about Main List: Catlady's marathon, Discussion questions

[David]

> Catlady's plea:
> > but I want to whine and bellyache: 
> >
> > I'm not sure which is more irritating: the myriad posters asking 
> > questions that have already been answered a dozen 
times...**snip**
> >
> > Or the posters who have NO IDEA of snipping the posts to which 
> > they're replying....**snip**
> 
> >Darling MEGs, can't you slap their little hands?

Melody:
> Can I second this plea? Is there a way we can "encourage" those
> guilty to read the posts relevant to their query (they can just 
glace
> at the titles) or at least browse the OoP FAQ. And the virtues of
> clipping are what I love about this site. It makes us an adult 
site
> and not a teenage site...well that and the lack of OMG posts. 
> 
> Is there are way to instill these virtues without scaring them 
away?

I'll respond as a member of the admin team with my personal views on 
this.

Well, all suggestions are welcome. It's a fine line to tread, and a 
difficult one.

The main tool we have at the moment is moderated status for new 
members, and much that is dire never gets to see the light of day. 
However, it's part of the adult nature of the list that we prefer to 
trust other posters to take responsibility for their posts as soon 
as possible, so inevitably the learning process continues out in 
public view.

Some wrist-slapping does go on behind the scenes, of course, but, as 
you can no doubt see, there is a continuing supply of newbies who 
take a little while to adapt to the peculiarities of the list, and 
to some extent it's a matter of patience.

IMO, the best way for established list members to encourage good 
practice in others is to stick to it in their own posting. One of 
the hardest things to deal with on the list is the way that once 
some people post in a particular way, it is seen as acceptable by 
others, and starts to spread.

Of course, if anyone feels that a particular individual is causing 
persistent annoyance by flouting the list conventions, feel free to 
write to the admins offlist at HPforGrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com

Christian and Cindy C. wondered about doing weekly chapter summaries 
and questions for OOP.  That seems like a splendid idea, so watch 
this space.

David