Desperate Measures

[john at walton.to]

- Joy - wrote:

> Hmmm... this idea could work.  On another list I'm on, each post is read and
> checked for netiquette and original content before it's sent to the list.
> Of course, it would take a lot more moderators, but it could be done.

Ixnay from a technical point of view. For each new message to be Moderated, 
an email is sent to *every* person with Moderator Privileges (Mods and Elves) 
*every* time a new to-be-Modded message comes through. That would be 
excessive.

Joy (and everyone else), what do you think about the introductory-period 
moderating?

prefectmarcus at yahoo.com wrote:

> What an interesting thread to stumble upon in coming to the OT board.

Welcome! We love it over here.
 
> For what it is worth, here are my thoughts.  You have to be very 
> careful what you do.  Every on-line community has its newbies.  If 
> they didn't, the list would shrivel up and die as old members go on 
> with their lives.  They discuss the same ideas to death, then get 
> bored.  You need a steady influx of new blood to keep it going.

Of course.
 
> Newbies must be made welcome.  The worst thing that you can do is 
> tell a newbie that his question was discussed five months ago and we 
> have no desire to do it again.  There are several reasons for that.  

I agree partially here. Yes, it is discouraging to people to be told "yeah, 
we just discussed that". However, a mature and considerate person would, on 
being told politely "Hey, we discussed that a few months ago. Feel free to 
search the archive for messages about it, including the threads 'Harry and 
Hedwig: the other H/H', 'Ron and Draco: Vanilla Ginger' etc, and then email 
the list with your thoughts" go and do just that, for netiquette's sake.

Moreover, I see no problem with telling a "Where's Hogwarts?" questioner to 
go to the Lexicon.

> (1)That is ancient history.  No Newbie is going to go through the 
> archives in a list as big as this from its beginning.  You cannot 
> expect or require them to. 

Also agreed. However, as a relative newbie, would you consider that asking 
people to read the files we ask them to read is excessive? Also, would you 
think that asking them to check the Lexicon for an answer to a simple 
question was too harsh?

> (2) They bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to the table.  You 
> want to lose that?

Of course not. What we *do* want to lose is the newbies who, for whatever 
reason, do not read/do not understand/do not follow the files we've carefully 
put together. Correction. We don't want to lose them, we want to *train* 
them. Like cute little puppies but without the puddles ::grin::

> (3) People change.  Your own perspective might have changed.  There 
> is a different mix of people discussing it.  New dynamics will emerge.
> 
> If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to make any message over 
> a week (two weeks, a month, whatever) part of the archive.  Once a 
> message is considered archived, nobody refers to it unless the poster 
> is seeking information or a detailed analysis.  If they are seeking a 
> discussion, the archive is not mentioned.  

Ideally, yes, this would be great. However, it does require an amount of 
effort which (Paul?) precludes us from doing it on a daily/weekly basis.

> The oldies take on the role of wise old citizens who may say a word 
> or two, but let the newcomers discover the details for themselves.

While I haven't been paying the greatest amount of attention recently, I was 
under the impression that this is what has been happening. Is that impression 
incorrect?
 
> I have seen this rule enforced in various ways on other lists and it 
> seems to work.
> 
> Another suggestion would be to have a second list for "in depth 
> discussion".  All are welcome, but if someone pops in asking who the 
> head of Ravenclaw is, they get forcefully told to go to the main list.

The main list is supposed to be for in depth discussion. People who pop in 
asking for the head of Ravenclaw are directed to the Lexicon.

--John

________________________________

John Walton -- john at walton.to

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
--Janis Joplin
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