unsubscribe.

If enough people are knicker-twisted enough to want to generate a NEW
list with strict moderation controls, great. Problem solved. All the
people whose tolerance level for a bit of off topic crap will flood to
sign up. Of course to keep it pristine, the inner-circle organizers will
need to police the membership list keep out the undesirables.

They won't see my name crossing the "request approval to join" list.

I will not be subscribing to that list.

I'm at home here.

(fingertips bruised from key pounding...need more coffee...)
-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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