Ancient History (was other lists, etc...)

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 26383

Catherine Keegan wrote:

> OK.  I'm game.  I'll give it a shot and try the other two HP4GUs
> lists; however, I agree with a bunch of the other folks who posted and
> I have to say that I love the thought-provoking questions that people
> post HERE.

A bit of history on Chatter, for you newer folk. Once upon a time, on a
list called HPforGrownups, somebody American asked the list just what
some British food item mentioned in the books was. About the same
general time (I think) I made a "me, too" post, and asked the list just
what the heck clotted cream was, because it sounded to my American ears
just revolting, but judging from the context, it's something good.

This devolved into long, complex, appetite-stimulating discussions of
British food--terminology, how to make it, where to get it in the U.S.,
Australian derivatives, etc. There were entire threads devoted to the
minute but important differences between lemon drops and sherbet lemons,
and New York or Chicago pizza versus London pizza (experts disagree on
whether the London variety even deserves to use the term). Even after
reading all of that I still think spotted dick sounds like something you
should be treating, not eating. But I digress.

The point is, the list was having a ball with the food posts, but they
had evolved past having anything to do with the books and had a life of
their own. A quite prolific life, generating loads and loads of posts.
It was decided to move the HP-generated, but not particularly
HP-relevant, postings to a new, different list, to be called HPChatter.
It was done so that the members of the main list, who really didn't give
a damn how to make scones, would not have to be burdened with all the
posts.

Please realize that this actually really didn't happen all that long
ago. Chatter was formed on February 2 of this year. And since then, the
guidelines for what goes on which list have been constantly fine-tuned,
as We The Members come up with topic after topic which manage to
straddle the fence, topic after topic which could be argued convincingly
to belong in either group.

The Moderators of this august group really do practice a hands-off
approach. When they have needed to request a thread be moved, it is
generally debated amongst themselves for a bit. They haven't often made
the request--either it's not a long-lived thread, or the members
involved move over themselves, and the Mods have not needed to do
anything. So there isn't a huge battery of "case law" for them to
reference.

The Moderators are trying their damndest to keep an atmosphere of "among
friends" on the list, on both (all?) lists, and unfortunately, as the
membership numbers keep rising, that means more involvement, more posts
that seem like statements of policy instead of friendly little
reminders. It's just that, once you get to such a size, you *need*
policy to fall back on, or you start to have no life.

None of it is ironclad. None of the moderators are particularly grouchy
(with the occasional exception of the one who may have been up several
times in the night with her baby). They're just in the process of trying
to codify and organize and write down in so many words, the stuff we've
just sort of been doing all this time.

Anyway, the length of this post makes it clear why I often belong on
Chatter. But maybe that helps clarify things a bit?

--Amanda


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