Chat room vs. discussion forum (was: Partly on Posting limits Plus ...)

[M.Clifford]

> 
> The problem is, when folks are excited about joining the group, 
they don't often read what we send them, or don't think we actually 
mean it. They look at the list, see an OT or me too, and hit send.
> 
> As SSS says, locking the door is not nice. I think having no new 
> members for a week before and after the release is not too harsh, 
and the door would NEVER say "full up." How about: "Sorry, the list 
has been locked down for two weeks. Come back after July 23 and 
we'll be pleased to have you!" What if there was NO POSTING AT ALL 
for those two weeks?
> 
> Dan aka Cranky Elf

Valky:
Believe it or not, IMHO this is the closest I seen to a workable 
solution yet. What if there was NO Posting for two weeks. 
Well for a start, I would become severely agitated, it would take 
enormous discipline to cope with, but I would support it anyway. 
I'll tell you why.

One major management crisis I can imagine post HBP, is not being 
able to prepare. Now wouldn't it be nice if the elves by virtue of 
their elfness got advance copies of the book. (Hee!) Well it isn't 
going to happen, is it. So when the flood arrives, as it 
unquestionably will, list management only *just* found out yesterday 
what to expect from it, too late :(
I would be in favour of a (ugh) Two week hiatus (ugh) with the 
understanding that list management would "use it well".
Apart from taking a breather to come down from their own excitement, 
the break should probably serve a greater function to the list 
itself. Heres how I envision a possibilty:

A. Reading HBP will reveal a fairly accurate list of Guaranteed Hot 
Topics during the flood. Say for instance HBP gives us a birds-eye 
view of the Prank start to finish. 

B. Without a doubt, a major percentage of the list will immediately 
start posting some fairly predictable reactions to the Hot Topics, 
the moment list posting is activated. (such as, with the Prank, we 
could predict that "What we said before"'s, "What we now know about 
Snape/James/Sirius"'s are bound to pop up) 

C. Management, therefore, could use the delegated period to prepare 
a list based resource for these Hot Topics. The first message of 
each the threads on that particular topic could then be swiftly 
intervened upon by elves with a list of Archive Message numbers, 
canon points, and suggestions on how to bring the investigation 
together with similar threads rather than spread it too much further 
abroad.

Aside: [The catalogue created by Carolyn and co could certainly help 
this process, if it is finished by then, and especially if Archive 
message numbers are a part of it, which I imagine they are.]

Two weeks of No Posting, in itself, will not make a shred of 
difference to the size of the influx after HBP, I am sure of it. 
We, most likely, will just sit on our hands until we can post, and 
when we do it will be just as frenetically and overwhelmingly as it 
would be if we had done it two weeks ago.

However, if management was better prepared for it I can see how it 
will make a huge difference.