[clug] An alternate place for longer, meandering threads?

steve jenkin sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au
Sat Sep 12 20:14:11 MDT 2009


We may have lost Ben, James and Conrad from the list...
But their departure raises an issue.

Other lists I've been on have had to deal with handling threads that
vitally engage only a small section of the community. They tend to
become long and sometimes heated with only a very few posters.

To some list members, these contentious issues are significant and
interesting. But the lack of response/engagement by 'the silent
majority' seems to say it's of peripheral interest, at best, to most
listers.


One persons' can't-live-without thread is anothers' "noise".


Those other communities handled these noisy threads in two ways:

 - either setup beforehand a set of lists for diff purposes
   and wrote clear posting guidelines (with moderators enforcing).

 - or created an 'off-list' list in the course of time.
   People would get encouraged to take discussions 'off-list'.
   Democracy in action :-)


One answer is saying:
 "we're all responsible adults, either use a killfile or learn to manage
threads". [more brutally, "life's tough, deal with it"]

I don't like that approach.

The "prevention is better than cure" rule says its better to have a high
Signal-to-Noise ratio on the primary list than to make everyone waste
time managing 'noise' in their own way.
Which for some people is to unsubscribe... And the community loses.
[Why would you do that publicly? Sorry, I don't understand that.]


So, where do others stand on this?


Could we have a CLUG-other list dedicated to continuing long (&
especially) heated discussions???

All those for?
All those against?
Better suggestions??

I think the (whatever the list owners/moderators say) have it :-)

cheers
s


Ben Chaplin wrote on 13/9/09 9:02 AM:
> I concur wholeheartedly.  For three years I've enjoyed watching people
> solve interesting problems with linux but now there is far too much of
> this crap.
>
> Want a good community?  Stop driving people away with offensive, and
> frankly off-topic, threads.
>
> Unsubscribed now.

Which technically would mean the message would be rejected or sent to
the moderators...

In the spirit of the writer, "unsubscribed by the time you read this" :-)
Pedants: the world can't get enough and can't thank then enough :D

>
> On 13 Sep 2009, at 08:47AM, James Solomos wrote:
>
>> Unsubscribed!  I might not post very much/ever but these sort of
>> threads sure makes me feel horrible and uncomfortable, and
>> disconnected with any active "community."


>> On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Conrad Canterford
>>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Alright. Enough, already. Please?
>>>>
>>>> If its not apparent to the participants in this fun little slinging
>>>> match, the vast majority of this list are not participating. I, at
>>>> least, think it has outlived any usefulness.
>>>>
>>>> I think we all agree that the geek girls should be allowed to have
>>>> a dinner without geek boys present, if that is what they want. I
>>>> think we all agree that society sucks, and we should all work in
>>>> our own ways to address that. I don't think half a dozen of you
>>>> accusing another half-dozen of being examples of the problem, or
>>>> the counter arguments from the accused, are helping anything.
>>>>
>>>> Although, as a side note, its almost convinced me to take a small
>>>> step to redress the gender imbalance on this list by unsubscribing.
>>>>
>>>> Conrad.

-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin


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