[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: What Price Success? Improving Posting Quality on HPfGU

[Amanda Geist]

Dungrollin, on checking/implementing a posting limit given global time
zones:

> Actually, it wouldn't be too hard at all.  You simply say that
> nobody can post more than x times in any 24 hours. If the magic
> number is 3, then you look at the third last post you wrote and if
> it's less than 24 hours ago you can't post. If it's more than 24
> hours ago you can.
>
> That's not too hard for the list elves, either. If you've got 4
> posts from one poster on one or two most recent pages on the site,
> you check their timing, and send an off-list reminder if necessary.
> It really wouldn't be hard.

>From Murphy's Law, Book Three, by Arthur Bloch (1982):

McGee's First Law: It's amazing how long it takes to complete something you
are not working on.

My point is amusement at the easy assumption that the time and/or steps
involved would be easy for all relevant parties. I'm not saying it may not
be workable; the point is, you're making a call without full understanding
of the time already required, so making categorical "it would be easy"
statements is unfair to the ones you're volunteering for this extra work. I
include posters in this, too, because for some, having to go back and check
when their last post(s) were would be an effort, depending on their computer
setups and/or posting situations.

My personal take is
(1) our list volume is largely due to the sheer number of people on the
list, and very much less due to a handful of individual posters cluttering
it up.
(2) the elves already monitor *egregious* instances of list-spam-behavior.
(3) listmembers have the capability to read subject lines, *and* the
technology to delete them unread, so putting the burden of controlling the
flow on the list administration, when it is entirely within the power of
individual listmembers to control which they choose to *read,* seems a
little self-centered. Why should the content of the list be affected (and it
will be) by making it harder for active posters to "portion out" their
posts, and likely diluting the percentage of really engaging posts, just so
people don't have to delete so much?

~Amanda