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

Neill Cox neill.cox at ingenious.com.au
Sun Sep 13 00:54:22 MDT 2009


I tried posting this earlier, but forgot the whole reply-to-list thing
(sorry Steve).  For what it's worth here it is again:

Personally I think this discussion was on topic for the list.

I think it's important that these sorts of discussions reach as many people
as possible.

I frequently delete messages unread when they are part of a thread I've
decided I'm not interested in. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect
others to do the same.

Anyone of course can set up a list to focus on these issues, but it will
have a smaller membership than the main list.

I guess we're about to find out whar our social norms are for this, but I
think it belongs here.

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 12:14 PM, steve jenkin <sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au>wrote:

> 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<http://members.tip.net.au/%7Esjenkin>
> --
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>


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