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

[Shaun Hately]

I am yet another new elf, but am speaking here entirely of my own 
personal views.

Speaking personally, I am decidedly not in favour of postings being 
blocked for the two weeks after the release of HBP. I've been 
thinking a lot about this, and personally I think it is rather a 
discriminatory policy.

I will read Half Blood Prince the day it is released (unless 
something dramatic happens to stop me - which isn't impossible). By 
the time a two week posting hiatus finishes, therefore, a period of 
around 13 days will have passed in which the knowledge of the novel 
will become far less fresh for me, and I almost certainly will have 
forgotten many of the points I would be interested in raising.

Other people will take the full two weeks to read the book, so they 
will have everything fresh in their mind. 

So first of all, the idea of closing the list for two weeks is, in 
my view, discriminatory against those who read the fastest - 
because they will experience a much larger gap between the time 
they finish the book, and the time they will be able to start 
discussing it on HPFGU.

Second issue, somewhat related.

Half Blood Prince is due for release 16th July 2005. Therefore any 
posting moratorium would presumably last until 30th July 2005.

Now, as I understand it, these dates are generally during school 
holidays in both the US and the UK (somebody can correct me if I am 
wrong on that).

Well, for those of us in Australia, the situation is a little 
different. It differs from state to state here. In my state 
(Victoria) both dates dates are during school term. This is also 
true for the states of Queensland and Tasmania.

For other states and territories of Australia in Australia, the 
first date is in the school holidays, the second date is after 
students return to school.

So a two week hiatus policy would have the effect of ensuring that 
many Australians would have no chance to post about the book during 
a school holiday period, while most people in America and the 
United Kingdom will.

This doesn't effect everyone, of course, because for many people 
school holidays are utterly irrelevant - but as people have 
apparently identified a pattern of people joining more and posting 
more during the Northern Hemisphere's summer school holiday 
periods, it certainly seems to me that those dates are of relevance 
in considering any policy changes.

By the same token, the proposal I have seen to shut the list 
completely to new members during the northern summer has the effect 
of being discriminatory in favour of those of us in the southern 
hemisphere - because while northerners would be prevented from 
signing up during their summer holidays, us southerners wouldn't 
be.

I am not saying these issues should necessarily be fatal to the 
ideas proposed - but I do think there are real potential issues of 
discrimination here.

And they do affect me personally, I must confess. My mid year break 
(at University level) runs from the 25th May to the 24th July.

In other words, Half Blood Prince is being released a little over a 
week before the end of my University holidays.

So a two week posting hiatus would mean that I am unable to comment 
on the book during a period I am likely to have time to do so - and 
the list will reopen just as my classes have started up again.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at ... | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia