Desperate Measures

[prefectmarcus at yahoo.com]

(I personally hate long unsnipped posts answering a lot of questions.)

Point #1: If the main list is supposed to be for in depth 
discussions, then perhaps a second list called "The Kitchens" (as 
in "if you can't stand the heat...") -- is needed.  There it is no-
holds-barred except a rule against personal attacks.  

People come to HPFGU hoping to get into some serious, deep discussion 
with some fellow adults about their favorite series of books.  One 
tires of the "Everyone who thinks Harry is soooo hot, please answer" 
posts nearly everywhere else. 

Point #2: Yes, people asking who is the head of Ravenclaw should be 
politedly pointed to the Lexicon and/or FAQs.  Not only does it 
answer their question, but it also serves as a gentle nudge to read 
them before posting.  It might even encourage them to lurk a little 
longer before diving in.

What I am concerned about is NOT the FAQ or the Lexicon.  What needs 
to be avoided is making newbies feel unwelcome and intimidated.  Part 
of that is not pouncing on the poor soul who asks if Hermione and 
Krum have a chance, and telling them that we already discussed that 
to death last January, nobody wants to discuss it anymore, and if 
they had bothered to read all the 20,000+ previous posts in the 
archives, they wouldn't be wasting everybody's time and bandwidth 
with stupid questions.

Granted that is an exageration, but you get my point.  The 
suggestions I made about making posts older than a certain 
time "Archive" help avoid those kind of postings.  If the moderators 
wish to avoid the hassle of archiving stuff, there could be a rule 
that anything discussed over a certain time limit is considered fair 
game.  You create a virtual archive that way.

I do recommend that a separate temporary list be created for the 
movie.  If it proves popular, then make it permanent.  If it doesn't 
then cancel it after it has served its purpose.  The same thing would 
apply to OoP when it comes.

Marcus