[ale] mailing list: a modest proposal

[Jim Philips]

On Friday 29 September 2006 13:36, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-09-29 at 12:42 -0400, briarpatchkid at bellsouth.net wrote:
> > That would cut the administration tasks considerably...
>
> I don't really think that it's the administrativa that's the
> problem...it's satisfying the individual wishes of the membership that
> presents the problem. ;-)
>
> In a whole other world I provide some mailinglists for a few
> non-profits.  The problems expressed on ALE don't appear over there for
> a few reasons, chiefly because those lists are "topic" based.  That is
> to say that each of those lists deal with specific topics, products, or
> services.  Over here, ALE is many things to many different
> personalities.  I suspect that no moderation effort will succeed short
> of having a super-strict top-down effort which in the end will drive
> away more folks than it attracts.

My thought was not only about administration. People who are bothered by 
off-topic posts could subscribe in digest mode or visit the group when they 
feel like it and pick out topics of interest. 

I'm also opposed to strict administration.