A suggestion to the Elves and Moderators

[kelleyscorpio]

> Potioncat:
> I wasn't here when this was one list. So how would 
it work? Would there be something in the subject line 
to identify a post as canon-based, move-based or OT? 
Or would it be a jumble of posts about anything? 
> 

Kelley:
If you look at the first few pages of messages on main, 
it was pretty much like that, minus the egroups-into-yahoo
stuff.  So yeah, jumble of posts about anything, that's 
kind of what it was.  But it was only like that for a few 
months after main was moved to Yahgroups because there was 
enough off-topic discussion on main that it seemed a good 
idea to go ahead and create OTC.

Fwiw, in my mind, what it boils down to is 'what will we
allow on main?'  Meaning I can't see us actually closing
Movie or Announcements, but rather letting them be as 
they are and allowing posts that would go to Announcements, 
discussions from Movie to happen on main.  I was already
thinking that we'd all want OTC to remain for the non-HP
stuff, and it seems like most of us feel that way from
what people are saying, so that's good.

For those who aren't on Announcements, you can see it here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-Announcements/messages

That's basically the whole past year's worth of posts right
there, so guess we can figure 30 or so posts added to main
if we allow.

And Movie, discussion there comes and goes; if it seemed
necessary we could always have folks put a prefix in the
subject line, though I doubt we really need that.

Aside from the above, we could also begin allowing intro 
posts on main, too.  Because of how easily those can start
an o-t thread, we'd always asked people to send those to 
OTC or add their intro to their first discussion post. But
it feels really unfriendly and unwelcoming to return those
posts, so my preference would be for us to allow them and
to just post an admin reminder if the thread gets carried
away.  (Don't get me wrong, there *should* be replies when
a post like that is made, I'd hate for no one to respond
to an intro post.  It's just when the thread threatens to
go beyond the 'welcomes' into "Omg, you live in Unionville?
I went to school there!  Is that diner on the corner of 3rd
and Main still there?" that some people can start to get 
annoyed.)  What does everyone think about that?

One other occasional type of post are the ones from people
doing their thesis or whatever on fandoms or adult fans of
HP and they want to ask people on main to go answer their
questionnaire.  Right now we send those to Announcements 
and OTC.  Main seems like the best place for the person
making the request, but for list members who've seen a few
of those requests they start to feel spammy after a while.
So, I'd like to know how people feel about this sort of
thing, too.

--Kelley