What Price Success? Improving Posting Quality on HPfGU

[Tammy Rizzo]

On 18 Feb 2005 at 2:41, bleckybecs wrote:

> Becky: 
> After several hours of reading threads, and a lot of note taking 
> about newbies (which I distinctly am!), I have a few thoughts to add 
> which I hope are helpful. 

Tammy Rizzo:
Welcome, Becky!  It's good to meet you.  :-)  It's also VERY good to have a newbie here 
with actual feedback!  It seems that most new folks don't give much feedback until they've 
gotten comfortable in a place, and then, well, if you're comfy, why gripe, right?  ;-D  Anyway, 
some of your thoughts require some more feedback.  ;->  Here goes!

> Becky: 
> How about putting people back on moderated for a short amount of 
> time? I'm talking about a week or less. ... `Out of a hat' style, or `in rotation through 
> the list' style. ... I mean it merely as 
> a reminder of what is expected by *all* the rules, as some of the 
> lesser rules may simply have been forgotten. 

Tammy Rizzo:
I like this idea.  It would work as a sort of 'quality control' or 'spot check', and would very 
likely cut down on the amount of Howlers that the elves would need to send.  I know, 
nobody likes being moderated, but I think this is a good idea, especially if it's only for a few 
days to a week, just as a 'refresher'.  I'd support it, wholeheartedly.

> Becky: 
> I would also like to say that I think the idea of no posting for a 
> couple of weeks after the release of HBP is a good one. ... I 
> agree with all the points made about that idea. It makes a lot of 
> sense. If this was used alongside daily post number limitations, I 
> see that as the most workable way to control the inevitable influx.

Tammy Rizzo:
Yaaaay!  Another supporter of the hiatus!  *does a happy dance*  I think, the more people 
consider this proposal, the more people will agree with it.  I think it's the most workable, and 
certainly the FAIREST, plan yet put forward.  And including the per-day posting limit once 
the break's over certainly would add another level of storm-control, though that particular 
idea seems to be much more controversial than the hiatus.  

However, I do think a daily limit is reasonable -- not many people really do actually go over 
half a dozen posts on any one day, anyway, right?  It would only require a *LITTLE* more 
restraint from some of us, and hardly any at all from most of us.

> Becky: 
> Just a final (probably controversial) thought. What if the house 
> elves came up with the basic posts they can foresee a couple of days 
> before the ban was up and posted them. ... The main 
> thinking behind that idea is to allow everyone to respond to the 
> same questions under the same thread. It would allow more logical 
> flow, instead of tens of different threads all saying the same 
> thing. 

Tammy Rizzo:
I think this is brilliant, too.  Start the list off with some 'standard' questions, but NO theories, 
and no answers.  Just jumping-off points.  *VERY* good idea!  And if they're up on the list a 
few days before the break's over, then everyone would have had a chance to read them, 
too, and start to formulate their answers to them, and would KNOW where to post the 
answers or sub-questions.  I would certainly support this, too.  Would it be possible to submit 
questions for this jumping-off point, say by private email to the list-owner?  That would very 
likely also help assuage any hard feelings of being left out.  We could submit things like 
"Why couldn't Harry see the Thestrals until after the summer break?" (the HBP equivalent, 
of course), and the elves could sort them out and make beginning posts?  If we were to 
have a week to just read and ponder the book, and submit questions privately to the admins 
(but have a deadline on when we have to stop submitting them), and then the elves were to 
take a few days to organize and consolidate the questions and then post them, so we would 
all have a couple of days to read them over without posting yet ourselves, that would 
certainly put some order on the re-opening madness.  ;-)

I know that July is still several months away, but it would be nice to know what the admin is 
thinking about these ideas, and perhaps even nicer to know what the rest of the list thinks.  
Would a poll on the main list be do-able?  Oh, but wait -- a simple poll would probably not 
allow for the selling of the hiatus as a wonderful opportunity, as I feel it would certainly be.  
Hmmmm.  I imagine a promotional campaign would be out of the question, huh?  ;-)  A nice, 
detailed post enthusing about all the advantages of closing the list to posts for two weeks 
(but not to new member sign-ups)?  

And, of course, there's the problem of keeping the OT-Chatter list completely HBP-free 
during the main list break . . . which would probably require putting everyone back on 
moderated status on OT.  But I'd be willing to be put back on moderated status for two 
weeks on OT, to stay HBP-free until the main list's re-opening!  I'd be more than willing to 
do that!  In fact, I'd be very enthusiastic about it!  Help sell the idea!

***
Tammy Rizzo
ms-tamany at ...
Check out my site:  http://pageswirl.com/rotate.php?user=trnetworks



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