ADMIN: Possible Change to the Main List Settings

[abigailnus]

Dear Feedback members,

It's that time again - time to pick your brains about policy issues,
that is. An idea has been floated among the elves that we think
might have great potential for making HPfGU easier to use and
friendlier for new members. It's a bit of a change from the way
we've done things until now - so much so that it's taken us this
long to think about it, when in fact it might seem obvious. Quite
simply, we'd like to open the list archives to non-members.
Posting would still require joining the group, and new posters
would still be moderated, but anyone would be able to read
messages posted by members.

As far as we can tell, the following are the pros and cons of this idea.

Pros:

1. Right now, despite the moderating system, the Humongous
Bigfile, and the various posting guides, the best way to teach new
members how to post on HPfGU is to allow them to learn from the
examples of older members. By opening the archives to all visitors,
these potential members would have a longer learning period
before they post for the first time. Clearly, this won't prevent the
phenomenon of drive-by posting - members who join, ask one
question, and are never heard from again - but it might reduce it.

2. There are no doubt many visitors who come to the site, see that
they have to join the group in order to read messages, and leave.
We believe that allowing them a taste of HPfGU before they join
might help to convince them otherwise - once they've lurked for a
while, they might find that they have something to say. By the same
token, allowing visitors to read the archives might show them that
HPfGU isn't the place for them. In short, we believe that opening the
archives to all visitors will help HPfGU get the kind of members who
suit us - members who are truly interested in the kind of discussions
that we enjoy. Instead of buying a cat in a bag, we'll have informed
customers, and hopefully that will translate to a better
signal-to-noise ratio.

3. Most exciting, in our opinion, is the fact that opening the archives
to all members would make HPfGU Google-able. No more dickering
around with the Yahoomort search engine. Simply head over to
Google, restrict the search to the message archive (we might be able
to create a link that does this automatically) and search the archives
to your hearts content. Multiple search terms, author and date search
(not exact ones, of course, but pretty close), the works.

Cons:

1. First, the obvious - HPfGU would become Google-able. Anything
that any of us have posted would now be visible not only to the 11,000
members of HPfGU but to anyone online. This does not include our
e-mail addresses, to those of us who are concerned about spammers
- Yahoo automatically shields them - but it might include personal
information. There's also the issue of copyright - anyone can access
the posts and copy them at will. Right now, we feel that there is no
significant difference between exposing yourself to 11,000 strangers
and to the entire internet, but some of you may feel otherwise.

2. HPfGU is, fundamentally, a group for adults. That means that some
of our discussions might touch upon issues that are inappropriate for
children. By opening the archives to all visitors, we might be exposing
ourselves to possible legal issues, as children will be able to access the
messages. Since, at this point, any child who wants to can sign up to
the group - we have no way of verifying that a person is truly over 18
- this seems like a moot point to us, but a lawyer might feel otherwise.

We'd like to hear how significant you think each of factors might be, and
whether you can think of any others. Plus, what do you think of the idea?
Do you love it, hate it, want to canonize the person who thought of it?
Let us know.

Abigail, aka Bookish Elf
For the List Admin